Radio Contacts from W6YX Hiking Trip

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Published: 05 May 2024

W6YX Hiking Trip to Black Mountain

April 28th, 2024

We had a great time on our hiking trip to the summit of Black Mountain on Sunday, April 28th, 2024. We brought a QDX radio, an End-Fed three-band antenna built by KO6ECC, and a laptop computer running WSJT-X and GridTracker. The portable End-Fed antenna was supported on one end by a rope tossed over a tree branch. The other end was connected to the QDX radio resting on the ground.

The 10m band was working well that day. We called CQ on 10m FT8 using KO6ECC's and KI6Q's call signs. PSKreporter showed our signals were received as far away as Australia. The maps below show all the stations that reported hearing us.

Several stations replied to our CQ, and we also tried replying to CQ's from other stations. We were able to make contacts with the six stations listed below.

The map below shows the locations of our six contacts, highlighted in yellow. Our location was grid square CM87, highlighted in orange.

Below is a screenshot from the laptop showing our contact with CO2LKY in Cuba. The program on the right is WSJT-X. The yellow highlited lines are the signals that we transmitted. The red highlighted lines are the replies to us from other stations.

Overall it was a fun day and great opportunity to learn about HF propagation, test our radio skills, and experiment with homemade radios and antennas.

Learn about EFHW Antennas

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Published: 02 April 2024

Build Your Own Portable Antenna for the QDX Radio

Where: Lab64, Room 134, Packard Building When: Saturdays, 1pm-3pm during Maker Jam starting April 13th, 2024

Join the Stanford Amateur Radio Club for a weekly activity starting April 13th, 2024, from 1pm-3pm during Maker Jam in Lab64, Packard Building, Room 134.

Learn about End-Fed Half-Wave (EFHW) antennas and learn how to simulate and build a portable EFHW antenna for your QDX radio kit. Make your QDX radio into a fully portable Ham Radio station that you can take with you anywhere. I've used my portable EFHW antenna to make contacts several thousand miles away with my QDX radio while on hiking trips (see pictures below).

If you've already built a QDX kit, this antenna makes a great addition. If you haven't built a QDX kit, you are still welcome to join us and learn more about antennas.

The activity will last three Saturdays in April, and may continue into May if people need more time to finish building their antennas.

I hope to see you all there!

If you are interested in participating, please e-mail me at:

Build Your Own Radio

Details

Published: 07 December 2022

QDX parts, case, and pdf manual

Completed QDX circuit board

Completed QDX kit in aluminum case

Quick summary:

• We'll hold weekly workshops (Saturdays, 1pm) to build radio kits, starting January 14th
• Beginners are welcome. We'll have experienced mentors to guide you.
• Each kit costs $69 for the board+parts, and $20 for the case.
• We'll place a bulk order for the kits in mid-December. We get a 10% discount if we order 10 or more.
• E-mail me (preferably by Dec. 11th) if you are interested in joining the bulk order.
• You'll keep your kit at the end of the workshop.

The Stanford Amateur Radio Club will be holding a weekly kit-building workshop starting in the Winter Quarter in January. We'll be working together to build our own personal QDX radio kits from QRP Labs. The QDX is a small radio, the size of a deck of cards, which can be used to communicate over thousands of miles by bouncing radio signals off of the ionosphere.

The screenshot below shows all the stations that heard me transmitting using a battery-powered QDX kit and a loop antenna in my living room in Palo Alto. Stations that heard me are the ones with time-stamps. My station was heard as far as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Azores Islands.

 The QDX requires a computer (or any computing device, like a Raspberry Pi) to encode and decode the digital signals sent over the air. There are many free Amateur Radio software options that are popular. The screenshot below shows an example of the JS8Call software. This software offers functionality similar to e-mail and text messaging, but it runs entirely over the air, with no need for cell or ISP infrastructure. The screenshot below shows a chat between myself (KG4UHM) in California and another station (KL7DT) located in Alaska.