Hello operators.
I thought this would be an interesting post to share. It’s always nice to see amateur radio equipment being used in “real world” scenarios. Not having previously heard about the event, please bare with me, my contribution will be short but it will be a good read!
About the author
CW2 Anthony M. Jaber is a Signal Observer Coach – Trainer (OC-T) for NTC Operations Group, Fort Irwin, CA. He is active duty Army with 17 years of service as a Signal Corps soldier in the MOS 255A – Information Services Technician, and as a 25B Information Technology Specialist while enlisted. He is a General Radio Telephone Radar Operator License with Radar Endorsement (GROL+Radar) holder and Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio Operator.
CW2 Jaber details his experience researching, building, then deploying a capable portable station for the annual QRPX event. He had to contend with a variety of real world problems low power stations are forced to deal with, when operating in harsh environments, contending with noise, and competing with the “big gun” stations. This operators experience and his sort of “after action report”, goes through the equipment used, how it was setup, how it could be improved, and the results of that equipment in regards to performance and practical operation during the QRPX event.
About the event Each year Army NETCOM hosts the annual HF Low Power Competition called QRPX. Stations
across the globe try their best to establish HF communications with each other over a variety of modes, including USB Voice, ALE, 3rd Generation ALE, and Tactical Chat messaging applications.
Participants include
- Active Duty, Reserve, and National Guard elements of the US Army
- The three Army MARS HF Hubs in Ft. Detrick, MD; Ft. Huachuca, AZ; and Ft. Shafter, HI
- Any other military branches including Air Force, Marines, Navy, Space Force, and Coast Guard
- Canadian military teams
- Army MARS Auxiliarists
The article (After Action Report) can be downloaded as a PDF from this (oh8stn.org) website QRPX results. It outlines the entire event, results, and experiences with gear from one company, often seen on the channel and blog “Chameleon Antenna“.
Here is a list of the antenna equipment used.
- Skyloop 2.0
- Tactical Dipole 2.0 (TD 2.0)
- EMCOMM III Portable
- Lightweight EndFed Sloper (LEFS)
- Tactical Delta Loop (TDL)
- Modular Portable Antenna System 2.0 (MPAS 2.0)
- Receive Loop (RXL)
73
Julian oh8stn
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/oh8stn
Root beer fund: https://paypal.me/oh8stn/1usd
In the report about the event, I thought it was interesting that the CHA RXL loop antenna was being tested.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Great resource.