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144 MHz MMC Marconi Memorial CW contest 2/3 Nov 2024 very good propagation

 


 Very busy CW band during the Marconi CW  with this time excellent propagation.

My setup was  new The Flex6500 plus the Ukraine UR3LMZ as in my previous post.

That worked very nice used the Maestro as control. Doing  only S&P no CQ runs, wtKST was on so I was open for skeds.  I did cherry picking and there where lots of cherry's on..

The result is a very high average distance 733km over 85 QSO on 2m. A full contest station of course  should work al stations on the band.

My tx signal was clear I could come very close to competitors without IMD or reciprocal noise.

So the Ukraine transverter is excellent as long as its internal l.o. is not used.

And the Flex has very low  internal noise. I use an old SSB LNA close to the 12 ele  dual band  Antenna & Amplifiers.

This SSB LNA can handle max 400W  it's nf is not extreme low measured about 1.7 or so at144MHz
But it really makes the difference especially at 70cm.

Some stations with good Q5 signals could not hear my 400W f.i. HG1xx called him many times fruitless .. Are some hams running 2kW+? Or is it the high noise level on the other side?

The Flex Maestro has a bright good PAN view the paddle has to be connected to the Maestro to have a side tone N1MM was online but CW sending with the internal keyer of N1MM what I prefer does not feature a side tone! sorry enough, no one seems to know why Flexradio does not address this?

When the keyer and  headphone are connected to the main Flex6500  using Smart SDR as control all is working very smooth. Keying  is full break in, I hear direct if someone breaks in with ACOM1000 PA  keying over the Maestro as I did now is  QSK if needed.

It is not possible to send CW in USB mode as with the K3 , the flex should be more flexible... Seamless TX CW in Phone mode is useful specially  in weak QSB signal situations on VHF  UHF.  Why disable keying in USB mode Flex radio? 

That is a big difference between Flexradio and Elecraft  a cw operating issue like this with missing side tone could not exist at Elecraft  Radio's  CW mode is flawless in the K3 and if there was a complaint of this kind it would be a top priority at Elecraft the Flex6500  is not bad at all but Flexradio has different priorities. 

 

 

 



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