Firing up the Drake TR-7 and training new amateurs

This morning I have visited the Lincoln Short Wave Club shack at Aisthorpe in the hope of infecting a few of the members with the QRP virus, sadly the shack was in use to check a repaired linear amplifier. No luck there to convert them to QRP then.

I got talking with Mark M0ZLE about his training sessions planned to get some trainees on the air for the practical part of their exams. I offered to make sure I could monitor their activity to call in should they struggle for contacts, as it was they created their own mini pile up of short contacts wishing the well with exams and encouraging their progress. I had a chance to discuss with them that low power can work. Here in the UK foundation licensees are restricted to 10w PEP and sometimes don't see that it can work as well as it does.

I had decided this weekend would be a chance to catch up playing some radio and relaxing from the stresses of everyday work. So far it is a success. Part of that was to fire up the Drake TR-7 for a longer test period after realigning it a few weeks ago. I got a report suggesting the audio was a little on the low side so I set about setting it up correctly, so far it seems much better now.

I am hopeful that I can squeeze in a few QRP contacts today but while I am testing the radio a little more I am on VHF waiting to assist the trainees again. With some luck and effort I hope to be posting a great success story about another good QRP contact, or if very lucky several.

For now the Drake running barefoot will have to satisfy the radio requirements. QRP activities to follow.


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