RGO ONE POTA ACTIVATION

 

I finally managed to venture out with the Mission RGO One and activate POTA G-0070 on both CW and SSB. My normal spot was not useable as the sheep were out, so I changed site and I am glad I did.  It was a better location and I could get the Slidewinder away from the public.  There were much fewer of them here too!  I put 8 radials on the Slidewinder and it worked well.

I had some issues early on and the tuner in the RGO ONE was struggling.  I had another look and the PL259 at the bottom of the Slidewinder was not fully tight.  My bad as they say.  Now everything worked just fine.

I was able to sit outside the car and the chair was surprisingly comfortable.  The little table was OK but a little small and made CW a bit more difficult as it tended to sway.  On the list is a better table for sure!

The sun was out all day and the view was glorious!  Morecambe Bay is such a beautiful place to be.

I did learn a valuable lesson.  you would think at my age I would have thought about this and in fact, I did bring my Tilley hat with me, then completely forgot to change to it!  Learn my lesson and don't wear a baseball cap in direct sun! I should have 'got down with the kids' and worn it backwards :)

For some reason, my dear wife thinks this is hilarious!

I have to say that my Morse head was not on today for some reason but I managed a few contacts and they were patient with me :)

40m can be tricky at times in the UK.  Today was no exception and the band was not being kind.  I really thought that I may not complete the activation at times.  After battling 40m for a while, I made the decision to move to 20m.  I started on CW and sent a spot to the POTA website but nothing doing. 

I was really getting worried now and I moved to SSB with trepidation.  After all, CW is easier than SSB for contacts, right?

I posted a spot on the POTA website and started calling.  Very quickly, I had a good run going.  By this time, I had gone to 40W and this made all the difference.  Of course, this is why the RGO ONE was a good fit for me.  It behaved beautifully all the way through.  I didn't bother trimming the RF gain as some stations were very weak with me but to be honest, there was no need.  The radio was really quiet with just the interference from the electrified railway track close by.  I only got this when a train went by, so I wasn't worried about that either.

I ended up with 28 contacts in total and it was getting close to lunchtime, so once the run finished, I packed up.  I found a perfect Pelicase copy to put the portable shack in for transport.

The RGO ONE fitted my operating style perfectly, as I hoped it would and Linda recorded my TX audio on her JST-245.  The result sounded superb and I am really happy with it.  I think this radio and I are going to be very happy together.  I just need to get a little more used to it but it really is not hard to use.  

Everything works as it should and I found it a perfect portable HF radio.

I recorded a video or my activation and I hope you enjoy it.  The GoPro battery ran out about halfway through, so I missed my little run on 20m SSB.  Additional batteries are on order!

73 Ian