The Clansman PRC-320 with a random wire

This is a video of a QSO with the Clansman PRC-320 and a randon wire antenna.

In favour of the Clansman I should say that I hadn't recharged the battery for months so I hardly had energy left for a single QSO, and I made this QSO calling CQ without the help of any cluster anouncement.

Formigueiros (SOTA EA1/LU-002): DG7LAL

This is a video of a QSO with German station DG7LAL (op Rainer) from the summit of Formigueiros (1639m) on 20m SSB.

Rainer was one of the first phone QSOs I made with my Clansman PRC-320 when I still had problems with my handset's microphone, and he made a voice recording for me at that time that you can see here:

Thank you Rainer!

Italy with the Clansman PRC-320

Today I was trying my Clansman PRC-320 with a random wire antenna and I made an interesting QSO with Italian station I1ASU/P.

The contact was valid for the Italian Castles Award with reference SV133. I checked it out and it corresponds to the Castle of Ortovero, a municipality in the province of Savona, region of Liguria.

PRC320 on the higher bands

Today I made some QSOs with my PRC320 on the higher bands. I started with a QSO with Porqtuguese station CT2JUT (Miguel) from Lisbon, who was using 100W into a 20m-long wire antenna. Miguel hasn't been a ham for a long time, but he has loved radio comunications since he was a very young boy. It all started as a MWL/SWL when he asked for a radio as a birthday gift at the age of six. He studied electronics and today he works as an electronics technician. He felt it yould be a good idea to make use of his knowledge with the ham radio hobby. He is an antenna/feedlines enthusiast and also tends to build his own equipment.
Then I made contact with English station M5AFD (Dave) from West England. His QTH is on the NW of the city or Birmingham, near the Welsh border. He was using 150W into a 4-element yagi beam.
Finally I made a QSO with English station M3AFF (Alan) from Devon on the 15m band. Alan is a truck driver: VOLVO FH12 460 BHP and he is always on HF from the truck. He was born in 1967 on Fair Isle in Scotland. His dad was a part-time lighthouse keeper and farmer on the island. His interest in radio began when he used to listen to his dad's Eddystone EC10 receiver at the lighthouse. Other hobbies are motorcycles,photography, gardening and trying to mend anything that breaks!

ON4FB operating from France

This is a video of a QSO with ON4FB when he was on holiday in France. I was using my PRC-320 with a 4m whip.

Propagation was not very good those days, and France has never been easy on the 20m band, but it was nice to be able to keek contact.

Portable and maritime mobile with DK2NE

This is a video of a QSO with German station DK2NE (operator: Detlef) on the 20m band using my Clansman PRC-320.

And in this other video I am operating maritime mobile with the same German station:

When maritime mobile I use an 8m-long whip with an FC-40 autotuner. In this case, I was inside the port so there was a lot of noise form the city. Someday I will post some video operating the station away from the coast for you to see the difference.

Lipari Island with the 320 (ID9/F4BKV)

In spite of bad propagation conditions, I managed to make some interesting QSOs with the PRC320 on the 20m band. One of them was with ID9/F4BKV, from the island of Lipari.
Lipari (Sicilian: Lìpari, Latin: Lipara, ancient Greek: Meligunis) is the largest of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the north coast of Sicily, and the name of the island's main town. It has a permanent population of 11,000; during the May-September tourist season, its population may reach up to 20,000.
Lipari's position has made the harbor of strategic importance. In Neolithic times Lipari was, with Sardinia, one of the few centers of the commerce of obsidian, a hard black volcanic glass prized by Neolithic peoples for the sharp cutting edge it could produce.
This is the video of the QSO:

You can find more about F4BKV (Vincent) on his website http://www.f4bkv.net/.

Two way PRC-320 on 40m USB

This is the final test I made with ON4FB on 40m USB on a Friday morning.

It was a difficult test because there was much noise on his side, so he had a hard time to copy me.

Denmark with the 320 (OZ5BF)

This is a video of a QSO on the 20m band with Danish station OZ5BF (operator: Bent) using my PRC320 with a 4m whip antenna. The QSO was a little longer than usual so I have divided it into two parts.

The propagation conditions were very bad, and it was really difficult to listen to stations other than the ones with high power and directive beams. On this second part he was using a power amplifier and asked me to give him a signal report.

I told him that I did not have an S-meter but I would record the QSO and post it on the web for him to see by himself. Thanks to Bent for the nice QSO.

Ukraine with the 320

This is the video of a QSO with Ukranian amateur station UY1IX (operator: Olexiy) on the 20m band.

It was recorded at Monte de San Pedro, overlooking the city of A Coruña. I hope you like it.

Senegal: No. 21 with the PRC-320 and 68 overall

The Senegalese station 6V7T operated by Luc (F5RAV) has finally been awarded Authenticity Garanteed status by eQSL, so they now count for eQSL awards. This QSO makes the 21st country validly confirmed with my PRC-320 and the 68th country overall.
Luc was in La Somone, Senegal, from 18 February to 1 March, 2010, and will be back on the air again as 6V7T again at the end of October. At http://www.le-calao.com/ you can find information about lodging opportunities in Senegal that include the option to use an amateur radio shack that can accommodate several stations.

Malta with the 320 on 15m (9H5SN)

This is a video os a QSO on the 15m band with Maltese station 9H5SN (operator Marco) from Mosta.

Mosta (or Il-Mosta) is a town situated in the middle of the island of Malta, to the north-west of Valletta. It has a population of 19,018 people (Dec 2007).
Mosta boasts the third largest unsupported dome in the World [1] dedicated to the Assumption. The Feast of the Assumption is held on August 15 and it is a public holiday. The church is also known as the Rotunda of St Marija Assunta. On 9 April 1942, the church was nearly destroyed during World War 2. An Axis bomb pierced the dome of the church but failed to explode. The detonator was removed and a replica bomb is now displayed as a memorial.

Greece with the 320 (SV2CXI)

This is a video of a QSO with Greek station SV2CXI (Kostas) on the 15m band. I made this QSO immediately after the tests I made with Alex (ON4FB).

As you can see, the weather was not as good as the propagation. These days we have just the opposite phenomenon: good weather and awful propagation.

Testing the PRC-320 on 40m USB

Here you have some videos of the tests I made with a colleague from Belgium on 40m USB last Friday. As you can see on the following video, we also tried 20m but without success.

Then we decided to go back to 40m USB and test his PRC-320. First we used the 100W power amplifier and then we tried the standard 30W output.

We also tried different antennas for the PRC-320. All in all it was a difficult test because there was strong QRM from other stations.

Sardinia (IW0UII) with the 320

This is a video of another QSO with Sardinian station IW0UII (operator Alex). I made this QSO about one week ago, immediately after having made some tests with Alex (ON4FB).

Sardinia (Italian: Sardegna, [sarˈdeɲɲa]; Sardinian: Sardigna or Sardinnya [sarˈdinja]) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily).
In 1479, as a result of the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel of Castile, the "kingdom of Sardinia" (which was separated from Corsica) became Spanish, with the state symbol of the Four Moors. Following the failure of the military ventures against the Muslims of Tunis (1535) and Algiers (1541), Charles V of Spain, in order to defend his Mediterranean territories from pirate raids by the African Berbers, fortified the Sardinian shores with a system of coastal lookout towers.
The kingdom of Sardinia remained Spanish for approximately 400 years, from 1323 to 1720, assimilating a number of Spanish traditions, customs, and linguistic expressions, nowadays vividly portrayed in the folklore parades of Saint Efisio in Cagliari (May 1), the Cavalcade on Sassari (last but one Sunday in May), and the Redeemer in Nuoro (August 28).

Canary Islands: No. 20 with the PRC-320

Yesterday I made another QSO with the Canary Islands and I have already received the eQSL. It was a QSO on the 20m band with EA8DO (Manolo) from the island of La Palma, also known as La Isla Bonita. I got a signal report of 59.
This makes the 20th entity confirmed by eQSL so I am closer now to my 25-country target. Here you can see the video of the so much awaited QSO that would provide me with the new DXCC entity confirmation:

La Palma, like the other islands of the Canary Island archipelago, is a volcanic ocean island. The volcano rises almost 7 km (4 mi) above the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. There is road access from sea level to the summit at 2,423 m (7,949 ft), which is marked by an outcrop of rocks called Los Muchachos ("The Lads"). This is the site of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, one of the world's premier astronomical observatories.

Clansman 2.4m whip and counterpoise system in action (EA1AQ/P)

On this video you can see the standard 2.4m whip in action together with the Clansman counterpoise kit. EA1AQ/P (Juan) makes a QSO with Swiss station HB9ESA (operator: Rico).

We only used 3 out of the 4 radials available in this kit (you can see the unused spool on top of the table. Despite the very strong QRM from some digital transmission, the PRC-320 did the job. The 1.1Ah battery you see on this video is also more than enough for a day of operation.

Belarus: No. 19 with the PRC-320

I have just received an eQSL from Belarussian station EW6DX (operator: Igor) for a QSO on the 15m band one month ago. This makes the 19th country validly confirmed by eQSL for my target 25-country target with the PRC320.
Igor was born in 1957 and discovered the ham radio in 1970. SWL since 1970 as UC2-006-67, he was first licenced in 1974 as RC2WBJ, then UC2WDX and, finally, since 1994, EW6DX. He was active with club calls: UK2WAT, UK2WAO, UC1WWE, EW6WE and special calls UC500FS (500 years of Franciscus Scorina), EU0P, EW5P, EU5F, EU5ROPE (his QTH Polotsk is considered the geographic center of Europe), EV5V etc. Active in HF and VHF, he likes contesting and DXing in CW, SSB and FM.

PRC-320 sked between Spain and Belgium

In this video you can see the test I made with ON4FB on the 20m band using PRC-320 radios on both sides. The video contains recordings from Spain and Belgium also.

As you can see, the test was an absolute success. Thanks to Alex for his video and his participation in the test.

PRC-320 in the snow

This is a video of my PRC-320 in the Snow, in a QSO with Slovenian radioclub station S55T on the 20m band during the 2010 WPX contest. I was using the standard 2.4m whip antenna with the Clansman counterpoise kit.

This is a good test for frequency stability and battery performance under cold weather conditions.