Issue 15: Great Ham Radio Products from Eastern Europe

Thanks for the note. I completely forgot about ACOM. I honestly don't know much about the company. I've written them before to suggest that they get an SS amp in for review as a loaner, but they never replied. You're right - that would have been a solid addition. I had two articles - one about Eastern Europe ham gear, and one a review of a Polish Cobweb. They got combined, which seemed logical. Please keep reading! Another Short Takes review column comes on Wednes next week, those publish every other week between the "Trials and Errors -- Ham Life with an Amateur" columns. This one features a really outrageous Shortwave Listening web tool, a review of the book "The CW Way of Life" and a review of Stu Turner's new book (the Extra Class Ham study guide.) Dave

 

Just to let readers know . . . my testing on the Polish Cobweb (AWK Antennas) was originally with a Xiegu G90, at 20W. This weekend I had a blast putting some power into the antenna. It's still sitting in that temporary location as shown in the photo in the article (8-9' up, outside my wall next to a cactus). With my Mercury LUX amp operating at 500-600W, I was able to connect today to the far East Coast, W1AW (yeah!) and to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and southern Brazil on 10 M. Really nice to see that the antenna does well under QRO conditions and I'll let you know what happens after I get it up on my rooftop! Dave, W7DSGJ

 

More testing . . . Just ran some LUX numbers to see what kind of drive I needed to get 500-600W output on this antenna. It's still sitting at 8 ft up on a temporary mast in my backyard. Last night I got Nieu Island, Russia, and more on it with about 500W SSB. Thought I'd run a chart of power needed by my IC-7300 with the LUX:
6 Meters - 24 W = 500+ W
10 Meters - 12W = 500+ W
12 Meters - 12W = 500+ W
15 Meters - 9 W = 500+ W
20 Meters - 8 W = 500+ W
All of the above were resonant under 1.6 SWR, and then I used the Mercury tuner on 40, which was a BIG mismatch (8-to-1 or more; surprised to see it tune.)
40M - 9 W = 500 W at 1.3 SWR tuned
I'm using 100 Ft. of RG-213 to the shack with 120v. 500 W on LUX amplifier is just loafing along.

 

Thanks Dave for the new article! I enjoy them, way more than the youtube stuff. Most of the times I'm on the run with little time to thank you, I apologise by that. Again, thanks for your work!

 

Thanks so much Guille for the nice comment! Yes, QRZ is the only place I know of that has published NEW content every week or two with a "No YouTube Guarantee" ! Dave, W7DGJ

 

thanks for the article, the antenna switch is EXACTLY what I was looking for but isn't several hundred dollars.

 

Right -- I felt the same way!

 

Fantastic Bulgarian amps from Acom, now readily available again—for a while they were hard to come by.

I LOVE my Acom 1010.

 

Thanks Steve! I will shortly be reviewing a brand new Acom model in these pages. Stay tuned! Dave

 

Thanks, Dave, for an interesting, informative article. You have now been added to the top of my list of Must Reads, which already contains more than I can read in my remaining lifetime. The remote antenna switch just has to be bought, although I promised my wife that the LDG AT-100Proll Autotuner was to be my last larger purchase. However, at under £100 ($109) I'm able to sell the idea much easier, so here goes!

I also very much appreciated your understated comment on the ongoing David and Goliath situation in the area you were discussing. Fences are not for sitting on.

BTW, my Acom 1200S has been a great addition to my list of equipment. It just works.

 

Thanks Colin! Yes, I'm going to review a brand new ACOM model in the next month. Also, you're right about XYL's . . . you can often sneak a smaller purchase and they don't catch wind! Dave

 

Sergey, UR6QW is a ham radio operator in Ukraine who designs and builds excellent audio devices for ham radio operators. His EQ mic preamp is my secret weapon. Here’s a link.
https://ur6qw.jimdofree.com/s-p-meter/
https://www.ad5gg.com/2022/04/27/ur6qw/
https://www.ebay.com/usr/hfvhfparts?_trksid=p2047675.m3561.l2559
And I have used that same antenna switch for years. Works flawlessly.
Thanks for the excellent article and for your hard work producing such informative content.

 

Thank you Kenneth (Ken?) - appreciate your nice comment, but also the validation for the antenna switch. It's a beauty. I'll check out Sergey's gear shortly. Regards, Dave,W7DGJ