I’ve had a lot of fun on QRP SSB with nothing more than a Buddipole vertical or end-fed wire on 20 thru 10 when the bands are good. It’s more about “persistence” than “frustration” ;-) I do usually run a whole humongous 10-12 watts as long as the battery holds out, and that makes some difference. Occasionally, a DX or other station of interest (with a heart) will actually ask for QRP mobile stations to give us a break.
In any case, a headset/mic is a good idea, and I do use a CM500 with my KX3 occasionally, but I just don’t like sitting outside on a nice day buried in headphones. And I wouldn’t want that to be the only option. Probably 75% of the time I use the Elecraft mic and a small (self contained battery) powered speaker thingy from Best Buy. Makes the time a whole lot more pleasant … which for me is the whole point since I’m not a DX hound on QRP (or anything else) unless it just falls into my lap. Besides, when there’s a rare one, you really have virtually no chance breaking through the bedlam and the guys running their 2 by 3CX15000 amps who invariably jump in for the 3rd time that day to say hello .. again .. and then rag on to “update” the DX (and everyone else) about how bad their sore toe feels or what they had for lunch. (What’s with those guys anyway?) Now if you’re trying to run stations on SOTA/NPOTA/whatever .. different story, obviously. The hand mic won’t impact your retirement plan, and you may be happy you have one, now or later. Grant NQ5T K3 #2091, KX3 #8342 > > I would skip the mic. QRP SSB can exercise in frustration, even with very > good antennas. If you must use a mic, I would go for a compact computer > headset and a break-out cable to split the mic to the KX3 mic input and the > headphones to the headphone input. These cables can be found o the internet > for about $5. Buy the headset on the basis of comfort and light weight. At > home, use a Yamaha CM500 or similar Koss with that same adapter cable. > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
