I spent August 14th - 26th in the UK and India as part of a business trip. Knowing it would be hard to be away from radio for that long, I took along my Elecraft KX3, AX-1 shortwave antenna, a Bioenno 3Ah LiFEPo4 battery, and a set up AA LiFEPo4 batteries to use as a backup and for SWL (Short Wave Listening)
The plan was to activate in England as M/WX7V, as permitted for Amateur Extra licenses holders from the US under CEPT agreement T/R-61-0, and to do some SWL while in India. I also had set up my FlexRadio 6600 for remote operation thru SmartLink using Marcus Roskosch DL8MRE SmartSDR for iOS application on my iPad.
It would have been neat to operate in India as VU/WX7V. The US has a bilateral agreement with India but the permit process is extensive. The Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSI) requires 5 original WRITTEN copies of the application, each submitted correctly and each with copies of your travel visa, copies of your passport photos, copies of your US license etc, and the proper fees with the proper documentation of payment (200 IR). I tried to find help from a local club in either of the cities I was working, but didn’t have any luck with that either. Turns out I was too busy with work to activate anyway.
The weather in UK was great, until Friday, which was the only day I was able to plan for an activation at G-0383 Dinton Pastures Country Park. I chose G-0383 because its less than 15 minutes from my UK office in Reading, England. If I had stayed in London, I would have activated Hyde Park, and will plan to do so on a future trip.
Friday morning I woke up to rain off and on, but I went to the park anyway in hopes to find a dry place to sit and operate. No suck luck. I’m glad that I had asked the taxi to to wait for me. We waited maybe maybe another 15 minutes hoping for the rain to stop, before he took me back to the hotel. I changed into dry clothes, and had enough time to join a colleague for a nice breakfast at his golf club before catching my flight to India later Friday afternoon.
While in India, I set up the KX3 and AX-1 for SWL. Lots of stations on CW/Morse code, and in particular I heard 8H73I calling CQ working as a
Special Event Station from Indonesia on 15M. It would have been nice to have returned his call. I listened for him remotely on the FlexRadio but no dice.
I had no problems traveling with the radio and the batteries thru international airport security in the UK, Dubai and India. I had one domestic flight in India from Chennai to Hyderabad that made me a bit anxious. Both times the security checkpoints flagged my bags, asked me to remove all wires, cables, batteries, and radio, and explain everything, which I did with confidence. The security screeners also tested the radio with their “Sniffers” and wished me good luck. At one airport checkoint the guard asked me if the KX3 was “like a walkie-talkie” (thanks Cody Imthurn). I just smiled and said, "No, like Shortwave Radio, like BBC!" That seemed to be the best answer and I was able to move on thru.
I had better luck operating the FlexRadio remotely, making 36 QSOs in 20 countries using CW and on Digital (yes I had to resort to FT8/FT4!!!). See QSO map below. SmartLink works brilliantly when it works, and is a pain when it doesn’t. I had to phone home twice and ask the XYL to reboot the router and then the radio, then to help me test, which she was happy to do over FaceTime with me showing her what to push and where to click! CW is limited to macros (or CW-X keyboard - which I don’t like) but FT8 is supported very well on the iPad and iPhone. See pics below.
I had limited use of SmartSDR for iOS on my phone during the flight back. SmartLink connectivity is iffy in the air (UDP is often blocked), and the connection often drops, but it works just fine in the terminal and even better in the business lounge if you’re between connections on international flights. Happily I was able to work Bill Brown
K4NYM who was activating K-6327 while I was aloft at 36K feet, somewhere near Lake Superior. I’ve worked Bill over 50 times in the past few years, but this was the first time that I was the one in the plane. It was a bit of funny role reversal with him being a retired Air Force Morse Code Intercept Operator and me normally working 8-5 in the office.
Remote operations will be my next ham radio adventure, so that I can remotely troubleshoot and “fix” issues without bothering anyone at home, or driving to the lake once I get my tower and hex beam installed.
73. Chris de WX7V
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