I devoted 30 minutes to the RFTB this month. In a few minutes, Marianne and I are going to watch a move "On Demand" to spend some time together; so I didn't want to operate the entire two hours. But I did use the RFTB as a "shakedown cruise" for the PFR3A in preparation of next Saturday's QRPTTF contest.
In all, I have to admit that I am very pleased with the PFR3A's performance. I had it hooked up to my 12V SLA battery, so the output was the full 4.75 Watts. The antenna was the Butternut HF9V through the Emtech ZM2 tuner.
I ran both scenarios as I "ran a frequency" and also did the "hunt and pounce" thing. Any CQer that I answered came back to me on my first or second call. So I seem to have picked up the knack for knowing where to place my calls. And I also did fairly well in holding a frequency and answering other Hams who answered my CQ.
In my 30 minutes of operating, I had 9 QSOs and the best DX was Louisiana and South Dakota. It is a lot different from operating the K1 or K2 with the conventional tuning knob; but I am starting to get the hang of using the push buttons. The receiver seems to be very good and the selectivity seems to be very good also. So far, I had no problems discerning between stations that were very close together.
I have a ways to go in forming a complete opinion of the PFR3A; but so far the results look good and are going a long way towards blotting out the dissatisfaction I had during the ordering and building phases.
72 de Larry W2LJ
Hi Larry. I operated as well for a half hour on 40. I did a pretty good little run. I was surprised to get SD and I also pulled a WA station out of the dirt. It was a good evening; glad your new rig is working well.
ReplyDelete72
Goody
K3NG