I had the good fortune to pick up a 222 MHz amplifier to go with my Q5/DEMI 222 Transverter. It’s an RF Concepts 3-312 222 MHz amplifier set for 30 watts in and 120 watts out. Should work great in the rover to get me to the 100 watt limit for Limited Rover entries.
I purchased it used for a great price and it is in pristine condition. It also seems to be built like a true brick — very solid. Testing showed it worked well with roughly 15 watts input to drive 100 watts output. The built-in preamp also appears to be working well. The noise figure is rated at 1.25 dB. So I may opt for the ARR preamp I already have with it’s noise figure of 0.55 dB. We’ll see how it works on the air.
I am considering a couple of modifications. The first would be to swap out the UHF connectors for N connectors, as those are the connectors I use at 222 MHz and up. The second would be to move to a PowerPole panel connection versus the current Cinch Jones 4-pin connector. Something to do before the January VHF Contest.
222 Fall VHF Sprint
I’ve just worked the fall sprint using a Directive Systems 10 element Rover Yagi on my push-up mast. The amplifier worked great. The preamps didn’t show much difference that I could detect. I do see that the external ARR preamp provides just a bit more gain.
The activity level in the sprint here in North Texas was low as expected. I managed to work AA5C, W5AFY, W5TTY, W5ZN, W5VY, and K5QE — six QSOs and six grids all on FT8. I also chatted with Marshall, K5QE, on SSB, which was nice.
That’s the news here. One more step in improving my VHF rover.
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