Wouxun KG-699E 4m (70 MHz) Hand-Held Radio

Not only am I back in amateur radio, but I am spending my money as well; I bought a Wouxun KG-699E today. First impressions are good.

Reviews say the antenna supplied with the KG-699E is rubbish so I bought a high-gain whip (£20) as well.

Further posts will follow, but comments on this radio ( and its 2m/70cm cousin the KG-UVPD1P) are welcome here.

CQ WW RTTY Contest

I have been away from serious amateur radio for some time, due to work commitments, but last weekend I had a bit of spare time so had a go at CQWW RTTY. Conditions were awful with the SFI in the low 80s and A-index around 13.

I only operated for a few hours on and off. Made one contact on 10m (Thanks, LZ9W) and split the rest of my time between 40m, 20m and 15m depending on the time of day. Most of my contacts were in Europe with only one state-side (grateful thanks to W4PK in Virginia for his patience in pulling me out of the noise).

I do not like the CQWW contests. The exchange is meaningless - everyone knew I was sending "599-14". Even though I am a very low power station and conditions were poor, only one station asked me to repeat my report. This is not credible. I would also question why only RTTY is allowed. This is an out-of-date mode that eats bandwidth - why not encourage PSK-31 /PSK-63 in this contest?

Comments welcome!