Moonraker Titan CB Review of CW mode (New Version, v2)

Moonraker TITAN CB in CW Mode

Introduction:

There are plenty of reviews written on this tiny transceiver and most of them cover AM/FM/SSB operation etc, so I won't bore you by repeating that easily available information. Instead I'd like to talk about this transceivers CW capabilities. In the past I have bought and tested most multimode CBs with CW mode over the years and in short I have been sorely disappointed. Not only was the rx/tx performance bad (as expected at this price point), but the designers understanding of what is required to make the radio useable in this mode was flawed. I did try and point out all the flaws of the Lincoln II+ in CW mode to President Electronics, but CB radio magazine and most other users seemed to fob this off as "what do you expect from a CB?". My point was that if it advertises CW mode, why shouldn't it be as useable as FM or SSB modes?

Receiver:

So enter the Moonraker TITAN (new version) CB. The receiver isn't as selective as a ham radio receiver (as expected) and on hooking up to an external YAGI antenna blocking was immediately obvious. Any presence of a strong signal would cause a hole of silence in the receiver about 1KHz in both directions. However this radios receiver is sensitive enough and if used with small mobile antennas, should perform satisfactorily enough on non-contest days.

In every other CB until now, one of the major usability failures is that CW mode appears as DSB (Double Side Band) where every CW signal has an upper and lower image signal. This means as you tune around the band you hear every signal twice, which leads to confusion of where you need to tune to actually work a station. In ham radios you can select to hear either sideband (UCW or LCW) but not both at the same time (which would be nuts right? This needs to be explained to most CB manufacturers).

The Moonraker TITAN is the first CB to implement UCW as opposed to DSB. They have managed to suppress the unwanted sideband image, so you only ever hear each station once and its always the upper image of a CW signal. The designer needs to be congratulated on being the first to market with this implementation for CB. Its not perfect as LCW capability is missing and there is a non-adjustable offset of 1KHz between carrier and CW tone (normally 600Hz or so is used dependant on operator). Not having LCW is fine as UCW is predominantly used, but the designer may not have realised that this feature is also used by hams for interference mitigation, where an operator can remove unwanted signals by switching between UCW and LCW to put the unwanted signal outside the filter passband. The 1KHz fixed offset for the CW tone is too high for comfort and easy listening, but it isn't a deal breaker. The TX CW sidetone from the radio is 1KHz, so you tune the wanted RX signal to be the same as your TX sidetone in frequency, then you know that when you transmit, the other station will hear you....easy! 

To help you make that first contact there is another first! This radio has adjustable passband filtering all centred around the +1Khz position away from the carrier frequency. These are as follows: 

CF1 Wide -1.8KHz to +1Khz so 2.8KHz width in total

CF2 Narrow -120Hz to +240Hz so 360Hz width in total

CF3 Mid -300Hz to +340Hz so 640Hz width in total

Note the odd ordering of the above filter width selection.

My advice is to find a station using wide CF1 and tune till it till the audio matches your tx CW sidetone frequency (1Khz), then switch to mid CF3 if you were near 1KHz audio frequency before the signal will be there, if not re-tune, then switch to the narrow CF2 filter position. With a bit of practice you will be able to net correctly onto a stations frequency and the signal will appear in all filter selections. The order of the filter width is a bit unintuitive, but hopefully a firmware upgrade will re-order these filter selections according to passband width and make then a bit easier to access. In narrow CF2 position, if you can hear a 1KHz tone CW signal there is a good chance you can work it!

The radio tuning works in two modes Channelised or VFO.

In Channelised mode, the central large tuning knob is used. The radio jumps around in 5KHz steps with the large tuning knob and the smaller CLA knob can be used for an adjustable offset tuning value. Annoyingly any deviation in frequency from the initial channel frequency caused by using the CLA knob is remembered until the radio is reset (by changing the band 10/12/cb/HF etc). The offset is retained through simple power on/off. This is common to some other CBs and is a pest, but not a problem in my opinion.

CW is best used In VFO mode (10m band only, rotate Band knob until UF displayed above frequency display), the smaller CLA knob is used exclusively (The large tuning knob does nothing). For me this is preferable to channelised mode as the retention of offset frequency is gone. Another marker of a decent radio is that when the frequency is changed by one click of the CLA knob, the audio doesn't momentarily vanish like changing the channel on a conventional CB (President Lincoln II+ take note). The CLA knob works better than the main tuning knob which has the age old problem or random up/down movement in frequency when rotating in one direction (firmware sampling of analogue switch, lack of de-bounce logic). 

Transmitter:

There is a delay between hitting the CW key and the radio going into transmit and the emanation of the sidetone. The result is very confusing for the operators brain who must ignore their ears and independently rely on their hand movement to control sending (I do not have this capability!). One hack may be to use a key with an independent immediate sidetone (not the laggy radios) and try to only listen to the keys sidetone whilst sending.

The time for the radio to unkey is also slow and so in contest situations you would most definitely lose the first second of any response. This isn't a deal breaker in my opinion as most people will use this type of radio for casual operating only.

Looking at the output CW signal on the bandscope of an FTDX101D shows some distortion on the initial sent CW element, but again this isn't unexpected for a CB.

Summary:

This is a massive step forward for the RX implementation on CW mode from any other CB on the market today. Don't get me wrong, the radio still ain't a ham radio by any stretch of the imagination, but for £125 this is now a great deal for CW operators wanting to monitor the bands and make an occasional basic CW contact. The designer needs to be congratulated for the first improvement in CW mode for CBs ever!

Doug (GM0ELP)    

MM3T in Russian DX Contest 2025

 What is it with extreme prejudices against the contest community in the Ham radio hobby? 

The experience from my side: After an hour of calling CQ in the contest I suddenly get QRM'd by an Italian sounding station with no callsign telling me to QSY. I asked for a callsign, but instead I got abuse "change the record" etc. A second station came in and QRM'd me during a Q, stopping me hearing the exchange of a russian station, I asked several times for a callsign and eventually I was given SP7CDG, he gave me his callsign only after me specifying I would not be QSYing for a pirate station. After 5 mins of solid abuse deliberate QRM, insults, including (I am ashamed to say) a Scottish voice who came on accusing me of being rude!? This station gave no callsign, but again wanted me to QSY. After 10 mins of solid deliberate QRM I had to cease operating.

Why didn't I immediately QSY I hear you ask:

1) My frequency for over 1 hour.

2) I am a contester and as such I am now immune to abuse and deliberate QRM.

3) I do not QSY for pirate operators without a callsign.

So later on still angry about the experience, I find out that 3D2TWO decides to do a split operation on 10M SSB on the 16 March 2025. Is he a lunatic? Did he not think of looking up the contest calendar before he started? One of the biggest contests in the contest calendar (only  the Russian DX contest!) is in full swing and this guy guy decides to start up a split operation in one of the busiest segments of 10m 28.488.5MHz (i.e. my frequency).

Although 3D2TWO has every right to start up on my frequency (as we both couldn't hear each other) this does not give frustrated stations who want to work him the right to deliberately QRM me and throw about abuse and insults and demand me to cease my operation. This is a sorry state, where new uneducated operators think that ham radio should stop for dxpeditions.and deliberate QRM and not giving a callsign is justified.

For shame Poland, Italy and Scotland

GM0ELP/MM3T

Yaesu Spectrum Scope Averaging Solution

 Here is the problem:

There is no problem, ICOM users are the problem.

Here is my solution:

ICOM has trained your mind to expect a beautiful (granted), unresponsive, low resolution, slow, piece of garbage that is only suitable for SSB use. You need to realise Yaesu have given the amateur world a functionality upgrade. If you are interested in looks over functionality, buy an ICOM.

Here is the thinking:

Start by correctly adjusting the gain level so it isn't spikey.

If you don't like fast, accurate (spikey) spectrum scope, minimise the spectrum scope and maximise the waterfall.

If you are a CW operator you will enjoy being able to visually decode CW on the Yaesu waterfall.... In the fast 3 setting, you can decode useful CW speeds.

Also, if ICOM truly had the performance of Yaesu's spectrum scope, but chose to average it to make it more "beautiful", why doesn't the "averaging off" button on the ICOM allow you to decode CW visually as well as a Yaesu?

While we are here, please don't think I condone the Yaesu 3D spectrum scope. Those that think that puppy is useful might as well go buy an ICOM. Yaesu 2D spectrum scope rocks if you prefer functionality over looks.

Just sayin

Learning Morse Code

 Never ask anyone that knows morse code how to learn morse code.

They have forgotten and will give you garbage based on theories that presumes you already know the alphabet in morse.

The first thing you must do is  remember the code. All other advice comes after this initial step.

MM3T IOTA Contest 2023

 I had heard that Gordon MM0GOR (MM1E) was off to the Isle of Man as part of MD1U effort, so I thought it would be nice to keep the Isle of Bute activated for the contest.

Unfortunately the RSGB has got involved with politics again, last time they thought they knew better than the CMO and felt they had to play about with the rules for COVID.

Now the RSGB wants to get involved directly with world affairs by disallowing Russian and Belarus radio hams to compete (check logs only). Maybe its just me, but I thought that politics was a no go subject for radio hams to discuss on the air and that an important part of amateur radio was to extend the hand of friendship and break down any perceived differences through communication. This stance seems to have been lost on the men and women that are currently running the show at RSGB HQ especially in the contest committee.

Lets just keep ham radio a friendly place for like minded people despite the crazy world around us.

Anyway, back to the IOTA contest. As I blogged earlier during COVID, I'm always at an alternative location other than my home address for the IOTA contest dates, the RSGB stopped me competing even from my own holiday house (EU5) during COVID. Personally speaking I'm now so disenchanted with the IOTA contest and the way it has been run, I missed last year completely and I was also going to boycott it this year due to its world affairs stance, but in the end I made a last minute decision to go across to Bute and air MM3T.

This year due to lack of enthusiasm, I went light with a QRP entry. This was a mistake. In past years the fun factor was definitely affected due to wire antennas, compromised setup, uncomfy operating  positions (car/tent), poor condx and low power. The less effort I made the less fun I had. Over the last decade I have been looking for that perfect effort to fun ratio and I had learnt that the K2 with 100W and an aerial51 light weight off-centre fed dipole on a 12m spiderpole was the sweet point for me. Verticals are pointless from Bute as DX interest in IOTA is sparse compared to EU and there is hardly any clear sea path to anywhere from any point on Bute. High angle radiation takes advantage of being on EU123 and working back to EU5 for maximum point advantage. This year I forgot all those lessons and went QRP with 5w from an Elecraft KX3 to an EFHW in an inverted L format. The results were very predictable, lots of running with very few answers.

I have a contesting weakness in that I enjoy running and hate search and pounce. The reason for this is when I listen to some other operators whilst enduring S&P, their inefficiency is astounding. I get very impatient and end up shouting at the radio in frustration. These inefficiencies are well documented on this blog so I won't rake over that again. When I'm running, I take great pleasure in rattling through a pile-up in the most efficient manner possible. People in the past have commented on my operating style as "rude", no pleasantries, minimalistic and efficient. When a station goes into the noise, I don't ask for repeats I just drop them and carry on. When a station asks for my call I just call CQ again. When the pile-up intensifies my speed goes up to roll off the slow ops and as it becomes sporadic my speed goes down to aid copy. Its a joy to be in control. Listening to others they will hold a 10 deep pile up asking for repeats and struggling for minutes to complete a Q.... crazy, and I seem to always tune onto them just as they start to work someone playing QRP and running 1mw into a coat hanger.... "again again G8 again". I do understand that search and pounce is necessary for the score, but i find it an absolute chore. This maybe because I am not a dxer, I do not collect QSLs and I don't have a per band DXCC country interest. I'm therefore really poor at search and pounce. Also I hardly ever use the cluster as having someone else point you at the DX kind of makes it too easy, its like going fishing without a rod and someone else handing you their rod after hooking a big fish and letting you reel it in... pointless.

Anyway EU123 was on the air until I worked GM7M who had 5x my Q total after only 4 hours. I decided that EU123 was being well aired by that team and that QRP wasn't for me. I did notice an increase in stations asking for the report again and got the feeling they were expecting EU5 and when they got EU123 they needed to confirm....that's what I get for missing a few years IOTA.

There was an extra incentive to pack up, after struggling for 1.5 hours to get the antenna up on the beach, I slumped (sweating) into the shack/driver seat switched on the radio only to hear "brrr brrr brrr brrrrrrrrrrp" repeating over and over at S9 on every band. And no it wasn't all the clangers on .073 it was some other crappy data nonsense. I then noticed a roadside connection cabinet, so probably some kind of botched cable joint or termination. I seriously considered just accepting this bad luck and working round it, but after coffee I worked up enough energy to swing the top horizontal section of the inverted L round the beach to minimise the interference. I got it down to S3 and tied it off there just in time for the contest start.

Of course I started running first and got very little interest. Its always depressing when a caller comes in on 40m from EU5 (G4IRN) at well over S9 and then nothing.... How can this be, surely there are 1000s of keen EU5 stations searching for elusive IOTA multipliers.... the answer to this today was apparently: NO. If the Radcom "The Last Word" is to be believed and most 80m conversations, most UK operators are anti-contest. The opportunity is there to have a lot of fun collecting all the IOTA offerings round the UK and being extremely competitive, but it seems to be trendy right now to hate contesters and try to insist on have nets and chatting about tomatoes and illnesses through some really cool contest activities. Its frustrating when you go to a lot of effort to activate an island so find the band full of strong signals all disinterested in even giving contesting a chance. The amount of negativity and moaning I hear mostly on 80m SSB from the anti-contest brigade is astounding.... and nothing may I add is being done by the contesters back to this negativity (there exists a gentlemanly silence). It would be nice to hear one of these "all I heard was "CQ contest" and I just reached for the off switch" conversations on 80m and someone to stand up to them and say "well I don't agree, do you know becoming more informed in contesting could better your home station, do you know you can become a better operator, did you know your topics of conversation don't need to be about gardening".

With antenna and radio packed up I headed home through Bute Fest at Ettrick bay to catch an early ferry home. Note to self, never do QRP again with a poor wire antenna in a compromised location. 

No Test? Why?

 Yet again I came across this strange behaviour. A special event station operating in cw during a major contest and taking the time to send "no test". Why do this? Surely the point of running a special event station is to make lots of contacts? Why not just add a 3 digit number to each QSO? You don't need to be interested in the contest and you don't need to register or buy a ticket to enter. You don't need to send in your log, or be super efficient with each qso, but you can make a lot of people happy, and who knows you may even have fun... god forbid? With all that said there will always be the type that feel they need to make a point... "no test".

I have listened and read a lot of real hate towards contesters in recent times and there is very little fight back from contesters. There seems to be no space in the hobby, frequency limited, band limited, weekend limited, it isn't enough for some. The trouble seems to stem from operators who think they "own" a frequency for a regular "net" or bandplans with recommended frequencies for centre of operation for a specific mode like SSTV. When a contest 'intrudes' on these frequencies, non-contest operators feel violated and deliberately QRM the offenders, hardly the ham spirit?

I could be cruel and say I've learned more from an episode of East Enders than I have heard on these "nets". Each to their own, I'm not interested in talking about tomatoes, my health or my audio or how to work my radio (RTFM), am I going to complain about the rubbish these "rag-chewers" talk, no, we are all hams together enjoying our own version of the hobby.

MM3T in CQWW CW 2022

 I soooo much wanted to use the Flexradio 6500 for this contest just to justify its purchase, but in practice sessions before the contest I could not get SO2V, semi SO2R or 2BSIQ to work with N1MM+. The problem was that there are so many guides written for old versions of both SSDR and N1MM+ and the wrong version of radio (ie 6700 or 6600) that only confusion and wasted time results. I tried setting up 2 slices on the same band but annoyingly if I clicked with the mouse on the screen N1MM+ would crazily swap the audio to the wrong VFO meaning I just couldn't use it. After a week of reading every available guide I finally gave in having never been beaten by anything radio/computer related in nearly 40 years.

I packed up the 6500 and instead switched to using my trusty FTDX101D. The difference was instantaneous, I was playing radio rather than fighting interacting software with different authors. The added benefit was that now I had a hope of dealing with ridiculously poor signal quality from the likes of Todor LZ4TX.  Todor hasn't yet realised that with big antennas and big power comes the added responsibility of ensuring a CLEAN TX. On 10m Todor is around 599+30 here but the big problem is the width of his transmission which during the last YO contest reached 25KHz wide on the FTDX101D effectively wiping out 10m. A quick internet search revealed that he uses an Alpin 200 (2.5Kw) linear amplifier and a 7 element yagi on 10m. I guess he hasn't read the manual properly and doesn't know driving it full tilt will cause problems.

Anyway with the 6500 safely packed away , I finally got down to selecting my entry category. I'd have loved to do a 10m mono band entry as 10m was in great shape, but Todor could show up and with the resulting 25KHz of key clicks and QRM I would have just had to pack up. I've always dreamed about activating a rare island and experiencing handling big pile-ups and really enjoy short, snappy efficient Qs and trying to get the run rate up. I would be working right up to Christmas and was involved with trying to deliver a new product in a stressful environment so didn't want to completely knacker myself for Monday morning. The 'classic' category being only 24 hours would help and also would ensure high run rates. I wanted all bands to be able to move according to the conditions. No cluster was allowed, but I intended to RUN RUN RUN anyway to see how many Qs I could make. This doesn't make sense if I was trying to win the contest as you need to S&P to get multipliers, but this wasn't going to happen anyway as there are too many retired contesters who have invested in their properties and antenna farms and can therefore run with substantial pile ups for the full 24 hours no matter their skill level. I've listened in to some of my competition and the amount of inefficiency on show should really relegate them into obscurity, but their station always secures the result. With this is mind and my pip-squeak scaffold pole in the garden, I decided to have fun and train for pile-ups instead.

I would be using an Optibeam OB10-5w wire, 5 band yagi (2-3 element on 10m, 2 element on 15m. moxon on 20m) at 5m over the ground. I live in a residential area of a large town and have close neighbours who have been very patient with me over the years. I want a bigger station, but in reality I'd have to move to larger premises to achieve it. At 5m over the ground, if my antenna were to come down the wrong way it would still land in a neighbours garden, so I'm already pushing the envelope. My garden resembles a long strip of land with the house in the middle, so I can just about shoe horn in a straight 40m length from the back garden over the house roof to the front garden. The antenna used for this location was an 80m doublet fed with 300 ohm ribbon feeder but due to the centre proximity to the house bedrooms, I wouldn't be able to use it late at night.

The back garden support for a doublet leg is a 5m light weight aluminium pole. I decided that this could double as the initial vertical section for a centre loaded  quarter wave inverted L for 160m. I designed a coil that would give me the correct inductance that when coupled to the top of the pole and then extended with a 10m wire section would be resonant on the 160m band. The resulting antenna was a real inefficient mess, but I hoped it would allow me some contacts with some of the bigger stations.

The stage was set for an all band effort and with my category picked and strategy decided for me, I got ready for the contest.

The contest started and Todor was no where to be seen (result!), but 10m wasn't in such good shape as it had been during the week lead up to the contest. I operated for 24 or the 48 hours and made 2430 Qs (around 0.6 Qs per minute), peak rate was around 130 Qs per hour on 20m.

The dirtiest signal encountered belonged to DP9A. They moved onto 14.042 at 08:00 (1KHz above me) and instantly wiped me out. I QSY'd up and asked them to QSY (ignored) then later on I asked them to check their linear amp, but just got ignored again. With my run frequency smashed I had no alternative to give them my frequency. At 6KHz wide key clicks, my radio (FTDX101D) just couldn't do anything to allow me to continue on my frequency. A quick look up of the internet on their callsign (DP9A - Callsign Lookup by QRZ Ham Radio) revealed another superstation. Why oh why do they spend so much money on antennas and ignore their transmit IMD? I think we all know why... they are cheats, plain and simple. It is advantageous to make make your transmit signal as dirty as possible to punch a hole in the band where your receiver can survive all the other stations trying to compete. The result is a lovely clear frequency to pick up rare multipliers. It must be fantastic to operate during CQWW CW within a 6KHz window clear of QRM unheard of to most competitor actually playing by their license conditions. Maybe the Bavarian Contest Club can educate them before they do too much damage to the clubs reputation.