Garden portable with the QMX+

Just a few days ago I had my first SSB QSO with the QMX+. It was from LA to PA - Norway to the Netherlands - on 20 m using a vertical quarter wave antenna.

 

The speaker/microphone is a "For Kenwood" Chinese speaker mic bought for a Baofeng some years ago. I replaced the microphone element with a more sensitive one that I had in my junk box. 

Surprisingly, the speaker gives adequate volume without an amplifier. The speaker is 8 ohms and connected via two 33 ohm resistors from the left and right audio outputs of the QMX+*. The resistors are the only components in the little square box that the speaker-microphone connects to. I don't feel any need for any audio amplifier.

The battery is a 20 000 mAH Power Delivery power bank with a cable that gives 12 Volts to the QMX+.

The antenna can barely be seen here in the background. It is a Chinese whip antenna with the red base and 10 radials spread evenly.

* I added 220 ohms to each of these to get 253 ohms in total in order not to exceed by too much the maximum output current of 20 mA or so of the NE5532 dual audio amplifier (6 V/0.26 kohms = 23 mA)