Portable HF gear in a small footprint

Great video, keep it up!

 

Great video!

It all does not need to be complicated to do POTA activations as you have shown.

I enjoy activating and hunting POTA. Activating is arguably the the deepest dive into learning I have found. Operating skill together with skill in understanding propagation together with operating at QRP is one heck of a teacher. My activations have been QRP. Some went great, others were a slug fest to get ten contacts. They all were teachers.

Plus, operating at S0 noise floor is so much fun.

I am working on building skill as a contester, and nothing I have found is as good as a daily dose of POTA.

Jim KF9VV

 

Shane
Great video. Does the spider beam pole fit in the car stand? Do you have a link for the stand?
Thanks
George KB3WAQ

 

I bet in many cases all that equipment is not even plugged in and wired up. A radio, a key or paddle (if doing CW), a power supply, maybe an external speaker or headphones (nothing fancy), a couple of pens/pencils and a pad of paper, and the feed line to the antenna. All fits on a small table, or on a larger table with room for food and drink. For doing digital work add a compact audio interface, if necessary (Icoms have built-in sound cards) and a 14"/15" laptop or a Raspi and a tablet. Less is more!

 

If you use a resonant EFHW antenna you can delete the tuner and the cables, especially if you are working only one band. I have a couple mono banders for 6, 10, 15, 20 meters. I don't always take all of them with me. As we come out of the sunspot minimum the 10 and 15 meters get more interesting. 50 ft of RG8X coax is a little overkill, at least for me. 20ft of RG58 or H155 is lighter and more flexible. At 20ft, even 50ft, the attenuation is very minimal. I carry simple masking tape. It is cheap, electrically insulated, actually pretty strong, if wrapped enough times, and leaves no residue on things, like a telescope pole. I carry a 12 meter Spiderbeam pole and tape my antenna along its length and lean it against a tree or lash it to my motor scooter. The pole is actually quite heavy and is not something you want to carry long distances. But life is too short to "just throw a wire up into a tree." Like yourself, I also carry a Yaesu FT-891. Compact, 100w. I do take along some earphones or earbuds because the built-in loudspeaker is too "tinny" for my ears outdoors. Cordage is good too. I carry a handful of cordage, 2 to 5 meters in length. I rarely need a super long piece. If so, I just tie a couple lengths together. I like your multi.tool. I have a cheap one, too. And a Swiss Army knife with a minimum of "stuff" on it. I keep it very sharp. Everything except the pole fits into a 25ltr day pack, and I still have room for a couple sandwiches and beer. My 12Ah LiFePO4 battery gives me enough juice for a pleasant afternoon of doing radio outdoors. I will check out the Packit brand boxes you listed. I don't know if I can source them here in Greece or in other parts of Europe. Enjoy your portable setup and have fun! 73 de David SV0SGS

 

I do tend to use a 20M EFHW which is usually resonant on 20, but tends to shift a bit with set-up. I use it on 80M to at times...definitely needs a tuner then!

Haha, for me too, to be honest. But some of my gear choices are due to a real dislike of having to compromise even when in the field. I want to set up my station exactly where I want to set up my station, and so 50' gets me there (and then some usually).

This is a brilliant idea for a down & dirty vertical! I am definitely borrowing this one.

Enjoy your set-up as well! I can see we have similar tastes in gear, albeit yours is a bit more refined than mine!

Mindy

 

It resonated with me....