Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on November 19, 2009 at 8:56am

I'll start off with this this unit. It kind of defeats the P in QRP when nessecary based on conditions or signal prop. It is a kit that takes about 20 hours to build. Perfect for a cold winter spell. It is small and of highest quality. It is very battery friendly and portable. Perfect for in the field work.

This combined with the FT-817ND makes for a big gun rig at portable battery power levels. EHAM reviews are stunning. It varies it output based on band from 65 to 35 watts.

The HF Packer-Amp’s standby current is less than 7mA
and it is very battery friendly (6A on voice peaks). It is also voltage
tolerant providing full output down to 8V. It boosts the QRP signal 2-3
S-units and is only 1 dB below a 100W rig. It is designed to work with
the FT817 and other QRP rigs in backpacking, camping, pedestrian mobile or picnic-table
mobile, and base station operations.



HF Packer-Amp
160-10 Meters; Filters
35W average typical output
5.1x3x3.3 inch; 1¼ lb
12VDC; 6mA standby
RF Sensing; 2.5W In
SSB, CW, PSK
Spurious –40dB
Harmonics –45dB
2:1 Load Tolerance

http://www.hfprojectsyahoo.com/hf-packeramp.html

Permalink Reply by David A Jones on November 20, 2009 at 5:04pm

When I was "hunting" to find which radio I would settle on, the 817 was on my short list. I cannot remember why it was that it was edged out, but it was finally down to either the Yaesu 897 or the Icom 706. I teetered there for many months, but the 706 finally won out.

I have the ARRL QRP book, but it seems that most of what they discuss is CW, which at this point leaves me on the sidelines.

For the time being, my QRP will be my T90A HT from Icom. Being a tri-band and having a very wide receive, I like it. Biggest complaint is no sideband, but there's trade-offs wherever you go. For an antenna, I have a discone that has the 6 meter extension. Takes a bit of time to put together, but when disassembled, is a fairly small package. The only real added weight are the poles. How many and how large is personal preference. But in a SHTF situation, a downed tree limb will work.

In the early 90's, I made my move to the woods. It's not to say that I will never be forced to flee, but if it get's to the point where those of us deep rural have to flee, I fear there will be nowhere to go to.

Be that as it may...My goal is to have as large of an antenna as I can get and feed it with 1/2 watt out of my T90 from the jonesey empire HQ shack.

I envy you hiking up the hills with the 817. It sounds like a real hoot. I wish I had been into ham when I was riding freight trains around. But back then, there were no 817's or T90's, and I would have needed a whole freight car to carry the equipment.

As I said elsewhere, my next radio will likely either be an Icom 746 or the R2500. If the time comes that I am going to get another mobile, I think there is little else I would look at other than the 817. I really do not care for the IC703, but that could be mainly because as a tech, there is little I could use it for.

Take care,
jonesey65244
KC0OUF

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on November 22, 2009 at 12:48am

Yup the 706 is a better all purpose radio for sure. I wouldn't want 5W to be my main rig. But with the right conditions, antenna and altitude (attitude too) it can be handy enough. The 746 pro is the radio I wanted initially. It is perfect and somewhat smaller than many other rigs with similar features and power. I'd be happy with that radio hands down. Seems hard to find a great price on them used too....

The 703 is too large and heavy (comparatively speaking), requires an external battery, has no 2m/70cm. Those are what turned me off of it. I'd rather have more weight in the battery, add a speech compressor and forego the audio DSP or add that too to the 817. The 817 is truely self contained for QRP operation even including the rubber duck antennas, carrying strap and battery.

The guy wanted to trade the 817 for some power tools so I did it. That was a good deal for me and he has more radios than he can handle so he's happy. So I picked up an internal speech compressor for it and installed it in the microphone. It raised the signal 2-3 S-Units as received on my Pro III. So I'm happy with it.

I spent the day fitting-up a "go-pack" using a Kelty frame pack and a box I picked up at Harbor Freight on sale. I strapped the Box to the frame and took up the pack portion half way to allow for it. I fitted a 17aH battery in the box, the 817 (or the IC-7000) and cutout a place for the HF-Packer amp that I'll order and build. Fitted some inside boxes for the wire dipole antennas, mic, tuner and some other bits. It came out good and I'll be testing it all out tomorrow in the field.

QRP is most effective using CW which is probably why the ARRL book is skewed. Someday I'll learn it...maybe.

About evasion I look at it this way. I think I'd have a problem being embedded with the oppressors. I'd probably be outed pretty quickly (if not already dead). My plan would be to take to the hills and stay mobile moving around frequently and eventually hooking up with others. Of course one big trick is knowing who is friend or foe on the other radio......and not getting shot by others in the same predicament. It would make for some loooong hard winters up here. We'd have to move WSW and head for Texas maybe.... I believe if Texas ever fell it is truely all over and we freemen are back to hunter gatherers.....

Let's pray we never need to take a call to arms.

For now I'll just stick to the portable Mini DXpeditions and enjoy this great and wonderous land up here. Gaining experience as I go along and having fun doing it.

Permalink Reply by David A Jones on November 22, 2009 at 5:11pm

I'm with you there. Pray it does not come to it. But the ballot box does not seem to be cutting it. I fear the next "box" of choice may not be that far down the line.

In a bad case scenario, I am EM39pl. You might write that down somewhere. If you would happen to migrate through there, it's a rest stop for you.

Have you read "Patriots?" I pulled it off the net 13 years ago, when it was still "The Grey Nineties." I guess there have been some changes and updates, but the basic premise is pretty much the same.

jonesey65244

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on November 23, 2009 at 8:06am

No I haven't read it. From the excerpts it looks like a good story slash education manual. I see that the MP3 version is comming out on Dec 31st and I've ordered it to listen to. I find that I loose attention all too easily while reading but listening works well for me. Only technical manuals work for me in print for some reason.

I have several field refference manuals (pocket sized) for the trips though. Flora/fauna ID's, remedies, navigation techniques and construction methods type info. Have not committed them to memory and that is a bad thing for quick response purposes. I have CGS topo maps for most of New England. I've spent a ton of time in the field orienteering and primitive camping for up to a week at a time. This is for the head though and I do know that extended periods would offer many greater, and some even insurmountable, challenges...... I never needed to evade or practiced it either.

To arms? I've got the tools and the training. Carrying enough ammo is always a problem. An airgun for the taking of small game is an item that is irreplaceable for me on my list. But the numbers and organization of compatriots is the real challenge in all of this. My home is not defenseable to other than common thugs. But in the field you need several groups of people for any true security even from common thugs. Feeding them can be the straw that breaks the camels back there....

Going it alone will get you through the short haul but to be a part of any real solution you need a band of skilled and comitted people. It will be extremely tough on even the heartiest of us...

I've got your grid sqaure noted Jonesey. Something tells me that if we meet there things will real bad for all of us in this country and maybe the world.

Till then, best of luck.

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on November 23, 2009 at 8:17am

Alright this guy has me beat with my go-pack. He can even fry eggs in the morning using his transmitter. He is using the FT-817 too. Have a look!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxp_Nsa54_Q

Permalink Reply by David A Jones on November 25, 2009 at 3:24pm

MM,

I found my old diskette with The Gray 90's on it. 13 year old disk still works. Lucked out. I now have it on 3 different drives and will be putting it on CD. Can't believe that floppy lasted that long.

The files are HTML, so it can be read in a browser, or choose to open it in whatever you want to read it in; i.e. Word, etc.

File is about 700 KB...that's KB, kilobytes. So it is small enough for even a lowly dial-up kinda guy like me to send. If you are interested, email me daj&$onesatcv#%alleydotnet and I'll send it. Drop all symbols, letters only and convert the 2 words that need to be. Should fool any bots that are lurking.

How much is the audio book costing you?

jonesey65244

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on November 25, 2009 at 5:48pm

Sure I'll take a copy. I just sent you off an Email. I think the mp3 version was around 32 dollars or so. It won't be out till end of December. I'll share it when it arrives, I'm not sure the size of it yet. Bit Torrent will work too..

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on November 26, 2009 at 9:15am

QRP with the right antenna. It is extremely important to make the right choice in an antenna with no power to spare as in QRP. Just go end fed 1/2 wave for packable DX work and forget the rest I say...

I got up today and fired up the go-pack portable setup. Last night I strung up a end fed half wave 20m in the vertical fashion. In an Oak tree suspended by fishing line. No ground radials. Feed point 6" from the ground. 400' altitude low in my QTH's valley. Fed by 65' of RG-8M.

Scanned for a minute or so and heard someone calling at about a 5/5 or 5/7. Set the 817 to 2.5W and reached out to the caller. He came back immediately to my call. He was in Estonia and gave me a 5/7 report......freakin' amazing. We chatted for 2 minutes and passed alot of information within that time. If this was emergency comms or SHTF stuff there would've been no problem with the copy whatsoever.....

Estonia....2.5W....from Massachusetts....5/7 signal.....2 minutes....no ground radials....12" counterpoise....incredible! Keep and hold an end fed half wave (EFHW pronounced eff-haw) antenna in your QRP go-pack "airsenal"....nuff said....

Permalink Reply by David A Jones on December 3, 2009 at 8:02pm

I gotta believe it's going to go higher, but the ARRL QRP book is currently at a buck here on eBay. Just thought I'd give a heads up for those who do not have this very interesting book.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ARRL-Low-Power-Communication-3rd-Edition_W0QQit...

jonesey65244
KC0OUF

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on December 4, 2009 at 10:19pm

Jonesey nice find on the QRP book. So far I've been having more fun with my QRP rig. I still owe you a sked'd shout out..

I just wanted to tell you that I read "The Gray Nineties" and enjoyed it. He did alot of research for the nuts and bolts of surviving in a communal way. Very informative.

I then read another online book called "Lights Out!". It was a bit longer read but along a similar genre. More character development and about 600 pages or so. It is another good book that I could and would reccomend. Not as technical or manual oriented but a good read none the less...

I have not read a book end to end in 25 years before these.

So many SHTF scenarios to plan for. The common ground being water, weapons, food, fuel and comms. Just goes to show that comms is right up there with bread and butter in any and all scenarios....

Permalink Reply by David A Jones on December 5, 2009 at 4:03pm

MM,

Thanks for the heads-up on "Lights out." I dl'd it and it is now among my other hundreds of e-books. Takes some getting used to reading a book on comp screen, but I like the idea of being able to carry a fairly substantial library in a small package.

I read Gray Nineties back prior to Y2K. I liked it a lot because it was a manual, but written in story form. Sometimes it's tough to keep your attention to drab "connect A to B" stuff in a manual, but while following the drama, your mind is picking up on lots of ideas.

When you decide on the check-in, let me know the freqs and times. The clock is wide open here, so don't be concerned if the hours are late/early. Just post it, or email me about 48 hours ahead, so I am certain to get the message.

They still have not settled on a time for Mark's shortwave programming. Pricing and other things made them go to WIMD instead of WWCR or some other station. I understand his reasoning, but WIMD does not seem to blanket the US as well as others. I don't know how much or how well you like listening to web broadcasts, but they have a wide variety of info they cover, and like I said, Tuesday's programs are pretty much directed toward communications.

Can't say I was too thrilled to see my thermometer dip to about 16 this AM, but at least I have a roof over me.

next time,
jonesey65244

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