[TenTec] A Fun Day with Ham Radio, and a Question about Portable Operating

[M. WIJK]

Hello Jack,

We have been doing SOTA in HB0 (Liechtenstein) for a few years now.
Let me share some of our experiences:

Weight:
We were restricted to carrying 1 backpack per person and split the TRX, CW key, antenna setup and 12V battery (not forgetting food, hot water &coffee) between 4 climbers.
It does not matter if you take a tiny Elecraft K1/FT817 or a larger K2/FT857 and the like. It's the battery weight which counts.
If you travel up the mountain by car, things are different.

Available time:
As the climbing trip takes 3-4 hrs on average, building the rig&antenna setup, making coffee, eat something and start making QSO's, you will notice that time flies. Quickly that is.
Since we had to face a return trip in the afternoon, our average operating time lasted from 30-60min max. per visited summit.

Available QSO partners:
Turning up non-preannounced at a summit creates a pile-up within 10 minutes. It takes about 2-5 CQ's to get things going.
With any 1 day up front announcement we enjoyed pileups already after the 1st CQ.
At least that is wat happens in Europe. Cannot speak for the audience in the USA.

Summit climb vs overnight(s) stay on summit with lots of gear moved by car etc.:
We have been camping in a mountain lodge for 10yrs and enjoyed many, many QSO's. But at some days, no make that also many, bands were closed and/or we enjoyed heavy rain or snow. Even in august. But it is nice if you can travel up the mountain and have more antennas/rigs available.
Summit climbing is a different animal. A walk to any summit in the area be it 1 hour or many hours climbing, offers a great satisfaction! Cannot explain how it feels if you, being died tired, hear the result on your first CQ's. 
All in all, you should certainly try both :)

What rig to use:
Your actual question.
For summit climbing we used an Elecraft K1 and with its puny QRP output to any half decent vertical/inverted vee/piece of wire hanging somewhere, delivered us many contacts.
Small Tentec rigs are not very common in Europe(yet). But I 've heard from others that the TT Eagle is a golden rig, both at home as on the mountains. 
I think ANY rig you can take with you is OK. It is all about the battery weight. And remember; you won't need it any longer than 60minutes because you're out of time (and energy).

At the mountain(top) lodge we have used both small and the largest possible rigs. I guess it boils down to what user interface you enjoy the most vs what eight/size you are able/willing to carry.
There's no golden egg here; any small rig vs a vintage dinosaurus will do just fine. As long as the dino survives the rough travel by car/ski-lift/cabin etc..

Kind regards,
Mark, PA5MW


Op 04/16/13, Jack Emerson  <w4tje at wiredog.com> schreef:
> 
> I still haven't decided on what radio to buy for this SOTA activity. 
> 73 de Jack W4TJE
> 
> 
> 
>