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

[Jim Brown]

On 4/16/2013 2:07 AM, M. WIJK wrote:
> 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.

It helps to realize that operating from a mountain peak is almost 
equivalent to operating with a vertical on the beach. I worked Field Day 
last year from a 5,000 ft peak running QRP with solar power and 
batteries. With very good antennas, we were able to hold a frequency and 
run, with a rate of more than 70 QSOs per hour in the last hour. We made 
nearly 900 QSOs.

The year before, I worked Field Day from home QRP battery with very good 
antennas and made 500 QSOs.

SO, if I were CARRYING my gear up the mountain on my back, I would go 
with the lightest possible weight QRP rig, enough battery to run it for 
twice as much time as I think I might have, and "stuff" to rig antennas 
for the bands I hope to use.  There are a lot of nice lightweight 
telescoping poles and mounting tripods that can give you a quarter wave 
on bands as low as 40M. Add some lengths of #22 wire to use as radials 
or a counterpoise, and you've got a pretty decent antenna for not a lot 
of weight.

In my experience, the WARC bands are the best QRP bands because they 
have the least activity from guys with big tribanders, and 30M has the 
advantage of a 200W limit.

The club of which I was a member in Chicago hosts an annual QRP night in 
a local forest preserve, where members set up rigs and antennas in very 
close proximity to each other. Typical turnout was a dozen guys. The 
guys with Elecraft rigs did fine, but the guys with rice boxes got their 
receivers blown away by the other close signals on the same band.  
Especially if you're using improvised antennas, it helps to have a rig 
with an antenna tuner.

Note that N6KR, one of the two owners of Elecraft is an EE who is the 
principal designer of their rigs, started out designing rigs for 
backpackers, and he is a NUT for minimizing battery drain. That makes 
his rigs a great choice if you're trying to maximize performance and 
minimize the weight you have to carry.

73, Jim K9YC