Portable HF Suggestions

[texascrane]

I'm thinking about trying out HF. I have an extra license but I've stuck to VHF/UHF until now. I'm thinking it would be cool to do some national park activations this year.

I'm thinking about picking up an ft-450d and running it off of my second battery/solar. I'm not sure about the antenna though. Something like a 20m end fed and a fiberglass pole for locations without tall trees? I'd mostly like to run 20/40m ssb. Any suggestions/thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Frdmskr]

You can do a lot with a little. A used IC703 or FT817nd is small, lightweight and pretty flexible. Very popular for low current draw but high performance is the Elecraft line of gear.

If you are looking at mobile then consider a TS480 or IC7100 or FT857 series rig.

Lots of good stuff on YouTube and blogs on rigs for mobile or portable. See WG0ATs YouTube for some lightweight stuff (he has CW and nonCW rigs). For mobile K0BGs web page has good info that can also apply to portable use.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[93Cummins]

I like Icom 7000 or 706MKIIG's. There are a lot of them on the used market. Chameleon antennas makes some nice easy to deploy end fed antennas.

 

[RagnarD]

Been struggling with this as well. I am using an 857d and have played with a few portable HF antennas. Goal is not mobile, just portable/easy to set up when camped.

Currently using a 35' telescoping mast with a dual band j-pole on top. Played with the buddipole on top and was not a fan. Back to an end fed "kx3 helper" and regular inverted v dipole for the time being.

Power is not a huge concern for me because the radio with alaways be with the tow vehicle or trailer with generator. Would like to do a solar set up at some point but that is going to be expensive to do correctly.

Let us know what you settle on.

 

[texascrane]

I ended up buying a Yaesu FT-991 and a deluxe buddipole package with the long mast and extended length whips. I got it set up this morning in my backyard and listened to 20m for about an hour. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I was able to listen to a bunch of different contacts and nets up and down the east coast and up into the midwest, as well as a guy out in California making contact in Asia (couldn't hear the other end of his conversations though). I even heard somebody maritime mobile in the Bahamas.

I made my first contact on HF with a guy down in Mexico City. I was picking him up 5-8 and he said I was 5-7. I'm very pleased with the setup so far.

 

[jjmoss99]

HF Antenna

The tripod mounted antenna on top of my canopy is the setup that I use when on my Overland trips. It is a horizontal dipole built out of MFJ Ham Sticks. I built the mounting base out of 1/4" aluminum plate that I drilled and tapped to allow one of the Ham Sticks to thread into it and the other to mount into a standard 3/8 antenna mount.



In this picture the kids and I were camped out at Dug Bar in the bottom of Hell's Canyon in NE Oregon and had a QSO with a guy in Sparks, NV after the kids went to bed. He sent my wife an email letting her know that the kids and I were doing ok and would be home the next day.

I also have a hamstick\CB antenna mount on the front fender that I use for mobile operation. These antennas don't beat a good G5RV but for quick portable operations from camp it works good.

Justin
WF7L