[Elecraft] portable operations on vacation

[David F. Reed]

Folks,

its not often that I find occasion to cross post to three groups, but
since it involves an Elecraft product, an FT-817ND, and /PM operation, I
hope I might be forgiven.

I am currently accompanying my wife at a convention in Corpus Christi,
TX, and staying on the 18th floor of a 20 story hotel, in a room
overlooking the bay here.

Of course, I am doing a bit of portable operation, some from the room,
some from the beach, set up as a camp, and some /PM

I am using an FT-817 for the rig (I hope to try my K-2 in this use next
time) and several tuners. My favorite antenna from the room is a long
wire out the balcony door, held out horizontally by an extended
fiberglass pole, and a multi-wire counterpoise slung around the room and
naturally, a tuner between the rig and the antenna.  I have used a
SGC-211, an LDG-11, and the T1.  All work, but I have to tell you, the
T1 with the remote control cable for the FT-817 is real handy, and I
enjoy the auto recall of previously tuned bands when band switching, I
like the better hearing that affords, to more quickly check if a band is
dead.

On the beach, the setup is different; I make a sort of dipole (2 carbon
fiber poles as arms to support wires, and a fiberglass mast about 35 ft.
tall, guyed with some light line and long anchors; radiation pattern
aimed by Armstrong method...  Each side is like an inverted L, with the
ends drooping...

Sometimes I "close the loop" by joining the ends and try that, with a
balun at the top; I choose the balun based on what the impedance looks
like without the tuner (two tools for that; one by MFJ, the other by
AEA), I find that if  I use the tuner up by the feed point, I prefer the
SGC over the LDG, (and in fact can directly use its balanced output and
no balun, and since it has its batteries self contained, is very handy.)
The T1 is the quickest for me to set and forget, and I like that a lot.

My /PM setup is simple; the expedition pack, FT-817 inside feeding the
T1 tuner, feeding about 20' of wire evenly spiraled up a 8' light
fiberglass pole poking out of the pack, and a drag wire, and a Heil
headset, working 20, 17 and 15 meter bands, voice only (I would like to
get the hang of sending cw while walking, but have not mastered that
yet, nor do I seem to have enough cache in my brain to carry on a QSO
without a notepad).

I get some real funny looks out at the beach, but it is fun; operated
some cw, some PSK-31 and SSB so far.

Tomorrow, I will try to get permission to operate from the deck of the
USS Lexington if I cannot get to operate from the shack there...

Anyway, bottom line - PM is a big kick, but getting out and operating in
any form portable is fun and you get to expose a lot of people to ham
radio in any case.

I am enjoying the 817 as a /PM rig, and if I had to bring only one tuner
next time, the T1 wins for versatility, weight, and excellent
performance in all my uses and configurations.  I would change the
transceiver to a more stable dialed in one for /PM I think, as dial
locking and unlocking  and retuning requires taking the pack off and on;
or maybe a remote head rig?

73 de W5SV, Dave

-- 
Dave Reed   W5SV  cell: (512) 585-1057