[Elecraft] Portable equipment...

[Jim Brown]

On Mon,10/5/2015 12:49 PM, David Davis wrote:
> The two items I have been looking at are the following:
>
> 1. PX3 Panadapter
> 2. AA-170 Antenna analyzer 

The answer depends on a lot of things -- your technical background, your 
operating style and objectives, etc. What do you plan to do with your 
"portable" station? Backpacking? Driving somewhere to set up? In the 
wilderness or in a neighborhood park? What do you want to work? What 
bands, what style? Contesting, summits, lighthouses, casual operation, 
vacations, etc.?

Definitely do NOT waste money on an antenna analyzer until you have real 
antennas to measure. Besides -- the KX3 has a very good SWR readout 
built in, so it's easy to use to figure out where your antenna is 
resonant, and tweak it to length if necessary. If the feedline is short, 
all you really care about is whether the antenna loads -- push the 
button to activate the KXAT3 and see if it loads OK (close to full power).

The PX3 is VERY useful when trying to find activity on a quiet band, but 
you must learn to use it first.

I agree with the suggestion of some form of launcher to get wires in 
trees. The tennis ball launcher is great if you're driving to the site, 
but far too heavy to carry up a trail. For backpacking, something like a 
"wrist rocket" would be a far better choice. Several of my local friends 
(AE6RF and N6RNO) are quite skilled at launching wires into trees using 
nothing more than fishing line with a small heavy weight attached, using 
their arm as a catapault. Once the line is in the tree, use it to pull 
up the rope that will hold the antenna.

I'm not a fan of Buddipoles -- inefficient, heavy, expensive. I like one 
of several telescoping fiberglass poles to which it's easy to tape a 
wire. Buy or improvise one or more fixtures to mount it vertically, buy 
more wire to use as radials or a counterpoise, and you've got a far more 
effective antenna for less money. #18 (or even #22) works fine for 
backpacking.

73, Jim K9YC