[PaQSO] Ideas for Portable Operations

Tue, 22 Oct 2002 14:26:33 -0400

Sorry Guys, but I have to laugh at your comments on setting up portable. As 
a Rover, I have set up my station many times in a weekend. I have it down 
to 5 Minutes from the time I find my spot until I'm on the air. I run a 
full powered rig (Ten Tec Jupiter), a laptop computer(which is also 
interfaced with the Jupiter), an auto tuner and a G5RV and about 8 to 10 
rolls of nylon twine and my special "tree hammer"(that's a story in 
itself!). I also have a 1400 watt portable generator for AC. This all fits 
in my Jeep Liberty(I have pictures to prove it.). I do have a number of HF 
rigs, but my Jupiter is one of my home shack rigs,so yes I do have to rip 
up the shack for this operation. A G5RV is much better than a long wire, 
mainly for RF reasons. Out of the 22 years of operating the PA QSO Party, I 
have run portable or Rover 75% of the time. Actually, it is much more fun 
and I find I am more focused working Rover than working at home. Going 
Portable or Rover/Mobile is not for the light hearted, it takes planning 
and practice. You can plan much better antennas for Portable operation, but 
for mobile and rover class, quick, light and uncomplicated antennas are the 
key. Just my 2 cents worth and I am a couple of  pennys short!

73, Chris KB3A

At 05:56 AM 10/22/2002, [email protected] wrote:
>That's why I said "bare minimum."  A long wire with a tuner is just as 
>easy to set up as a dipole and would probably get you the high bands too 
>(that's what I used in Somerset in 1990).
>
>And obviously there are some other "little" things I didn't mention... 
>marine or car battery to run the rig (if no AC nearby), laptop with spare 
>batteries or another hefty battery with an inverter (unless you just want 
>to do paper), etc.
>
>And an ICOM 706 or TenTec 516 or Elecraft K1 or K2 etc. wouldn't require 
>that much power, so the need for a hefty battery becomes diminished.  And 
>if you think you can't do much with QRP, just ask W3YQ how well he did 
>running QRP from Forest for all those years.
>
>The point is to not bog down in the little details (yes, they are 
>important, just not at this point in the discussion), but to start 
>thinking about how easy it is to get a portable station up and running, in 
>most cases, these days. And then encourage more participants to do just that.
>
>73, ron wn3vaw
>
>
>
>You wrote:
>
> > From: [email protected]
> > To: [email protected]
> > Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 09:17:12 EDT
> > Subject: Re: [PaQSO] Ideas for Portable Operations
> >
> >
> > In a message dated 10/21/2002 18:28:01 Eastern Daylight Time, 
> [email protected]
> > writes:
> >
> > << And most of what you'd need to operate
> >  with (as a bare minimum) would be a 100 watt transceiver, an 80/40 trap
> >  dipole or similar simple antenna, mike and/or key/keyer, and a card table
> >  (with suitable shelter in the event of inclement weather). >>
> > And perhaps capability for higher HF bands, too, to work the more distant
> > sections?  There are lots of multipliers in FL, TX and CA.
> >
> > k3yd
> > _______________________________________________
> > PaQSO mailing list
> > [email protected]
> > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/paqso
> >
> >
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