Intro post from Wyoming

[Quietus]

Howdy.  I live in a very rural part of the country (and very rural for my county.)  Got licensed General just over a year ago.
 
My main interest in radio, is for alternative communication when internet and cell phone use become unfriendly.  I started out with a Wouxon HT, which I still use to monitor local events.  Hardly talk on that radio at all, but it is still useful since other people use freqs that radio can monitor.
 
My HF rig is an Icom IC-7200, run in house and out via battery.  There's an LDG autotuner with it that I use or do without as wanted.  With inverter, the marine battery can be charged while driving the truck.  House antenna is an end-fed sloper going up a hillside, 134' at 22' above ground (home antenna may get better shortly, will be going with a common dipole cut for 80m at 32'.)
 
Mostly I use the radio in the field, a couple of camping trips a month.  For this, I got a USGI AS-1743 as imported back from Israel and sold on eBay.  It's a versatile multi-band dipole, with the wires on little ladder reels along with launching line and sinker weights. The ladder reels serve to cut the effective radiating length of the antenna for various freqs and are part of the dipole's tensioning system.   I've only used it in the short-mast mode, 15' mast for regional use.  Folded on the reels for 40m, it gets 1:1 raw SWRs throughout the band if the ends are elevated waist high.  On 80m, it does 1:1  raw on either the low end or the high end, a person has to choose and take in or let out some wire.  Or else use the tuner.  I've also used end-fed slopers up in trees, wire cut for 40m, and have gotten decent and reliable use out of those speaker wires using the external antenna tuner.
 
The home end-fed has been pretty good locally:  have talked on both 80 and 40m to 300 miles with good signal report, at 10 and 7 watts.  That same antenna tuned for 20m almost got me into Croatia once at full power... but the guy couldn't copy my call on third try, I was probably getting only as far as Slovenia.  That primitive wire has got good contacts to Honolulu and Cuba on the higher end of HF.
 
I'm looking to go for a smaller battery, in the #20 range or so, my current one is a pig and it's starting to show age.  Also looking to go with some sort of solar charging arrangement for field use.
 
My main use for HF radio, is for on-time and at-the-proper-freq use for when times are bad.  Smaller signals are better, so I'm learning antenna construction for that goal, courtesy of military manuals.  I'm still in the steep learning curve of the newbie, but I'm having some fun doing field antenna work and learning the possibilities of on-time and on-freq for both now and later.
 
I got here from Survialblog, been reading some for a few weeks.  I like the balanced tone here.

[gil]

Hello Qietus, and welcome aboard  :D

I had a great time in Wyoming last summer! Watched "Encounter of The Third Kind" at the base of Devil's Tower and did some horseback riding around Dubois..

Gil.

[Gambrinus]

Hi there, welcome!

This is a nice site, there are people in all stages of ham and prepping knowledge.

I?ve been prepping for about 2 years but just got my ham ticket over the summer.
I only have a Kenwood TH-F6 HT so far and I'm looking for my next rig.  I live in an HOA so I'll have the added fun of making an antenna efficient and discreet.