Ham Radio Camping Trip.

[gil]

But I wonder how rugged it is

It does seem well built, but not water-resistant at all... I ordered a Pelican 1150 case for it, on it's way.. I would not carry it in anything short of 100% waterproof in the field.

is how the filtering affects overall attenuation, or not.

Little attenuation compared to the filters on my K1 and K2 (sold).. The preamp helps on the narrower settings.

I had considered the Ft-817ND before the KX3, but being 99% CW, and already an Elecraft user, the KX3 won. For VHF HTs however, I buy Yaesu.

Gil.

[KC9TNH]

Thanks for the note on the filters. I'll have to dig up some comparisons; the Elecraft community is so devoted I'm sure someone has some sound files up. But appreciate that you understand what I'm talkin' about. :)

I would've gone with an FT h/t of some kind but I can outfit several folks with the cheaper ones if needed and the Wouxun does seem to be doing ok. I'm not traditionally hard on stuff anyway.

One other question, are you using a separate paddle for it or the one that is shown with it all the time?
I'm thinking one can minimize the foot print of it (for packing) by detaching that unless it's simply easier on the connector to leave it on. Anyway, thanks for the info.
[/ hijack of Gil's camping trip thread]

[gil]

are you using a separate paddle for it or the one that is shown with it all the time?

I use a separate American Morse DCP paddle. I may get the KXPD3 in the future... It would certainly reduce the footprint, and more importantly, remove a wire, rendering the whole station more mobile, as in, "let's go seat over there now.."

That is one thing that bugged me while camping, a bunch of stuff connected by wires. You try to move eveything without disconnecting or turning it off, and invariably, you will accidentally hit that paddle and send a bunch of dits and dahs.. That is why I am thinking of modifying a clipboard to attach everything on it. Ray solved his problem with his custom KX1 case. I don't know if you guys saw the photo, but I think the only wire coming out of that box is the antenna coax... A regular KX1 with the attached paddle would do the same. No extra wires, except for the headphones however..

It would be great if Elecraft rebuilt the KX1 using surface-mount components, even as a kit, and added a mini speaker. My MTR is great, but you have to connect everything to it, batteries, paddle, antenna, earphones.. That's a lot of wires. A 9V battery can fit inside the case, but you don't get much power or time operating. With eight AA cells, I operated for the whole week, 26 QSOs, including a few half-hour ones.. On receive, my KX3 would have drained those batteries 4X faster. A FT-817ND, 11X faster. And yet, with the same input voltage, power output for these three radios is about the same. That is the difference...

Gil.

[KC9TNH]

You bring up a good point, if moving the station around, how to have inanimate objects remaining calm while you jostle stuff around. Alot of the really old giant sets had a tiny key integral to the panel; of course you could also make your thumb medium-rare by the time you were done. Secure & repeatable is a good thing to have when one's mind might be preoccupied by other things.

[gil]

Secure & repeatable is a good thing to have when one's mind might be preoccupied by other things.

Like swatting bugs...  ::)

Gil.

[RadioRay]

In military systems I  have built, the number ONE failure point was connectors on cables.  That is why, if at all possible, I like to integrate everything inside of the case, or bolt it onto the case with direct wiring to the inside.


>Ray

[KC9TNH]

Secure & repeatable is a good thing to have when one's mind might be preoccupied by other things.

Like swatting bugs...  ::)

Gil.

LMAO.
"WTH is that noise on Gil's signal?"
"Buzzing, and it ain't RF."  :(

In military systems  have built, the number ONE failure point was connectors on cables.  That is why, if at all possibly, I like to integrate everything inside of the case, or bolt it onto the case with direct wiring to the inside.
Ray

Because anything with a cannon plug weighs 10x more than it needs to & cost us all 17x more to make.
;D

[cockpitbob]

Finally did a little of this myself.  I brought my little Ten-Tec R4020 on a Boy Scout camping trip.  It was just car camping, not backpacking, but I tried to keep the gear light and use the weekend as a shakedown cruise.

My plan was to work some CW from the tent after the social obligation of hanging around the camp fire with the other dads was done, so I set my tent up by some trees.  I forgot about rigging the antenna until it was dusk.  This was a BIG mistake  ??? :o .  My antenna launcher is a slingshot with a fishing reel hose-clamped to the wrist support.  It was dark enough that I couldn't see the fishing line and it kept getting looped around the reel, a twig or something else before I shot.  It was almost full dark when it sounded like I got the dayglow-orange painted 1oz weight over the branch ( I was going by sound it was so dark).  After finding the far end of the line I took off the weight and tied it to my spool of dayglow-orange mason's string and strarted pulling the string over the branch.  When I thought I was done I realized the spool tangled and instead of being on the ground playing out string it was half way up the tree ??? .  That took more than minute to sort out in the dark but I finally got the wire rigged.

My antenna is a half-wave end fed.  Just a 63' piece of wire and a home brew broad band transformer.  No adjustments needed to go between 40/20/15 meter bands, and it's water proof so I can leave it out all night.  I got the wire about 35' up so I had a pretty good inverted-V arrangement.

By the time I crawled into the tent it was getting late.  The bands were a mess that night.  It sounded like there was a digital contest on 40 and 20.  I did hear Brazil and some other far off places.  I had one nice long QSO with someone in Wissconsin running 50W into a dipole.  He was 589 for me and he gave me a 569 report which made my 4Watts feel real good.  One problem I need to fix is to find a more comfortable way to work the key from a inside a tent.  I'm a bit too old to sit there indian style (cross legged).  Laying on my belly or side, proped up on elbows got real tiring real fast.

Lessons learned:
1:  Put up the damned antenna before it gets dark >:( (duh).
2:  The antenna launcher is great, but big and heavy for backpacking.  I want to find a more compact solution.  Maybe I can learn to swing a weight on a string and get it up 30'.  Something to practice in the back yard.
3:  Find a comfortable way to work the key in the tent.  Something like a CrazyCreek chair might work, but that's more stuff to bring.  On a real backpacking trip I might have enough gear to make a pile to sit back against, but I hate to bring dirty wet things with sharp corners in the tent.

[Lamewolf]

Safe camping requires a minimum of three people.  If one gets hurt, then one can go get help, while last renders assistance.  That point leads me to the fact you didn't list a first aid kit.  I hope that is among the stuff not worth mentioning, along with map and compass.

I've roamed the woods for may a year now, solo, and never once do I remember ever taking along a map.  I always have at least a small button compass but never saw the need to use it.  But then most of the places I go I am very familiar with just through my own exploration.  I do it the old fashioned way by marking the trail as I go, ie, I break a small branch, carve marks in dead trees or logs, pile up rocks or sticks, just anything to mark where I've been and then just follow my marks back to where I started.  And I always carry a survival kit with means to carry and purify water, start a fire, and build shelter and it also includes a good first aid kit.  And thats one piece of kit I'm proud to say I've never had to use so far in my 57 years - but it will always be there if needed !

[KK0G]

Yep, there's no better way to find out what works and what doesn't for portable QRP than a real live shake down. I did the same thing on first couple of trips also and learned quite a bit in the process.

[cockpitbob]

Interresting discussion on eHam.
He's taking an 800 mile hike and wants to charge batteries from the motion of walking.  My take-away from the discissions and some web searching is that the technology isn't there yet.  Flexable solar, hand crank or stoves with thermoelectric generator appear to still be the main options.  For trips of a few days bringing lithium primary batteries and leaving the charger at home is the lightest approach.
People are working on a piezo insole for you shoe, but a reliable implementation looks a long way off, and I wouldn't want to go 15 miles/day on high-tech insoles.