GySgt D
10-28-2006, 06:05 PM
Spent three days and nights several miles into some nasty Florida swampland this past weekend. About a six or so mile hump one way.
Brought my FT-817 along with me, to assess its' usefulness during this time of minimal sunspot activity (and thus, crappy propagation). Output power was no more than 5 watts, into a homebrew dipole antenna (which was strung up between two trees no more than twelve feet above the ground.
It was a bit frustrating, as I could hear other stations okay, but they apparently could not hear me well enough to attempt a QSO. Heard several DX stations; from Italy to South America.
In the end, I made all of three HF contacts; one in Michigan and two in Pennsylvania.
Tried Echolink for the first time in a field environment. Since we were so far out into the boondocks, we brought along a portable wire J-pole antenna for VHF use. Was able to contact a repeater some 80 miles away with it, and established a scheduled contact with a station in South Carolina. I know, I know, Echolink is hardly the thing to rely on "in interesting times", but it was neat giving it a try, anyhow.
Another thing tried out was a small solar panel to trickle charge my 6ah gell cell. It is hard to tell how much help it was, but I'll tell you that my gel cell never died the three days I was out there. I called "CQ" quite a few times... Seems to me that it is indeed sufficient for a three day exercise.
The 817 is too bulky to use for inter-patrol commo, at least as far as intentionally choosing it for that purpose. It served the purpose well enough, though. Sure was nice to be able to contact other patrol members who were at least an hours' distance on foot away.
As a somewhat amusing sidenote, I demonstrated my APRS beacon at the end of the exercise to other members. When I got home that night(several hundred miles away), I had an email from someone in the U.S. Marshall's Service (said so on his signature line) who had heard the beacon, and had attempted to make contact (with negative results). My APRS beacon info contains my email addy... Anyhow, if I was the paranoid type, I'd say that there was something fishy about that. :eek:
Brought my FT-817 along with me, to assess its' usefulness during this time of minimal sunspot activity (and thus, crappy propagation). Output power was no more than 5 watts, into a homebrew dipole antenna (which was strung up between two trees no more than twelve feet above the ground.
It was a bit frustrating, as I could hear other stations okay, but they apparently could not hear me well enough to attempt a QSO. Heard several DX stations; from Italy to South America.
In the end, I made all of three HF contacts; one in Michigan and two in Pennsylvania.
Tried Echolink for the first time in a field environment. Since we were so far out into the boondocks, we brought along a portable wire J-pole antenna for VHF use. Was able to contact a repeater some 80 miles away with it, and established a scheduled contact with a station in South Carolina. I know, I know, Echolink is hardly the thing to rely on "in interesting times", but it was neat giving it a try, anyhow.
Another thing tried out was a small solar panel to trickle charge my 6ah gell cell. It is hard to tell how much help it was, but I'll tell you that my gel cell never died the three days I was out there. I called "CQ" quite a few times... Seems to me that it is indeed sufficient for a three day exercise.
The 817 is too bulky to use for inter-patrol commo, at least as far as intentionally choosing it for that purpose. It served the purpose well enough, though. Sure was nice to be able to contact other patrol members who were at least an hours' distance on foot away.
As a somewhat amusing sidenote, I demonstrated my APRS beacon at the end of the exercise to other members. When I got home that night(several hundred miles away), I had an email from someone in the U.S. Marshall's Service (said so on his signature line) who had heard the beacon, and had attempted to make contact (with negative results). My APRS beacon info contains my email addy... Anyhow, if I was the paranoid type, I'd say that there was something fishy about that. :eek: