The 1 Kilo HF challenge. A multiband activation pack below 1 kilogram

Good idea for a challenge but as my CW is not good on the receive (not too bad sending) my setup will be well over the 1kg limit.

But my 40m dipole is a good start - 36g including the winder.
It works well and stands up to gale force winds but don’t trip over it as it will snap easily.

You never know I might get practicing my morse more sometime and then work on light gear.

73 Neil

Just back from the scale.
KX1 with options and mini paddle: 478 g
battery pack 9 penlights: 265 g
30 m longwire + 3 x 10 m radials: 249 g
All together: 992 g.
When I remove the internal 6 pennligts even less but I like to have a backup

It’s vain to do with more what can be done with less.

73 de geert pa7zee

Include pole, pegs, guys, bungees and the like, and the weight goes up a bit. I expect my minimum kit is nearer 2kg including microphone and headphones as well…

My lunch used to weigh nearly that much ! :wink:

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Looks like a great kit.
Maybe some lighter coax a bit shorter with simple crimp on bnc connectors will peel off some grams.
The water food and coat and hat for every occasion usually out weigh my radio gear and I never go without my blow up cushion . 73 all great challenge.
Ian vk5cz …

Hi Ignacio, great thread!

I’ve been using very similar equipment for the past year or so. I find the performance is perfectly fine. I have the same LiPo, it lasts for a very long time! Sometimes I use 370mAH 3S, which gives me about 4.5W from the MTR. This lower capacity LiPo is more than capable for a long activation.

I use a dipole antenna with small 4m pole.

Imgur

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Also, see my thread from the old reflector -

72, Colin M1BUU

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I have not weighed my portable HF gear yet, but I guess that a HB-1A (which can be run off eight AA cells) with a QRP antenna tuner and a wire doublet with 300 Ohm feedline is also among the more lightweight setups, even if I include a ball of string to help me set up the aerial. This, of course, requires the presence of some trees and stones in the area that I wish to operate from. Only the fairly hefty base of my morse key spoils things to some extent.

Anyway, I believe my lunch packet could easily turn out heavier than the radio gear, too - at least when I include some bottles of malty beverages :wink: I only wish I could find the time for portable operations …

73, Jan-Martin

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Albrecht AE2990 AFS is a CB handheld with AM/FM/SSB that can be opened to 12m and 10m. Needs another antenna and performance is mediocre but it’s enough for the 4 required contacts. 300 grams.

Article form a fellow romanian ham, translated

Also, the Xiegu X1M weights only ~600grams and provides full HF coverage with 5W.

My “lightweight” activation setup is around 4Kg for the whole bag, including 1L of water, a small snack, FT-817+tuner and a 6m fishpole antenna. Considering the amount of fat I carry on my belly, the compromise is already a bit too much :).

Razvan (YO9IRF)

Good Challenge… When I think that’s 1/3 of the FT100D weight’s :wink:
So should change the antenna wires and no trappes so 1 band… ;-(
And let the mast in the car if there are trees on top… ;-(
Well I can’t challenge less 2kg all include for the station but that is 1kg less than my old FT100D alone… :slight_smile:
Enjoy everything :sunny:
Tof F5UBH

Speaking of lightweight SSB radios:

FX-4A
http://www.lnrprecision.com/transceivers/fx-4/
(Standalone SDR - said to be KX3 rival - way cheaper!)

TJ-2B
http://www.youkits.com/
(SSB handheld kit, might be light)

KN-Q7A
http://crkits.com/
(Very lightweight unless you fit N3ZI DDS inside like I did)

KX3

(Is 635g by the way, so fits in as well :smile: )

FDM DUO
http://ecom.eladit.com/FDM-DUO/en
(This is not lightweight, but is another interesting take on standalone SDR topic)

My normal SOTA station is well under 1kg (MTR, EFHW fed with LMR100, 500mAh 3s LiPO, Palm Pico paddle, lightweight phones, 1.5mm polyester rope to hang EFHW in trees). My entire pack is about 2kg in the summer.

Barry N1EU

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Spurious emissions -43dB(should be dBc) at 5 Watts. hmmmm… OK at 5 Watts but I wouldn’t use that to drive any substantial PA.
No FM, only a 2.5 Khz maximum filter width its going to sound wonderful on SSB :smile: Not sure its going to come close to “rivaling” it.

Sigh… I wish there where some better commercial alternatives for portable use. Even the KX3 could have done much better with just a few more months in development.

Jonathan.

Three main items that make up the most weight on my activation trips are the rucksack, radio, and mast.
The best way I was able to reduce the weight I was carrying was to invest in a new rucksack, that would be suitable for longer trips in the future. I purchased a Nigor Zero G the size is 53l weighs in at 1kg, it can be compressed down for day outings.
I don’t think I would change from the ft817 as it suits my needs for multi mode/multi band operation.
The 10m mast I have reduced down to 5m but still weighs in at 1kg, still a bit heavy but until it breaks I won’t be looking for a new one.
Total weight is 8.75kg this includes my mountaineering equipment, the antenna weigh approx 400g.

Hi,

thanks for all your contribution.
I did my own research of different rigs in order to find some light models…
You can see the chart I prepared at:
http://hamtennas.com/docs/Portable_rigs.pdf

Anyway, so far I don’t plan to buy any other rig. I’m quite happy with the FT817 and the MTR.
The MTR is my choice for this challenge and I won’t invest in an SSB rig. If I was to buy a new one I think I’d get the LNR FX-4A for SSB…

It is very nice to see that other people thought about the same feature in the past.
Well done Colin, with your thread and setup! So far you are leading the Challenge with your 760 gram including the 4m pole!

Yes, having trees on summits would reduce a lot the weight making the use of poles unnecesary, but I don’t find them in most of my activation here!

Brian & Razvan: the use of handhelds like the Mizuho or Albrecht for 10m deserves a separate category, I’m afraid…

Concerning water and lunch, we could open a different chapter to study somethning like calories per gram and find a good solution.
I guess any chocolate bar like Snickers ™ is a good starter :heart_eyes: :doughnut:

I’m preparing my kit and soon will do my first 1 kilo challenge activation. I will let you know in advance.
Thanks for your ideas and take care.VY 73 de Ignacio

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Also not to be overlooked for inspiration are the Spartan Sprint contests. A similar idea where weight determines part of the score.

73, Colin

Hi Ignacio - you could take an acorn with you and plant one on each summit for future use :wink:

Interesting thread, thanks,

73
Adrian

With food it’s a long discussion, but I find Snickers to be a very good balance as well - enough carbs for short-time recovery, some proteins and fat for long-term energy, enough calories per weight, doesn’t get altered in heat. The only thing you need is some minerals / electrolytes / Vitamin C added in the water and you’re good to go for intense effort :smile:

Congrats Ignacio for this nice thread.
I had never been too curious about my SOTA gear weight until you wrote this thread.
I have put my whole SOTA kit on the scale and found it weights 7.6 Kg
Since I usually run 5 watts, my ratio is 7600/5= 1520 grams per watt, which is 4.78 times worse than yours :frowning:

Then I stepped myself on the scale and found my weight in my current dressing (jeans and T-shirt) is 79 Kg, which means I usually carry 79+7.6 = 86.6 Kg up to the top of the mountains. Let’s round it up to 87 when I’m on my boots plus having my walking stick, plus carrying my mobile phone, wallet, photo camera…
When I activate Mt. San Cristobal on Saturday mornings, I manage to lift these 87 Kg up the 500m aprox. height difference in 33.5 minutes. :slight_smile:
The basis for a new challenge might be Total Energy = height difference covered from start point to summit with a total weight carried up vs time spent in the ascent :wink:
Have a nice weekend!
73,

Guru

One KG challenge accepted. My multi-band HF complete set up is about 500 grams.

To do it:

Radio is an MTR, small, light, and functions quite adeqautely. I get as much as six watts out after careful tweaking.

Paddle is the Pico-Palm, weighs 16 grams. I put a little bit of steel on the side of the MTR, the paddle sticks to it.

Battery is a 3S LiPO 250 mAH. I seem to average less than 5 mAH per QSO, so it is plenty for an activation. It is velcroed to the side of the radio.

Earbuds are on a retractor. They stay plugged into the radio, just pull and play.

Eliminated connectors, coax, or any feedline. I tape the EFHW wire to the pole with a about a meter and a half of slack left. Wire end has a 2 mm plug on it. The end of the wire doesn’t radiate anyway, so no reason not to use it for the feedline.

Eliminated any tuner. Instead use an impedance transformer built inside the MTR. it consists of a capacitor and a toroid, would for 81:1. The wire is cut to be 1.1:1.

The back of the radio supports a single cut to fit sheet of write-in-the-rain plastic paper for the log. I hold the radio in one hand, write and key with the other.

Writing utensil is a mini-spacepen, 4 grams, writes upside down underwater, on butter. The pen is tethered to the radio, so I can just drop it if I want to.

Pole is 18 feet tall (5.5M) collapses to 2 feet, and weighs about 7 ounces.

Antenna is 53 feet of #28 teflon wire with two homemade traps using T50-6 toroids, each trap weighs ten grams, operates 20/30/40 instant, no tune band changing. It is wound on a figure-8 winder, total weight about 70 grams.

Set up or tear down is typically 4 to 6 minutes once a suitable location is chosen.

The pack weighed more than the entire set up, so it had to be replaced. I now use a pack made of nylon gauze that weighs only about 200 grams. < Ultra Vest 5.0 | Ultimate Direction >

Water is the heaviest burden, now have a filter/straw so that I can drink from any streams encountered, OR, I have a filter in the hose to my hydrapak, so i can carry less and refill from streams.

Essentially all our activations are over 10,000 feet (about 3,200 meters), with some as high as 14,400 feet. It is a whole lot better to be lighter!

73, Fred KT5X (aka WS0TA)

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Wow Fred!!!
you took the challenge to another universe! I think I won’t beat you at 500 grams… Congratulations!
I thought you were using peanut and roaster to get your Acom + Optibeam to the summits :smile:
Now I see you just carry your kit inside a doughnut then ready for the lunch break!

Sharing a picture with us would be much appreciated if you can. Just for the fun of looking such a nice setup.

It would be nice to get details to build myself that antenna as well.
Mine has a coil as for the trap for 40m and it’s a little bulky, but your design with toroids is very interesting. Maybe I’ll drop an email to ask for details.

Thanks everybody for your comments. I hope to do an activation this saturday and try my kilo-pack.

Take care, 73
Ignacio