Thanks, good advice. I normally take my FX-4CR setup, which is almost exactly 2kg with the mast/guying setup. Total “winter” rucksack with warm gear, shelter, flask/food, survival essentials and radio/mast is around 8kg.
I moved away from the Carbon 6, for two reasons. Firstly it was not strong enough to hold the feeder/balun of the dipole more than 3m above the ground and secondly because when I put it through the pipe on my 2m flowerpot the SWR went from 1:1.1 to 1:6! I tried the sotabeams 6m fiberglass mast, which was excellent but weighs 750g. I now use a Decathlon 6m fiberglass travel fishing pole, cut down to 5.5m, fitted with a guying arranging for quick setup, which weighs in a 612g. Still twice the weight of carbon 6 but works with dipole and flowerpot. Also use the mast to support my 2.5x3.5m tarp in a tee-pee setup.
I did have a go with Yagi antennas for 2m. Made a couple, then bought a folding HB9CV from WIMO. Lovely bit of kit but found Yagi too faffy on activations where I want to be quick in less than ideal weather (when I use 2m). I love VK2ZOI flowerpot antennas. I must have a made a dozen of them now, one even made to look like a walking pole. I find them simple, robust, reliable, quick to put up/ take down and find the omni-directional nature of them very much a positive.
Like your notion of limiting equipment redundancy, would like to hear more about that.
My approach to weight is a bit more of an old fashioned engineering idea of value engineering. So everything has to justify its weight for the functionality that it brings. If its weight can be reduced without effecting functionality I do it. Sometimes I made things heavier because I want to improve their functionality. I’ve also obsessed about this with the total pack weight too.
I use a 26l backpack and my full winter pack is around 8kg. (HF setup)
Haha Thanks for the feedback every day is a school day for me.
I’ve given it my best attempts to try to support the feeder/balun and 40/20/17/12m linked dipole but several snapped end sections later and shortening to 5m I gave up and went to the 6m Tactical mini. Worked a treat, full 6m but 2.5x heavier.
Can you tell me how to do it right with the carbon 6m?
Thank you, some very helpful thoughts and ideas here. Found the bit about having a range of equipment options and radio equipment to choose from depending on the activation really useful. I actually do that now but it was helpful to see the idea of thinking it through on a spreadsheet for different scenarios. So “long walk, nice weather, just get the points” different pack to “Cold, get the points but seeking DX and S2S, an hour on the top of remote summit”. Shelter is a great example. I take anything from orange plastic bag, bothy bag, bivvy bag, Tarp or tent depending on the weather, the walk in and the time planned on the summit.
And me too! It was a statement designed to elicit some kind of response so that things “experts” know can be readily passed on to newcomers and generally we can chinwag about our own methods. Everybody does this differently but reading how others do it is normally a great way to pick up ideas.
I agree the 6m Decathlon Carbon pole is very thin at the top. I have one but have removed the top 3 sections. I knew I’d have to do this though as I wanted a carbon pole about 5m long. All my inv-v dipoles are designed for the feed point to be about 4.5 m AGL with the wire ends about 1 m AGL. If you change the angle much from this arrangement the match goes to pot. That pole will support my dipoles and balun but it’s a bit wavy in the wind. However, it collapses to 40 cm and weighs about 300 g.
Originally I used the “full size” 5m poles that are typically 5 section and collapse to 1.15 m. They are significantly less bendy at the top. But once you start using the “travel” poles that collapse to about 57 cm than going back to some big pole sticking out of the top of your bag is a terribly regressive thing to have to do.
I used assorted no-name travel 5m poles for a while which are all quite flexible but still support centre fed dipoles and balun. But main poles are now a Decathlon Firstfish 5m travel pole or a Life’s-a-Breeze 5m travel flag pole. I was told about the Life’s a Breeze pole by Phil @G4OBK and they are also used by Victor @GI4ONL. They are damn strong poles as they are designed to support flags, I think the top section is 6 mm diameter. And heavy, about 580 g for the pole. Ain’t no wind going to bend this chap. The problem is they are now unobtanium and there are no similar poles I know of. I stupidly missed out by a reserve during Covid…dumb, dumb move Andy. If it’s going to be breezy and I’m daft enough to go out, then I use this pole. Otherwise it’s the Firstfish which does bend with the dipoles but it only weights 380 g.
The fix is a third leg. I typically guy the pole around 1.5 m AGL with 3 guys and I don’t use the inv-v antenna wires to provide any guying support. There’s a centre unit that each dipole leg and the feeder and choke balun connect to. Balun is 5-6 turns solenoid wound of feeder, 100mm diameter. If you clip / tie the feeder as it drops to the pole the wind drag is less than having it billow in the wind. Feeder is RG-174 or RG-316 and antenna wire is PVC covered 13/0.1 mm hookup wire. Similar to SOTA Beams lightweight antenna wire but 13/0.1 not 7/0.2
The anti-bend third leg is a wee clip that goes over the top of the pole and then is connected to a length of 1.5 mm Nylon cord. It’s long enough to peg to the ground 5 m from the base of the pole so that 's √ ((5 * 5) + (5 * 5)) or 7 m and pennies long. That is run back into the wind and the pole will with stand serious winds now.
So it can be done with a bit of twiddling and fettling
Thanks David. Enjoyed it but definitely need to pick the right day to do it in winter.
Thanks also for the help and advice on the FTM-3100 6 pin to K6ARK style min-mic, adapter too, which I tested out on Seat Sandel. This means I can use the same mini-mic on my FX-4CR and FTM-3100, saving the weight of two mics and their bulky wires.
After our chat about your lapel mic and PTT for the 817 circuit, I did the math and set up a breadboard to make sure I had the bias voltage to the Electret correct. Little pocket oscilloscope was great for showing the audio signal and how effective the hairy dead cat was versus the foam mic cover. It clearly showed that the foam mic cover was effective at reducing wind noise, pops and clicks but the dead cat was too good and made it bassy.
The feedback, on Seat Sandel was excellent. I even got a “Great signal, great audio, best signal from Seat Sandel I’ve ever heard, really clear, don’t change a thing”. Which I took as a result.
Wow, thanks for that, clearly a lot of experience talking!
Well done for not giving up on the carbon 6.
The other reason I went to the fiberglass Decathlon mast was the effect of the carbon mast on the 2m flowerpot when I mount the antenna over the mast through the coil. SWR goes from 1.1:1 to 6:1 which was a surprise as much of the stuff I researched showed there to be no or little effect.
Well done and great that you got such quick VHF contacts, makes all the difference when the weather is so poor.
I just had to check the G Association Manual because I was convinced that the winter bonus finished on 1st March - but indeed it runs until 5th March which means I’ve still got one more chance tomorrow to make best use out of it.
Oh you just couldn’t help yourself, could you?
I suppose if we are talking fractions of retirement then I’m on the board with 1/5 retirement. That Friday off is proving very useful and welcome!
Probably not much. I definitely benefitted [e.g. stress reduction] in my mid 60’s from working a 4-day week (with Wednesdays off) in the 2-3 years prior to retiring. It also makes the transition a bit easier.
I was warned that some (particularly men) who dedicate their lives mainly to their jobs can go off the rails in retirement with a sense of lack of purpose. It definitely helps to have well-established hobbies or pastimes (like SOTA) prior to retiring.
every day is a school day for me.
3/5th retired or 2/5th part-time. 3/5th sounds better.