Hey, everyone, I am re-new and honestly, I got my General and then just quit out of Ham. So please brace yourself for really dumb questions. Well, one day I decided I needed to get back into it with a friend. We camp as much as possible so I figured why not tie two hobbies into one. Now we have 3 rigs that will probably be packed up mountainsides. With that said let me get into things. Think technician level knowledge for the most part. I have forgotten am reviewing General again to help my buddy pass his test, and relearn what I have forgotten.
Antennas - I have seen a bunch of linked dipole build pages saved, but they never specify wire exactly, and if it is sourced it is usually in Europe. With that said I am not sure how thick of a wire most recommend. I personally just bought a KX3 so I could drop the mass amount of items involved in the 817, but my friend still wants to pack that 897 up the hill. Would we need two different antennas in case he decides to run a lot more juice via a possible vehicle power supply? My assumption is yes if I want to keep weight down on my end, but I am not sure how much energy we can push. I don’t mind building antennas and think that is fine, but a lot of the sites figure a far greater knowledge of antenna building then I have.
Also, what do I search for in the US for a collapsible pole like the squid poles? I am looking to get the shortest collapsed pole as possible so it will fit the side of my pack.
KX3 - I am looking to bring some power with me for the KX3 with that said I have seen a lot of battery builds on here, but many glances over the regulators people build, or where to even find them. Again I have no problem doing some soldering, and I am very comfortable with LiFe batteries and charging them, but I want to protect my radio.
Ft-897 Same question as the KX3 but with the added interest in what he needs to add such as a good light weight tuner, or should he run a manual tuner to save weight? Also, my KX3 has all the filters but he doesn’t have any. With that said what filters should he get, as we are still sketchy on understanding filters and do to work neither one of us have been able to hit up local hams.
If anyone wants to help two basic idiots who are willing to hike up mountains with radio gear and answer dumb questions that would be great.