Lots of us do use them, a fine product but they are out of stock at present.
Thanks I have sorted the Pole the 7m seems to be in stock at Sotabeams.
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Thanks Ed, that is an amazing price for the battery reducer (shame about the shipping)! just ordered three! I have a charger thanks. I fly drones as well.
73s Martin
Yes, shipping cost sucks - I thought you might be buying the Hardcase LIPO at the same time from Hobby King Hong Kong and hence combined shipping might reduce the pain a little - but as the price for the battery is the same from the UK or HK warehouses, shipping for the battery is obviously better from the UK warehouse (it’ll be cheaper and you won’t have any border control points blocking the transport of lithium batteries then).
73 Ed.
Yes the battery is shipping from the UK. Those Phantom chargers are still a bargain though! Thanks for all your help!
I had a SOTA beams pole - Collapsed it was rather too long to fit into the rucksack - so I used it strapped to the outside. Not ideal - Someone then suggested lifesabreeze.co.uk and I found a 13ft or 16ft (I think) one which collapsed to less than 2ft and fits into my rucksack. I cut the last section off as its too delicate. I use a SOTA beams linked dipole with it and have had absolutely NO problems getting QSOs with it on the hill, including the USA!.
Like you I struggled a little with batteries at the start. I got and used for quite a while 12v, 2amp SLAB batteries. I got a couple of these batteries Security measure (I can’t do a proper link but they are 2amp 12v LiPO at 18 euro, incuding charger) from Ireland later on . They took a week or two to arrive though.
There’s some good info on this thread in reply to a similiar question I asked when I started SOTA Which of these batteries? (please) and I managed to go with a couple of the suggestions but as you now note UK lipo and/or li-0n are harder to get now
David.
Read the datasheet and note the fundamental switching frequency, 2nd, particularly third harmonic of which it is designed to run at 
Make sure it runs in continuous mode
Did it cost £5 17s. 6d ?
Sorry David, I think you’re only about 12years older than me but 13ft is an absolutely meaningless measurement now. Though in a few minutes with the ending of a 47year “marriage” maybe we’ll hear they’re going to “take back control of our currency” by scrapping decimalisation? 
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Just a quick thank you to everyone and this supportive community for their help. I am now sorted…and broke 
I will post pictures when the bits arrive.
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Not at all - we still use Miles, Pints and other sensible measures. My HF antennas are measured in Chains!
My son (who is quite a bit younger than Andy) uses feet and inches and struggles with those funny metric measures (maybe that is why it takes so long to investigate road traffic incidents in the North 
)
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Andy
Could get worse. I distinctly remember working with a builder’s son when we lived in Ireland. He was brought up on metric - but his much older dad - also a builder - had explained and sometimes used inches. This the lad understood but really could not or would not grasp the complications of the likes of ⅚". and other fractions of an inch.
Working on a job together we compromised sometimes when it suited us - eg. ‘‘That needs to be 3" 4mm long’’- a combination of inches and MM 
-
Datasheet ?? Ha Ha Ha ! We’re talking about Chinese units here - no datasheets accessible to mere mortals.
I have noticed that here in Germany you can get some wood beam dimensions that seem rather strange in their metric values but when you convert them to imperial they make more sense - so “3.5 metres of 6” x 4" beam please" makes absolute sense! My guess is that as these beams are often used to replace ones in old houses that were built using imperial measurements, so they need to be able to provide beams cut to the same dimentions!
HNY everyone - Ed.
Makes sense Ed. Most of our measurements, now of course metric, were direct conversions of our old imperial system.
Most do specify what switcher they use actually. For you, read the item description && read the datasheet.
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No datasheet for the $3/4 boards on eBay! OK, you could buy one, see what chip it uses and then get the datasheet from the chip manufacturer but whether the board has been built to the suggested design from the manufacturer… My thought is that the ones that have been built to manufacturers specs are often RF quiet while others aren’t.
As far as my experience goes, it’s a lottery whether you get a good one or a bad one. Even between batches components may have been missed off the board to save 1 cent.
But if someone on the web wants to review the buck/boost boards and list the good ones, good luck to then as once published the board design has changed and the old board is often no longer available.
Just checked on the Hobbyking site and I noticed that these batteries were still in stock:
You could connect 2 in series to give you 13.2V nominal. Or 2 in series and 2 parallel to give you more capacity. I also noticed that the 8.4Ah are also still in stock:
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
I know I saw someone using tool batteries with a modified charger to be able to link it to the radio. But I wondered if anyone has tried one of these, as tool batteries are easy to come by.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/14-4V-18V-Li-ion-Battery-Adapter-Wire-Cable-Connect-Output-Tool-For-Makita-Bosch-/363191776394?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
I use buck converters a lot and certainly have never had anyone complain about noise across the bands. My converters have all used 100KHz as the switching frequency. I had one hooked up to my KX3 and checked it out on the panadapter: the harmonic was very low level, even with the RX antenna right next to the TX antenna. However, this could be different for different radios. I am thinking about buying a Tiny SA to investigate precisely this phenomena.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
They did have a 2000mAh 2s1p in stock when I looked when this thread started. Two of those would have been where I started and maybe add another pair later on nad that’s what I suggested back at the start. The LiPo ship has sailed and I don’t want to buy more. I have two elderly packs I use still to power transverters etc. or 18650 LiIon cells where I have recovered them from free laptop packs. Judicious harvesting of cells has produced 15 of them at 1800mAh and 2400mAh. Fine for an 817 barefoot or my QCX when it comes.
The 8400mAH pack is 120WH and so you can’t take it on a plane with you. Hey Matt… do you remember when you could fly for SOTA expeditions 