HF Naive: Kit update. (Part 1)

Equipment
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Re: Mast

I can recommend the SOTABeams Tactical heavy Duty mast. It is heavy (as advertised), but can withstand a lot of duty. It is also small when collapsed so as to fit in air-luggage.

I usually fasten it to a fence post, tree strunk etc. If the summit has trees, I prefer to use two ropes of ~15m, throw them with an arborist’s throw weight over a branch and string the antenna (endfed) up. My feeling is that for best results, both ends should be up at least ~1m above ground and not touch any leaves or branches (on some forested summits this is difficult to achieve, it works, but then the SWR is not so good).

Yeah, this both exhilarating and a bit stressful. You have to manage the pile-up, the chasers are like a pack of excited huskeys. If you work them all, after a time you get a reputation that everyone gets his points and they will behave (sorry to all my faithful chasers, I’d be nowhere without your chases).

73 de Martin / HB9GVW

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22

I regard a bivvi as the type of bag that you lie down in… one you might use with a sleeping bag. What you describe I refer to as a bothy bag - one which you can sit up in and operate a rig. I bought one of those back in 2006 though I’ve never actually used it. However, it’s been up over 550 summits with me - only left behind when I activated in Portugal in temperaturs of 30C to 40C. In the UK, no doubt the time that I leave it out of my pack will be the time that I will need it. :smiley:

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I’ve had to use mine at least twice, and regretted not using it on at least one more. (And all that in a grand total of fewer than 50 activations…)

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You’re correct Gerald. I’m afraid I chose the wrong word. Mine is much bigger than a bivvi bag and smaller than a shelter or bothy bag. The ‘bothy’, bag I use is big enough for me to sit in it with my sota kit & rucksack or for 2 people to sit in without kit.

My wife bought if for me many years ago and the company no longer exists.

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Hi,

With the EFHW, try to get the middle about 6m above the ground and keep the ends about 1m up, as in an inverted V. Mibe is normally about 7m. If you do this and your SWR is ok on the lower part of 40m then you will be good to go on 40-20-15-10. I would start with 40m and get spotted in the UK, then enjoy the pileup. If you have any issue let me know.

Chris
M0VUE

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Very important advice here! Perhaps in a future update of the Databse site there could be option to claim a badge when the above happens for the first time? :thinking:

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Blimey, I have a lot of responding to do - that’ll teach me not to log off.

First of all, thanks for helping. So, in order:

@MW0CBC - Looking forward to trying the same EFHW, though I opted for BNC after a faff incident with an SO239 which wouldn’t become undone due to my cold hands. I have some personal timber to lose, after sitting at a desk for 2 years during the C****-19 response. :face_with_peeking_eye:

@G4TGJ - Lesson learned. Warm jacket now sits at the top of my rucksack, and comes out first. Did that at High Willhays (second attempt) and I lasted way longer. Also, I don’t plan to use an ATU given I can sweep the antenna with my Nano VNA and get things right first. ‘Caperlan’ pole on its way.

@DD5LP - I meant the physical length of it… rather than the band. Will take the Nano VNA with me on outings to check SWR troughs before keying up. I’ve seen reviews regarding the mic - so already making mental plans for something better if I need it. :crossed_fingers:

@G4OIG - LOL! The antenna is for POTA or home use. Great on RX, it’s good for listening at home - most certainly not using it on summits! It needs a bit of work before it’s usable for TX. I’m a big fan of walking poles, so very keen to make use of them on summits.

@G5OLD - Thanks. Already got an EFHW arriving today, so I’ll try that first. Hoping to get it resonant on 40/20/10. My 3Ah battery apparently has built-in protection and seems good, but I’ll re-wire the input and output cables to include a fuse, better protecting from a short. If I have issues with AM broadcast, I’ll stick to 2m and use my SOTABEAMS filter for starters… eventually building my kit up for HF.

@M6GYU - I was sort of thinking the same regarding aerial support. I have a 9.5ft mast, and a 16ft mast arriving based on my reading and some compromise. Guys can be an issue depending on the ground, so it’s good to try something else. I have a sit mat, always in the rucksack. I also always carry a foil blanket, though I might opt for a foil bag given it might be better for personal emergencies. Rain? What rain? :joy:

@HB9GVW - A pileup would be lovely. At the moment, all I want is to be able to get a signal out. Tried on 20m with the hideous metal contraption and I failed. This things appears just to be a dummy load. I live in a dip though, so a vertical antenna at low height wan’t going to work realistically. Still, it’s good to play.

@G4OIG - In steeper/colder terrain, I have carried a survival bag with a lightweight sleeping bag just in case. Never had to use it, but I did almost consider it when it suddenly started snowing up on the peaks, and visibility dropped considerably. Managed to retreat with compass bearings, but at least I had the kit to keep me alive for a few hours should that have been unsuccessful.

@M0VUE - Looking forward to receiving the antenna today and having a play (though I have patch leads to construct first - I don’t have a BNC to BNC). Looking forward to it.

So, my carry kit so far based on recommendations (and some aspiration to experiment):

1- G106.
2- Battery pack. Fuse to be added for additional protection.
3- EFHW. Method of attaching to mast yet to be procured.
5- *4m BNC to BNC patch lead (dual purpose - connect to EFHW or 2m flowerpot).
6- Nano VNA.
7- Mast (5m - a compromise to enable 2m use). Guys yet to be procured.
8- Walking poles (to be used with EFHW).
9- Warm layers (incl beanie and gloves). Waterproof layers.
10- Sit mat + foil blanket + compass (foil blanket to be replaced with foil survival bag in future).
11- Food + Water. HOT drink option likely to be my Caldera Cone stove kit.
12- My usual 2m kit - 771 antenna. 770 antenna. *Shortened flowerpot to make use of the BNC to BNC patch lead. Only one 2m HT to be carried if I’m carrying my HF kit.
13- Log book.
14- Fully charged phone with OS maps pre-installed.

I’m sure there’s something missing - but that’s what I’ve come up with so far.

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Please add a paper Topo map as a back up. One is None and Two is One

John VE3IPS

Was there a whistle in the kit bag?

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Good point. I have all of UK’s national parks on ‘Memory-Map’ but printing them on an inkjet doesn’t work well with rain - I might have to purchase more commercially printed maps. I’m quite a fan of the Harvey maps at 1:40.

Whistle is part of my rucksack and works well.

I always have a head torch, and waterproof/windproof matches along with some wax impregnated card. :crossed_fingers:

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Hi Omar,

Lots of good advice here, sounds like you are nearly there.

A phone with a data connection/SMS connection is also a must for HF SOTA, so that you can make a spot. It may be worth reading/registering on the SOTA SMS service as dependent upon your summit you can have zero data signal (or get overloaded as I found on my Scotland trip earlier this year!) and can use SMS as a backup. I think it does have a cost though so probably best only use the SMS as a last resort.

I use the VK port a log app on my phone for spotting and logging, with a paper log as a backup. There is another app alot speak of highly but I have forgotten the name, but I’m sure there is a thread covering these somewhere. YMMV if you are an iPhone user.

Cheers,

2E0JFJ

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31

You can also use SotaMat on your phone (but needs setting up before you go). You don’t need any fancy cables, just hold your phone near the microphone and hold the PTT down.

My EFHW has a pretty good SWR on 40m and 20m but I haven’t been able to get it particularly good on 15m or 10m, even with a capacitor on the transformer. I can still make contacts on those bands with it though so don’t get hung up about the SWR not being perfect, it just needs to be good enough.

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It all depends just which summits you’ll be doing, how remote etc. and your walking / outdoor experience and fitness. I may be teaching your to suck eggs! Just recently I’ve been doing some of the more remote and extreme GM summits and that makes me stop and think about equipment and safety much more than wandering up a local lump where a hundred dog walkers go each day.

MOST IMPORTANT: make sure someone knows where you will be going, intended parking, intended route and when you’ll be back.

2 Fuses, one in the +ve and one in the -ve lead

There’s no need to concoct complex attachments. I use a piece of Veroboard.PCB about 2 x 2cm with a hole drilled through to slip over the mast. ( I have several different masts with different diameters at the top so there are several different pieces of PCB for each mast )

Dead weight. Use the SWR indication in the radio if you manually tune the antenna or use the autotuner if you have one. Use the Nano VNA in your garden or local park to characterise the antenna so you don’t need to lug it up the hills.

5m is more than enough for HF. Most of the time you’ll be up a mountain and there’ll be a few cm of earth on the rocks. You are effectively 100’s of m above the ground already.

Your domestic refuse will be full of soft plastics that you can fashion a guy ring from with sometimes just scissors or maybe a hacksaw. 2mm nylon braided cord will support significant arrays in high winds. ASDA were selling a bag of 4x 2m long fluorescent nylon guys with adjusters for £1.50 in their seasonal camping items. Replaced now with Halloween/Christmas rubbish.

I was going to say just take a flask of hot water but the Titanium version of that stove is amazingly light weight, probably less than an empty flask! But it’s a faff heating stuff, valuable radio time lost.

If you haven’t got a paper map then you need 2 GPS mapping devices. Keep one switched off and any phone in Airplane mode till at the summit. Touch screen phones do not work when the screen is wet so a proper GPS that works when wet/cold and you have gloves on is really quite important.

Consider how you will setup and take down the gear when it’s cold, wet and windy and you have gloves on. Probably you need a thin pair of gloves to operate in as sending Morse and writing in thicker gloves can be challenging.

Make a list of every item you take. Go to a park and setup. Write down all the things you forgot. Add them to the bag and list when you get home. Every time you activate note what you used. You can then refine what is essential and what is nice to have. Unless you are incredibly strict then equipment-creep occurs all the time. Have a sort out of the bag every year as a minimum.

You didn’t mention footwear.

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Or even better “poly fuses” - self-resetting. They look like silver mica capacitors and indeed after “blowing” (opening a contact inside, I presume), they will reset after a few minutes - in which time you have hopefully removed the short or whatever caused the excessive current draw.

The G106 that Oamr has, has neither an SWR meter, nor an internal ATU - not even an output power indicator - it is a VERY basic radio. So the NanoVNA is a good idea especially while testing various antennas. Once he has a working, good antenna he can simply operate and not take the extra weight of the nanoVNA with him.

73 Ed.

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34

On your comment, not covered so far …

Yes, quite right.

I’ve been doing HF portable (mainly QRP) since the mid 90’s and roughly once a week since doing SOTA from 2017 and wet/battered/lost hasn’t been a problem by my following a few simple rules, and at minimal cost.

WET

Best to avoid activating on very heavy rain days. If there’s the remotest chance of rain or hilltop mist, I carry and operate my precious KX2 within a large transparent toilet bag. If you search on “toilet bag @g8cpz” you’ll see about 5 posts of my descriptions and photos of how to operate the rig inside such a bag.

I’ve never had a serious wet rig problem, although condensation in very humid wx (e.g. hill fog) is hard to avoid. After a wet op, I put all my HF gear in a warm room overnight [including my 6m pole fully telescoped] and check thoroughly before stowing it the next day.

I carry a rite in the rain notebook for paper logging in the rain (since once my pencil log faded like invisible ink on normal paper after getting soaked). I’m too mean / it’s too expensive to use it on dry days but it’s in the go-bag for, er well, a rainy day.

BATTERED

I’ve never had this problem, e.g. my ~21yo FT817 and ~8yo KX2 look and work like new after 100’s of portable ops. You can of course buy fancy bags to protect the rig, key, etc during transit but low-cost solutions like wrapping in bubble-wrap or clothing and stowing in the middle of your rucksack work just as well.

At the summit, don’t place your rig high up (e.g. on big rocks or stone walls) to fall when you trip over a cable or walk off with the earphones on & still plugged in. Operate the rig close to the ground with it placed on something soft like your rucksack. During setup, leave the rig in the rucksack until last, and when QRT, pack it away first.

LOST

This is about your personal routine which only you can perfect over many activations. Once perfected, stick to the routine. Try to minimize the total number of things you take – more things means more to lose or to go wrong. Keep related items in separate bags. I have bags for the HF rig/morse key/mic, the 2m FM HT/whip ant, the HF antenna components, etc. Get in the habit of checking that each bag has the expected contents before it goes in the rucksack.

Before leaving the area, walk around checking for anything still on the ground (e.g. guying pegs, pencils). All this might seem obvious or even a bit condescending but you would be surprised by how often I read about experienced activators losing stuff.

Have fun on HF.

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The motto “A place for everything and everything in its place” helps.

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This ‘LOST’ thread reminds me of the time I left my Tracer battery on top of Yr Aran- luckily my walking buddy lives nearby & went up the next day in the pouring rain to retrieve it. I think I still owe him a cream tea for services rendered.

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I have two - they’re not cheap.

Truth be told, all frequent activators will have lost something. In my case, a guying peg in long grass despite searching on my hands and knees for ages or ‘near misses’ where I dropped a pencil and even my Palm Pico paddles down into the summit cairn rocks (the latter retrieved by grasping its cable and the former by partially disassembling the cairn rocks). [One reason I never activate sitting on cairns any more]

Once, I left my FT1D 2m FM HT on top of the summit trig point. I realised my folly after descending about 200m and was almost running back up to find it still there.

It’s experiences like these that have made me stick to a strict pack-up procedure.

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@2E0JFJ - Good point. I’ll have a look at the SMS service - there are too many places without coverage though, makes me wonder why. Yet I remember having great coverage ticking off some munros near Glen Clova. :man_shrugging: I’ve been using a web browser to spot myself (pre-loading the page before I set off), but an app might be better for spotting. Keen on keeping the phone off when I don’t need it though.

@MW0PJE - Thanks, I’ll have a look at SotaMat. Very interested in how it works.

@MM0FMF - Yes, the titanium cone/pot combo is very light and efficient. Here’s a pic of it on an outing below.

CD8A4571-A155-4E4B-B0A1-2702445BA9CE_1_105_c
CD8A4571-A155-4E4B-B0A1-2702445BA9CE_1_105_c1166×674 259 KB

Also, footwear is covered - a big fan of Scarpa mid-weight boots. :ok_hand: I agree RE a second device - that’s what got me unstuck when cycling LeJog. An artic ran over my nav device after it became dislodged from the handlebars, so I pulled out my phone and carried on.

@DD5LP - I’ll look at poly fuses - else it’ll be an automotive one. 5A is more than enough for the G106 current draw, but will easily pop if there’s a short. Good to have a spare on hand in case that happens.

@G8CPZ - Thanks. Nothing lost or broken so far and keen to keep it that way. I’ve got a dehumidifier for drying kit overnight, and agree it’s good practice after a humid outing. :ok_hand: Currently stuff my kit into Jiffy bags (they’re essentially free), so far so good. :crossed_fingers:

@M0VUE - First test today - got the antenna up (although I don’t think it was high enough). Very easy to set up for a first timer. Walking poles to keep it taught and off the ground. A bit of trimming, and got the SWR just below 1:1.2 at 7.00 mHz. More fine tuning/testing tomorrow. :+1::+1:

IMG_0081
IMG_00813319×2056 1.44 MB

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Don’t forget that a 1.5:1 SWR is roughly around 4% loss, so around 96% is going out. Don’t chase your tail trying to get a perfect 1:1 SWR where you test the antenna… the situation on a summit is likely to be rather different. Layout, ground conductivity, weather, proximity to objects, etc, will all have an effect.

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Thanks for the pointer @G4OIG. It was getting rather dark.

I want to set it up again and check that the SSB portions of the individual bands are all good… I focused on getting it very close at 7.000 then checked 1-31 quickly before deciding to pack up (with head torch).

So one more test and I think it’s set.

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