Hello,
here is my stuff:
Elecraft Kx3 with mic & key
5 Meter Decatlon fishing pole
9:1 home made balun
Wires
a XTPower® XT-16000QC3 Powerbank (non in the photo)
and a EFHW balun (also not in the photo)
73 And IW0HK
4 Likes
Thank you Fraser! That helps greatly! I was not aware of the out of band “Baofeng” type issues. I took it with me on vacation last month and ran it, the pi (via a buck converter), and the tuner via a 6ah battery off of a fused power pole block from windcamp. I sometimes ran the sdx from the battery pack. Worked out well on FT8, but I didn’t try phone. I’m not sure if I’ve ever tried the speaker at all, to be honest. The tuner is pretty lightweight, but “ounces=pounds and pounds hurt” so I’ll definitely look into the resonance of the EFHW. The one I took with me was about 71 feet long and the tuner got it to a 1.0 SWR, so I assume that it was pretty resonant (or the cheap Malakit ATU-100 is really good). I do have one of those carbon fiber carp fishing rods from Amazon, which would be good to wind the wire around. My bag a Maxpedition day packs with Molle webbing on it, so securing it to the bag as a mast support should be simple enough.
I’m not very handy with a soldering iron… yet, but will keep the split lead idea in mind. Ideally I’d like to get a more self-contained and self-powered unit like a Surface tablet to run the digital modes. Right now I have to VNC into the Pi’s wifi with either a phone or a tablet, so not the best option. Something like a fully charged Windows tablet would eliminate the Pi and most of the power needs, especially if I can get rid of the tuner.
Thanks again for your help and advice,
Ryan
KI6BTY
3 Likes
My Sota Gear: UPDATE
Radio gear
LNR Precision Mtr4b
Icom IC V86 2m HT
Antenna
VT DCT multi band trapped EFHW (40,30,20)
Battery
1100 MaH Lipo
Mast: customized 7m carbon fiber fishing pole
Speaker: JVC wired ear buds and a small Amazon speaker
Key/Paddle: Bamakey TPiii , N0SA Sota paddle (backup)
Non Radio Gear:
Puff jacket
Rain poncho
Summitgear.uk 2 person Bothy bag
10 safety essentials (fire starter,medical)
Bear spray
Spot messenger GPS gen 4
Compass
head lamp
light snacks
small clipboard / Paper log sheets
Mystery ranch bridger 35L Backpack
2 Likes
Update of my new and old equipment.
I got a KX2 now.
Radios:
- KX2 included 3x 18650 3500 mAh
- Diy Mic with cable
- Retevis RA685
Antennas:
- My 1:64 coupler in a plastic case, with an external BNC connector and banana-plug.
- ~20m wire used as antenna. Resonant on 10m-12m-15m-20m-40m.
- 10m CB-Antenna
- Extension coil for 20 and 40m for the small CB-Antenna + counterpoise wire
- Diamond RH770
- J-Pole for 2m band from OE5AUL with SMA adapter
- 7m coax cable with 2 BNC adapters
Accessories:
- SOTABEAM 6m pole
- 10m 2mm rope with S-Karabiner
- 2 straps
- Pole holder is from steel with an M8 thread
- Nail with soldert M8 screw
- 3x tent hooks
so I ended up with ~2.7 kgs its 300 gramms less then with my FT817 and I added the short CB antenna with the extension coil.
Can’t wait for my next activation!
73,
Julian, IN3JIB, OE1JLN
2 Likes
Complimenting Julian
What kind of CB activity is there?
I heard lots of guys doing SOTA with the midland 42 Multi?
Ciao
John VE3IPS
1 Like
Hello John,
I got one of these on Aliexpress:
they are like 5$
Made a contact with OH8TS on 10m about 2000km and I was indoor in my kitchen with 10w 
so crazy.
Never worked with midland 42.
73
Julian IN3JIB
1 Like
John, I also have one of those. It works on 10m.
1 Like
FT-817ND
QCX-mini 40m
SW-3B
linked endfed 40/30/20
Doublet antenna with Kanga pocket transmatch
6m fishing pole
Adventure radio CW paddles
Putikeeg CW paddle
73 de ON4MGY/OO4M Nic
4 Likes
6 Likes
My “Exclusive to SOTA” list is below. It is clear that I have completely lost control:
HF Rigs
KX1
KX2
KX3
KH1 (pending)
MTR-V2
MTR-5b
MTS-5b HB (Construction Pending)
Keys
Palm PPK Straight Key
Palm Mono Paddle (missing in house or on mountain)
Begali Adventure Mono
Elecraft KXPD2
Elecraft KXPD3
Masts
22-foot Fiberglass
Shortened SOTABeams Fiberglass
Antennas
SotaBeams Link Dipole (x2)
Telescopic Whip for HT
Garmin 66i
Garmin Oregon 600
Packs
Lowe Day Pack (near end of life after 39-years, the last 10 of which have been “SOTA only”)
Osprey Aether 100L pack (for long backpacking-SOTA trips)
Finally - my trusty “worn only for SOTA” SOTA hat. I am planning to officially retire it on April 26, which will be my 10-year SOTA anniversary.
73,
Rob - AE7AP
3 Likes
What’s the fan for Martin?
1 Like
Fraser lives in Scotland. He won’t need that.
8 Likes
That “hottest day of the year” weather warning we had a couple of summers ago. The one when the English were told not to go outside or they would die.
I cycled 9 miles to Ballater and activated Craigendarroch GM/ES-078 because it has a partially wooded summit. Not wooded enough it seems. The KX2 didn’t like the heat and throttled back to 5w. IIRC it was around 32°C.
I wonder why they paint portable outdoor radios black?
2 Likes
That’s what I’ve always said, Fraser.
My FT-857DG (G is for grey)
My IC-9700G
Ahoi
Pom
2 Likes
When I got a heatsink upgrade for my KX3 I chose the (cheaper) un-painted option. That said, I try to keep my kit in shade on a summit, if only to make reading the screens easier…
2 Likes
My SOTA box:
| Item | mass in g |
|---|---|
| Carbon 6m mast | 313 |
| EFHW 20m long + guy line + 3 tent pegs | 180 |
| 1:49 match box | 46 |
| 1500 mah 3s lipo | 120 |
| lab 599 tx 500 | 550 |
| coax rg58 | 150 |
| headset microphone | 100 |
| 2 carabiners | 51 |
| Hard case | 340 |
| Total | 1850 |
I which I could drop it to 1 kg but it seems impossible. The only way to reduce weight would be removing the case and stuff the gear randomly in the bag. Saving 340g … But I find the case usefull not only for safety during climbing but also during activation as a radio deck.
2 Likes
Fred gets my vote for the smartest kit of the list. Probably North America’s most experienced activator with over 900 summits, several over 4,000 meters. Less is more!
Paul
VA6MPM
1 Like
My big SOTA pack (for planned activations):
- old army backpack, containing all stuff (& more, for hiking etc), acting as support for the radio if no table / tree strunk available)
- Xiegu G90 with microphone and battery cable
- 2 Liitokala LiIon battery packs 12V, 6.4Ah (each lasting about 2 hrs)
- Vibroplex endfed antenna trail-friendly (see Par EndFedz® EFT-10/20/40 Trail Friendly | EFT-10/20/40 TRAIL) length 41’ ~12.5m
- ~10m coax cable
- two ropes of ~15m length each
- two ropes of ~5m each (as extensions of those above or to be used instead if the short length is sufficient)
- arborist throw weight to get those ropes up into a branch
- two small guying stakes (if ropes cannot be fastened to a tree)
- SOTABeams heavy-duty mast ~7m height
- 4 bungee cords ~60cm length to fasten the mast to a fence post
- small logbook with spare pencil
My small SOTA pack (for before-work or after-work semi-spontaneous activations if time / weather allows):
- small bag containing:
- (tr)uSDX, with headphone
- N9SAB end-fed antenna (20m)
- ~5m coax
- small battery
- two ropes of ~15m length each
- arborist throw weight to get those ropes up into a branch
- two small guying stakes
- small logbook with spare pencil
I usually throw a rope over a tree branch and deploy the antenna so that both ends are at least ~2m above ground (one end preferably higher 5-8m) and do not touch any leaves etc if possible, especially with the small (tr)uSDX, as it has no tuner. Leaves / branches / being too close to the ground seem to detune the antenna (the G90 is able to tune that).
If no suitable tree(s) are found, I use the mast.
The mast is also used if I try to do DX: There I use the end-fed tuner attached to an AliExpress 5.6m telescopic rod fastened to the mast at ~3m above ground or alternatively set-up with BNC binding post and 3 radials of ~5m. The G90 tuner must be used in this case.
These are ad-hoc antenna setups and the performance may be much better with a antenna that is properly designed, rather than cobbled together. But with these contraptions I managed to get S2S from HB9 to NA, ZS, VK, ZL. On the other hand, I just might be surfing the wave of the rising sun 
A sign of this might be that this vertical mast setup didn’t want to be stable on Kaienspitz HB/AR-004, so I reverted to my sloping end-fed setup (with mast) and I still managed to contact VK1AD on VK2/ST-001.
73 de Martin / HB9GVW
1 Like
It’s very light indeed but there is not mast and CW only. I’m curious to see his kit for SSB on alpine rocky summits.
2 Likes