Neat!
Mine is a short list:
- Small roll of electricians tape for emergency mast repairs.
- Very lightweight craft blade.
- Home brew titanium spanner for SMA plugs.
- Ear buds
- H Brew electret mike.
- 2 pencils.
- Spare torch / GPS batteries.
Back in the car:
- Mast
- Feeder
- HF dipoles
- End fed 2m ant…
- Battery
- HF radio / VHF radio
- Morse key
- Log books
- Waterproof bags
- Ear buds
- H Brew electret mike
- Electricians tape
- Leatherman
- Super glue
- Spare torch / GPS batteries
David
G0EVV
2 Likes
Hi David,
I asked my ex-wife step-brother and he told me not only that the one I showed in the picture of my post above was used by my ex-wife father while he was Boatswain of the School Ship* Juan Sebastian Elcano:
but also told me that the Spanish Navy used to have and use them.
(*) I’m not sure about the expression School Ship. I tried to find the right expression in English but I couldn’t, so I made a literal translation from the Spanish “Buque Escuela”.
In summary is a training Ship for the future Navy officials.
I remember when our current King Felipe VI spent some time having his training onboard that ship several years ago.
73,
Guru
2 Likes
Hi Guru,
I found “training ship” and “drill ship”. Btw. you can translate your wording “School Ship” one by one in German language: “Schulschiff”.
73 Ludwig
2 Likes
Perfect Guru. School ship would translate in English as a “Sail Training Ship”,
Thanks for the information. interesting to know that the Spanish Navy (armarda?)used them too. I wonder whether yours was used by the Uk or by Spain? Its looks pretty old - It must have an interesting history.
David
2 Likes
Hello Richard @G4TGJ
Like many others, I mainly use a Swiss Army knife and/or a Leatherman Micra.
So far, these have been quite sufficient to carry out repairs on various wires. Otherwise, I always have these flexible cable ties (cable-fix) and a pin screwdriver in my luggage.
All together very light and sufficient for quick repairs and fixes.
73 Marcel DM3FAM
4 Likes
My philosophy too Andy; the only “spare” I carry is the 2m HH in the hope of getting the one essential contact in case of HF failure.
However, the holiday spare/repair kit is fairly comprehensive and the car does the hard work of carrying it for me.
73,
Rod
1 Like
Ok, noted. Thanks!
Yes, the Spanish navy is “La Armada”.
I’d say by Spain, at least while it was owned by my ex-wife’s father.
I think so too.
73,
Guru
2 Likes
By experience from a windy summit at approx. +5 degrees: for something small like a broken wire or a small connector, it does. I still soldered it again properly when I came home, but it was sufficient to rescue the activation.
73 Jens HB9EKO
2 Likes
The Leatherman clone, knife and insulting tape were pressed into service today. Something was wrong, SWR was not good. I checked links connections and all looked good. But the SWR was too high for normal. I did a variety of things before stopping to look at the connections carefully. My dipole centre has 4mm posts for the dipole legs and a BNC socket for the feeder to connect to. The RG174 braid had snapped meaning only the centre was connected to a dipole leg. I really must make my cables better. This dipole centre has only lasted since December 2006.
I was able to use a bit of wire from the handheld’s 19in dangly earth to link the braid to the terminal and I was back in business. This was on Innerdouny Hill. Later on Lendrick Hill the centre snapped. The dipole centre must have suffered some physical abuse for both to snap free on the same day. Leatherman again was able to get me running.
Dipole centre cable now remade and joints strengthened and waterproofed. Hope this one lasts longer than 15 years this time.
2 Likes
I used a piece of insulting tape on the summit. I’m not sure where insulating tape was first called insulting tape, may have been by term used by a rather clever programmer and excellent mechanic called Jake who I haven’t seen for 36 years.
Not even really attempting to answer your question … but
I have (again) this weekend confirmed that it is possible to solder pl259s onto now-shortened antenna coax with nothing more than a camp stove.
5 Likes
I have already had to pack two of the newer type cable housings with epoxy resin as the plastic pillar accepting the screw broke. They are probably stronger after being filled with epoxy than when they are new. Not a major problem, but still let down by poor materials. I had to mend my friend Karl’s Elecraft MH3 microphone recently which had exactly the same problem: all three plastic screw pillars had snapped.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
1 Like
A gas soldering iron, small, like this one
can help… however I never carry it. 
73s
Ingo
3 Likes
Andy,
Do you tape the coax to your pole at the top, with a loop of coax without any weight on it, so as to reduce the strain on the connector? I find the insulting tape is ideal for that and it seems to last about 20 activations before I have to get the roll and use new tape (gasp!) but then it gets stored on the bottom section of the pole, for re-use on the next outing. Also I find it helpful to have a small folded over section of tape, to be able to readily unwind it from where it is attached to the pole.
This loop system works for coax and for ribbon feedline.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
2 Likes
Yes but not with tape. I wound some stiff hard-drawn copper wire around the feeder near the BNC ending in a hook. The hook clips over a tywrap on the dipole centre and so the weight of the cable is supported by this and hopefully the PVC and braid. There is no weight hanging on the connectors this way. The piece of RG174 on the dipole centre has the cable looped so it also has some strain relief. The result is the BNC on the dipole centre is still fine after 15 years use in all weathers and winds. It’s an RG58 cable socket and the body is backfilled with hot melt PVA glue to keep the water out. I’m going to say that applying strain relief and reinforcement to all connector / cable interfaces is why I have been so lucky with few issues over the years. Something I learnt working in the UK defence industry… about 80% of equipment failures/problems were connector related.
Now I have finally invested in a BNC crimp tool and some BNC crimp connectors there is no need for the PVA back filling. I should have bought the crimp tool years ago as it produces such beautiful results. I add just a few extra layers of heat shrink to add mechanical strength.
I also have a couple of these in the bag which are used to clip the feeder to the pole to stop it blowing about in the wind. They’re simple, cheap and light and you can fit/remove them with big gloves on.
2 Likes
Even better than insulting tape!
1 Like
Just to be totally out of step with all the McGyver’s fixing stuff on the summit 
I carry 2 antennas (trapped EFHW with a 70gm Mountain Tuner or sometimes a Fuchs tuner) and a backup random wire antenna. I reckon if something breaks it’s quicker (especially in winter) to just drop over the pole and replace the antenna rather than start a fiddly fix. Likewise in winter or harsher weather I’ll opt for my KX1 with internal batteries so if my Life connections break I’m still in the game. I usually use a palm paddle but have a back up homebrew key just in case Guess my winter mountaineering training in Scotland instructors got through to me about always having 2 maps and 3 pairs of gloves Hi
Dec
ei6fr
4 Likes
I can see from my logs it took 30mins to fix the feeder first time. I reckon somewhere around -5C windchill and despite being in the lee of the summit, significant wind buffering. The wind was the worst part it makes it difficult to do things and more than anything, think clearly and analyse the problem.
The dipole centre is the single point of failure, I had 2 antennas and a short piece of RG188 (thinner, lighter than RG174) as an emergency feeder. I’ve needed that a few times. But only one centre. If I couldn’t have fixed it I would have cut the BNC off and stripped the cable to twist onto the antenna legs. I wouldn’t have admitted defeat too easily!