Not sure if this is quite the right category and I’m conscious I’m preaching to the converted, but I wrote a blog article that may be of interest titled ‘Top 10 Reasons to Take Ham Radio Portable’.
The lack of noise is often the thing that wows experienced hams who have never really left their shack, those barely copyable signals suddenly pop right out and are a relatively easy copy.
I recently operated portable in the WAB 160m Phone contest and was very impressed to only have S2 of noise and mercifully no static crashes. I still wasn’t brave enough to turn on the pre-amp on top band though, just seems so wrong!
I was just routing for something in the shack and came across an unopened PW, still in its sealed cellophane bag. I sat down to give it a bit of a read and came across James’s article about portable operating! Great stuff, and fantastic photos too, really enjoyed it. Was the August 2016 PW.
We all have our individual approaches! Now for me the title would have a different emphasis, something like “Reasons to include ham radio in a day on the hills”. Ham radio is a nice bonus but it isn’t an essential for me, if it stays in the rucksack when I reach the summit I still regard the day as a success, and it has happened a few times! A huge wind chill factor on a snowy Place Fell, for instance, or horizontal knitting needles on Dale Head, then there was an impossible gale on Trum y Ddisgyl, all hugely enjoyable outings which made me feel thoroughly alive, but in my judgement not a time to get the rig out.
Yours would be the title of a different thread Brian, as this thread, and the PW article referred to is most definitely about the benefits of going /P with AR, as opposed to operating from the home shack.
I’m not sure but I think you missed the point, Tom. For me and those like me the hill comes first, the ham radio is a pleasant but inessential little diversion.
Just like that, now add a force 8 wind and a horrendous wind chill factor and you can see why I touched the trig point, took a few photos, and headed back to that lovely hut at the roadside next to the Side Farm track!
Shandy? HOW DARE YOU, SIRRAH!!! My seconds will call on you.
But as I said last time you trotted out those epithets, I will wager that I have done more snow and ice work - on Scottish mountains at that - than you have. You learn quickly that there are times when discretion should be the ONLY part of valour, those that don’t learn this lesson tend to be carried down from their last climb.