I give a hearty second to the NUE-PSK rig.  It is small, very portable, easy to use, and is a great practical field rig to complement a rig like the 817.  I have had a lot of fun with it over the past year or so taking it out to some pretty remote back country areas in the USA and the Outback in Australia. 

Traveling with a radio is fun and small  all band/mode radios like the FT-817 and the KX3 give you a lot of great opportunities for contacts.

I've traveled around the USA and internationally (more than 300,000 miles) with my FT-817, NUE-PSK and a variety of antennas (ALWAYS carry-on with the radio) over the past 2 years.  Generally, I have had no problems at all in any security venues.  My radio and accessories has actually been packed in my computer backpack (along with my computer).  Sometimes I have been asked to take it out, other times it hasn't been an issue at all.  I have often volunteered it outwards, but several TSA staff have indicated that was not anything concerning to them.  Internationally, the screeners have often wanted to look at it, but it has never been much of an issue that caused any delays.  Obviously, certain circumstances, such as going into the UK during the Olympics, may cause different results, but generally speaking, my experience seems to be consistent.

I would follow the advice others have given:

1) Have a copy of your FCC license packed with the radio.  This is not necessarily required traveling in the USA, but is still the smart play.  This is, however, a legal requirement with most countries if you travel out of the country.
2) Pack an FT817/KX3/857 and other small radios in your carry-on.  If you are able to put it in something like a Pelican, that is fine (I often can't because my whole luggage kit is in my carry-on bags, but just make sure the radio has some padding around it.  Overhead storage can be tough on contents if the plane is full.
3) Be aware that some international airlines have very strict carry-on weight limits, so plan ahead carefully; check the baggage information on the airline's website or call them.
4) Things like antennas, wires, cables, and other miscellaneous accessories can usually go into your checked baggage with no problems.
5) Have your carry-on radio packed in a manner that it can be taken out quickly, just like you do with your laptop.  Ask a TSA agent by the conveyers about your radio and they will let you know whether it needs to be taken out.  The answers will vary, but again, the radio has never presented any sort of delaying issue for me (and this is over a few hundred thousand miles of travel).  Often, just the step of preemptively offering it up with an explanation usually speeds things along.
6) If you travel internationally, carefully check the laws and regulations of any of your destination countries and any countries where you may have a layover/flight change.  Make certain you have all of the information and documentation they may require.  In some cases, this may also include documentation you need to get ahead of time from that country's government.
7) Have fun and enjoy making QSO's away from home!

We should follow the laws and regulations because it is the right thing to do, not because whether or not some agency enforces them. 

The radio community in general (not just amateurs) works in the overall because the community works together.  We are our own discipline (and always have been). It just works a lot easier that way.  The threat of enforcement and punishment is only relevant to those with a "wink, wink, say no more" attitude.

Your home looks like it has excellent potential for some good antenna designs that you shouldn't have to limit your range to just 10 meters.  With just a little ingenuity, you should be able to get down to 40 (or at least 20) meters.  Right now, I am using a 14' dipole with load coils and capacitance hats in my attic and it gets down to 40 meters.  Yes, I have a narrow bandwidth of tuning as I get to 40, but the tuner works it and it does get out quite well.

In any case, just because you may be antenna limited doesn't necessarily mean you should purposely limit your radio.  Like everyone else said, get a regular HF radio that is designed to do what Hams do.  It will end up costing about the same as those radios at which you are looking and you will have a much more functional and flexible radio (not to mention a much better quality one).   

There are reasons why you don't see us using one of those types of radios.

Do you normally use HF only for emergency communications?   Most of our emergency communications for local areas and regions are heavily dependent on VHF/UHF communications. This may or may not impact your decision, depending on whether you may already have or be using a dedicated VHF/UHF radio.

Good luck!
73,
David

In our club, amongst our membership, we have several different brands of analyzers represented.  I personally have and use an MFJ-259b, and it works great, but the RigExpert is a very nice tool also and has some neat features not really found on other devices in its price range.  I think that by and large, either of those brands work pretty well (I see a lot of them being used out there with great success... and they are still selling, so something must be working).

The more important thing is that regardless of what analyzer you get, you will be doing yourself the best favor by just getting a decent one.  And the RigExperts are generally quite decent.  The antenna is the real difference maker and that tool will give you more insight as to how well it is working than anything else, as far as a practical field solution goes.

Personally, I wouldn't worry so much about UHF features unless you have some specific and recurring needs in that frequency range.  The HF region is where the most practical effect of using the analyzer occurs for most amateur operators. 

As a bit of background, I do a lot of portable operations on weekends and that means I am setting up antennas over different grounds all of the time.  So the analyzer is perfect for getting my field antennas optimized for whatever my operating session's requirements will be.  But it has simplified all of my efforts at home when I have added to or changed my antenna configurations here. 

73,
David
KF5IIL

As a new ham, when someone uses a non ITU phonetic alphabet name, it can get confusing because it can mix up the context.

For example - if you say sand, sugar, sword, silly, or something else starting with "S" instead of "Sierra", then I think you are talking about something else and not making a phonetic spelling.  My mind gets sidetracked because I am more focused on capturing the phonetics as I know them.  This gets even worse if the signal is not great or the interference is sporadic, with some parts of words and phrases not being heard through the noise.  Thus, the whole purpose of using a phonetic for clarity is somewhat defeated.

If I hear "Sierra", Tango, et al, then I generally grok that someone is trying to spell something out, even if the interference is bad.  If I hear "sugar" (which I have heard often, btw), then I think that someone is either giving a dessert recipe or is being far too familiar with me  .

Now I know some more experienced operators will just say I'm being weak-minded or pedantic here, but I do view the radio communications as a discipline of sorts.  And I'm not trying insult anyone who wants to use non-ITU phonetics.  Instead, I'm saying that it important to understand that what you might think is a way to make something clearer may actually do the opposite, depending upon the listener.

Nice report!

I like park outings or any sort of field outing with the radios.  It is a great way to shakedown your equipment for field operations (or any operations, for that matter).  Several of the clubs in the Dallas area have been doing monthly radio in the park activities on weekends.  They are fun, you make some great contacts, and the sharing of ideas is terrific.

One of the best things that can happen on these outings is when you realize you forgot some key equipment element or some unexpected event occurs.  Two things often fall out of that:  1) You figure out a plan B that you can keep in your pocket from then on, and 2) You never forget that piece of equipment again!

I do think having any sort of field reference card or quick reference booklet is a required item that should be in your field kit.  I keep one in my "shack in a box" case.

Great stuff.

It is always a process of elimination in the field.  I generally start with the antenna and feedline and work my way back to the radio, computer, etc.   

You didn't really give a lot of details about your antenna situation, which, in a portable environment, would be the first thing I would examine besides simple wire and cable connections.  Even though you had RTTY contacts, we don't know what frequencies you were working for PSK31 or RTTY, and the antenna makes all of the difference in the world.  The nice thing about the antenna, feedlines, and any supporting connections... these are easy things to test in the field with tools that should be on hand (namely, a good antenna analyzer and a multimeter).

Did you check the antenna with an antenna analyzer against the bands you were going to work prior to your starting to work QSO's?  That is the quickest way to eliminate the antenna and its feedline from the problem.  What sort of antenna was it and what bands were you working?

While there are certainly some problems that might be also contributing to your problems, I would always start with the antenna.  Almost every problem I have encountered in the portable operations or at Field Day this year have been with either wire/cable connections or antenna issues (sometimes tuning, but usually connections).  They tend to be the more fragile links.

Once you have eliminated those, then it makes it easier to concentrate on other issues, such as how the sound card is calibrated and your output tuned.  There is also always the possibility of multiple problems happening at once, which just makes it more vital to break down the possible sources into their components and eliminate them as needed.

AD6KA,
I think you may be okay with doing what you are proposing if you do things like putting ferrite cores over the power and keyboard leads (this is my understanding from the folks that make the unit).  I ran into this situation while out in the field (literally in the field) out in way west Texas (Fort Davis, Texas, during Texas Star Party).  I saw some odd behavior in my modem and found that one likely culprit (through the NUE PSK designers' experience) was RFI.  I didn't have cores over my power and keyboard leads at the time and have since taken care of that, which so far, has seemed to alleviate the problem.

They (NUE PSK) do shield the equipment as well as they can but that can't stop everything.  I think if you are making such a consolidated rig (or any sort of consolidated rig or "go kit") you should always take things like cable shielding and RF grounding into consideration when it makes sense (which I am sure you were planning to do with your PSK rig idea).  

Your PSK rig sounds like a terrific idea and I think something like the NUE PSK would integrate well into that.

73,
David KF5IIL

I'm using the NUE PSK and it is pretty cool.  The display is actually quite easy to read (I have the USB option, also, so I can save off my QSO's to a file).

There are still a few quirks I am learning about (apparently you don't put the modem too close to an antenna if you are portable, even if QRP'ing below 5 watts), but it is pretty decent and easy to use.

Not all PSK solutions are equal.  I don't know about PC based solutions, but my observation of the various iPhone/iPad (iOS) solutions out there is that they do vary quite a bit. I've tried out 3 of them on my iPad side by side and I noticed the following:

1. Some tune in to a signal much more easily than others
2. Some decode much more reliably and accurately than others.

I would guess that would probably be the case on any platform. 

In recent months, I have been using a Yaesu ATAS 25 (the manual tuned vertical) with a tremendous amount of success.  Once tuned, it is a pretty slick and effective antenna and works well with my FT 817nd.  A friend of mine and I have made several DX contacts using it as well as many cross country contacts here in the USA.  I especially like it because it packs up into a pretty small package that can be packed out easily and quickly assembled.

I found that it is important to get a really good feel for how to set up this antenna to be resonant and efficient on various bands.  You cannot just casually get "close" and expect good results.  So it is worth it to spend some time with an antenna analyzer and recognize the most effective radiator setups and tuning position combinations on the different bands.  Its accompanying user manual/sheet should only be used as a rough guideline (and ignored on occasions).  Trust the analyzer and especially get a feel for how much (or more importantly how little) twist tuning is needed for specific frequency ranges.

The payoff here is that once you get this tuned, which after some practice and knowledge of this antenna's performance curves, doesn't really take that long, this antenna will work quite well.

I don't know about you, but I was ready to read about realllllyyy short HF antennae.

First, I do have an FT-897D.  But I not an Elmer.  I can, however, at least tell you about the radio and my own (albeit limited) observations).

The menus on the FT-897D aren't that confusing, but there are several and you should take care to learn them, because they offer some helpful features.   Basically, the menus are displayed as 3 options at a time (A, B, C) across the bottom, and you can scroll through each group of three pretty rapidly.  Most of the groups are related menu features (with a few exceptions), so that makes them a bit easier to navigate when you are making multiple changes that relate to a single task (such as scanning, VFO operations, filters, et al).  Some of the menus have short cuts via the other control face buttons, but I have ended up going to the menus directly most of the time, since they aren't that hard to navigate.

I think one of my minor quibbles with the FT-897D interface is that there are some settings that are off menu.  These require you to know the magic handshake to get them to happen.  The one in particular that springs to my mind is the fast tuning option.  You can switch this on or off by tapping the power button quickly (You can only divine this from the user manual, there is nothing on the face of this radio that would let you know that).  I once found this setting on and it took me a bit to delve through the manual and figure out how to turn it off.

By the way, the Clarifier feature on this rig has been one of my more used tools to clear up the phone reception on HF.  It essentially gives some adjustable bandpass filtering of the audio and is great for cleaning out noise.  It can also, alternatively, change the receiving offset in SSB to bring to voice pitch up or down to a more understandable level without changing the base transmitting frequency.

I like this rig a lot, especially for my purposes, but I would recommend a few things before you buy anything -

1.  Consider the antenna and the antenna train (tuner, feedline, balun, filter, antenna, tower, flagpole, gutter, clothsline, et al) first before the radio.  This will be a necessary additional cost both in terms of money, effort, and time, to do it correctly.  This is even more important here because you are looking at a multi-band, all-mode radio.   It is a good radio but it can't be all things to all people.  So it has some inherent compromises.  Make certain your antenna isn't part of your compromise, as well.  Also, consider using the radio for just one or two bands, especially in the beginning.  The antenna factor will be a much simpler hurdle.  You can always build up your antenna designs and structures as you go along.

2. Identify what one or two things (even if there are 3 or 4 or 18 other things) you really really really want to do on radio.  Get and/or build the radio and antenna set up that will do those things and do them well.  Get the other tools you will need (tuner, antenna analyzer, meters, testers, etc.).  If you get the right tools, you will only need to acquire them once (for the most part) and they will serve you well later on for future radio endeavors. The other things can come later and when it does, you will be better prepared for it.

3.  For the 897D, if you end up getting it, include a tuner in your budget (really, a few other things as well, but a good tuner will be a start).  This is a radio meant to be versatile, and a good tuner completes that picture.  I use the LDG AT-897 and it, along with a few other tools, has been a great asset in both using the radio and making me realize some things I needed to fix on the antenna.  It has also given my radio some versatility, especially for portable operations, which was one of my requirements.

4.  Like several others said.... get together with a few Elmers and see how their gear works.  Nothing beats hands on experience and the benefit of someone else's experience, in person.

Good luck on your testing and I hope everything works out well for you.

73's
David
KF5IIL