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Author Topic: What is your perfect travel rig?  (Read 405 times)

WK4DS

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What is your perfect travel rig?
« on: March 25, 2023, 07:19:24 PM »

I recently had to choose a radio from my existing collection of QRP rigs for a trip to Hawaii to do a little POTA with and wanted it to be small enough to fit on my person as a carry on bag that would even skirt past the "valet check" people at the gate entrance. So I chose my Elecraft K1 and a simple random wire antenna.

What would be your choice, keeping in mind that you have to choose from the radios you already have, and would you put it in the check baggage so you can go big or smaller like me?

Here is the write up of how I cam to choose the K1 if your interested in the article I wrote, but the question above is the meat of that article if you want to save a little time here.

https://www.davidsaylors.com/wk4ds-amateur-radio-blog/opb9kvezrzkfthdywplr3utwa4r9yc

72
WK4DS - David
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W0CKI

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2023, 07:25:50 PM »

QRP labs mini series.
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K6AER

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2023, 08:20:37 PM »

It really boils down to your frustration tolerance level.

5 watts from Hawaii (3000 miles any direction) on any band will be a bit of a chore.

I would use a IC-7300 with a jumper cable to the rental car for the basic station. EFHW to a tree for the antenna. If they can't hear you, the wow factor will be very low.
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US7IGN

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2023, 10:59:05 PM »

Now it is very good propagation on the upper bands and even a vertical or better loop can allow for many contacts. But I am agree. I would bring with me my mighty 706mk2g)
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G4AON

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2023, 01:46:55 AM »

My holiday HF radio started out as an Elecraft K2, then I built a K1 and found it's small size better suited for taking in a shoulder bag. For batteries I used a set of 10 NiMh AA cells in a small project box with an auto resetting over currrent trip, and took a mains charger.

My antenna was a ground plane comprising a vertical wire and 4 radials on a locally purchased fishing pole, which is cheaper than paying an airline for the carriage of a cardboard tube (pole inside).

More recently I have been using an Elecraft KX3 and mains power supply, the supply is one of those compact Pro Audio Engineering KX-33 switched mode supplies. Obviously, if you need to operate away from mains power that is an issue.

The K1 was a fun radio to take out and about, being able to easily power it from AA cells was a bonus. However, the KX3 is a step up in performance and is particularly good in hot climates as you can run a temperature calibration routine to reduce drift to virtually zero, there is an Elecraft paper describing the method of cooling the radio in a refridgerator and then warming it with a hair dryer while it runs an auto frequency correction routine. Very impressive.

https://ftp.elecraft.com/KX3/Mod%20Notes%20Alerts/KX3%20Custom%20VFO%20TC%20rev%20A9.pdf

73 Dave
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KB1GMX

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2023, 06:41:32 AM »

My Ft817 for frequency agility.
If I need more power (8-11w) I have a few monobanders for
40 and 20M that have proven effective and small.

If I need more power two choices, TT Eagle or IC7300.
And a bigger battery.

I prefer SSB over CW, that's just me.  I find with a good antenna
such as an endfed halfwave I do exceptionally well even at 5W.

All are dictated by power available or battery and weight considerations.
Generally (for me) modes do not include Data as then I need a computer
though I have a few very small linux boxes.

Question is to general for a definitive answer.

Allison
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SWMAN

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2023, 06:56:23 AM »

 When I travel or go on vacation I take a break from radio and leave everything home.
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KH6AQ

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2023, 07:40:11 AM »

Along the lines of what K6AER says, QRP from Hawaii with a wire antenna isn't always easy. I sometimes work QRP CW with a Hexbeam on the big island when the band is peaking. Your K1 covers 40, 30, 20 and 15 meters which is good because 15 meters will be your best band to just about anywhere. Looking at VOACAP HF Online shows 15 meters peaking to these locations at these times:

US west coast 1800-0300 UTC (8 am to 5 pm HST)
US east coast  0200-0400 UTC (4 pm to 6 pm HST), weak propagation
Japan 0200-0600 UTC (4 pm to 8 pm HST)
Australia 0400-1000 UTC (6 pm to midnight)
Western Europe 1700-1900 (7 am to 9 am), exceptional propagation helps!

For 15 meters a wire vertical length of 11 to 25' is good. If you'd like a 6 dB ocean boost in the direction of the ocean place the antenna close to the ocean. Having done this I'd say no more than 20' back from the edge of the ocean or a cliff overlooking the ocean. For more QSO fun you can operate during a contest such as the weekly CW ops at 1900Z, the upcoming JIDX, 7th call area QSO party, CQ WW WPX, All Asian and ARRL Field Day.


https://www.voacap.com/hf/
« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 07:42:57 AM by KH6AQ »
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W1VT

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2023, 08:37:39 AM »

Yes, I also found that 15M was the best band from Hawaii.  10 should also be great but your K1 doesn't have 10M.
If you want to work Europe it helps to be on the side of the island that gives you a clear view of the horizon,  Kaneohe rather than Honolulu.
A dipole works very well over sloping ground in the right direction, but locations near the ocean are much easier to find in Hawaii.
There is a law that prohibits landowners from cutting off ocean access.  Of course, the Federal government is exempt.
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NO9E

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2023, 10:30:06 AM »

I was in Hawaii and I had no problem with K2/QRP getting CW contacts when the antenna was on the beach. Now the best QRP radio by far is KX2. Very light, tuner, internal battery, and 10W. 2 Lb total including wires.

If you want to try SSB, I would use FT891 with 2 x 6Ah LiFEPO3 batteries. Either a remote RT21 tuner (1 LB) or have a small antenna analyzer and setup a vertical for the band of interest. RT21 has a feature where it can be controlled remotely via. coax without any extra cable. So a lightweight coax to a tuner, and wires of  random length to the tuner. The end of coax wrapped around a toroid as a balun. All < 10 lb.

Ignacy NO9E
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AE0Q

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #10 on: March 26, 2023, 04:47:37 PM »

When I travel or go on vacation I take a break from radio and leave everything home.

That's pretty funny :-)  Not QRP but in the 90's I went to Ambergris Caye, Belize three times for DXpeditions to activate V31 on RTTY, which at the time was very scarce on that mode.  I also operated CW contests on the weekends, my call there was V31RY  (RY, get it??) ..

Getting on the air on RTTY in 1992 meant a 386SX laptop, a terminal unit FSK demodulator, Icom switching power supply (the only one you could get then), backup antenna tuner and a TS-450SAT with 400Hz IF filter and connections to run FSK for days at 100w.  I got it all in a HUGE, heavy-duty nylon laptop case and a big PVC tube for the R-7 vertical and 26 ft collapsible aluminum mast to elevate the R-7 and support a 40m/80m dipole...

On one trip down there I was opening the bag for Belize Customs to inspect when another traveler saw the laptop and commented that when HE went on vacation, he left HIS computer at home !

Glenn AE0Q
« Last Edit: March 26, 2023, 04:51:51 PM by AE0Q »
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KU3X

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2023, 05:51:59 AM »

First choice...KX2. It's completely self contained. Second choice...KX3 with a LiFePH4 external battery so you can run up to 15 watts if needed.
It all comes down to how much do you want to carry with you?
Want to run 100 watts? Do you really want to carry a big battery with you and maybe an external ATU as well? Not me.
Barry
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VE3WMB

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Re: What is your perfect travel rig?
« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2023, 03:18:03 PM »

Well it is certainly not "perfect", but my preferred travel rig is a Xiegu X5105.

I picked this radio up a couple of years ago so that I would have a go-anywhere rig that was essentially expendable. That is to say, if it gets scratched, dinged, filled with sand or lost, I won't be too heartbroken. It does sell for $USD600, but these days that is the fraction of the cost of a new IC-705/KX2/KX3.

Pluses are 160m through 6m coverage with a big (all-day) internal battery, a nice readable display and an amazing wide-range built-in ATU. It is also all-mode, covering SSB/CW/AM/FM/RTTY and PSK31 at 5W out. It is solidly built and small enough to pack into a carry-on bag.

The downside ... mediocre receive audio (somewhat mitigated by using 32 Ohm headphones instead of 8 ohms) and some intermittent sidetone lag on CW (possibly fixed by a recent firmware update I have yet to apply).

The bottom line is that in spite of its "warts" it works well enough to be useful as a portable rig.

Michael VE3WMB

P.S. The X5105 seems to not have the same problems with RX overload that are present in the X6100. I have done some POTA activations in the same park with others and have not experienced any front-end overload issues.
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