Nice go kit. I also like the NanoVNA. I think they are great little analyzers to carry along. Unlike my Rig Expert AA-600, which is very large to carry around in a back pack, the Nano does as good of a job and is so much smaller. You can even put it in your shirt pocket. Thanks for sharing you go kit. I hope it gives some hams an idea of how much fun it would be to get out and operate portable. Barry, KU3X
Bill-N6EF-I have a pack similar to yours that I'm still getting set up. I've only done 5 POTA activations so I'm still getting the pack dialed in as far as what to include. I have the Wolf River Coils Mega set up that I either keep in the pack or a 27 inch tripod bag for transporting depending on the situation. I haven't used the WRC on an activation yet but it worked great when I set it up in the driveway at home. I have the 30 foot fiberglass mast from DX Commander that I use with my homebrew end-fed halfwave that I set up in an inverted vee configuration. The EFHW setup works well for me so far. The EFHW is my go-to antenna set up right now. I'm using a common mode choke in a 4x4 electrical box that's too bulky for portable operations. I have to try the beads on the coax to reduce the weight and footprint. My 49:1 EFHW transformer is also in a 4x4 electrical box which is also too big for portable operation. I have to figure out a way to make that a bit smaller but still handle 100 watts. I keep my NanoVNA in the same pocket of my backpack as where you store yours. Very handy. My rig is a Yaesu FT-857D that I put into an Apache 4800 box similar to what you did with your 891. I have the Raspberry Pi, charge controller, Bioenno 20Ah battery in the Apache box. Everything is included. It's too heavy to carry far but it's fully self-contained. I can connect a solar panel to the box to charge the battery. Can't think of anything you forgot. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
@@HamRadioNewb For car or bike portable you are fine, but you have to be pretty desperate to lug the backpack and Apache case 1-2mi by foot. A couple hundred feet for a POTA park tabla yes. You've got three computer devices in your antenna bag. If you put some apps on your phone you should be able to drop two computers. Then there are ?5? power cables between the two kits. Dump a couple power cables. Dump one coax and use an EDHW antenna like a Packtenna and you should be able to get everything else into your backpack that you could lug a mile or two. Depending upon your location and trees, you might dump the push-up pole as you are already focused on NVIS. Your stated deployment is man-portable 1-2mi. Not with both the backpack and Apache box.
@@vironpayne3405 I appreciate the concern, this was at that time designed to be a very flexible and stand alone kit. I have since moved to a more discrete and modular setup. Everyone has different goals and different capabilities, what works for one doesn't work for another. Feel free to share yours setup on here too and post the link below!!
@@HamRadioNewb Right now I am running a FT-857D with Portable Zero rails, and Portable Zero battery box with a 12Ah Bioenno Lipo4 battery, in a portable zero bag. I have one PL-259 25ft coax with 8 ferrite beads, one 6ft BNC, coax, LDG z11 ProII tuner, and rubber duck. Inside I have a Ziplock bag with various adaptors, power cables, GPS dongle, Mobilink, 4-way PowerPole adaptor, and interface cables. Hanging on the single shoulder strap is a Cha Emcom III Portable antenna. Additionally, I can strap a MFJ coil, and Buddipole collaspable whip. The on pieces of cardboard I've wrapped a two 50ft lengths of monofiliment fishing line, business card with about 15ft of electrical tape, 35ft of mason line, one Power EpicPWRGate, and three 0.5oz fishing weights. Sometimes I put in my NanoVNA. What I have to carry separately is the battery which has a carrying handle, and laptop. Also, I need to purchase a small solar panel. I am looking at the Rockpals 60W or 100W. A fancy roll-up PV panel is off the budget line at this time. I could move to a larger standard backpack and only carry the fold-up PV panel. Also, I have two 5ft x 1/4in stainless steel ground rods. In Florida they are usually pretty easy to get into the ground. I use them with my preferred 80m-10m 135ft EFHW antenna. Everything fits in the back top box on my KLR 650, so I can usually get closer to my destination than I could by car. The weaklink is the Cha Emcom III Portable when used for 40m and 80m NVIS. 20m and up its a great antenna. Separately I do have 16ea rigid 100W PV panels, two Morningstar PS-MPPT-40M charge controllers, 4ea 75Ah AGM batteries, and 3000W pour signwave inverter. All for my condo after a hurricane or portable in my Chrysler 300. I've been moving away from my FT-897D for portable ops.
Great job with the video! Nice idea with the coax/ferrite so you don't need a separate choke. You have obviously put a lot of thought into this kit. How do you like the wrc antenna? I am torn between a wrc-style vertical and a shortened end fed half wave...
I think they both have a place and both work well. When throwing I can't get more than 15-20 ft up and it takes a bit of time to do. for an emcomm or quick stop in the park for an hour or two this will only take 10 minutes to set up... If the radials cooperate.
I have both the WRC and a homebrew end-fed halfway (65 feet of wire for 40 meters) and have only used the EFHW on my POTA activations. I use a 30-foot fiberglass mast from DX Commander and set up my EFHW as an inverted vee with the apex around 30 feet. I haven't used the WRC on an activation yet but want to set up both and do some side-by-side comparisons. I've set up the WRC in the driveway and made quite a few contacts so I know it works. It's a bit finicky to set up so I suggest an antenna analyzer while you're getting it set up. I use a NanoVNA to tune it which works great. I recommend getting the MFJ-1979 17 foot whip in place of the whip supplied with the WRC. The '1979 is really hard to get right now so be prepared to wait a while if you order one. Bill-N6EF
Brother. You are awesome! I’m a noob but soaking up everything I can about HAM. I need more teaching , can you help me...could you pm me for more questions on a go bag for comm. plz also need a lil guidance with my pi-star, cloning sd card and other tech things.i want to be good at this. This may save a life
Hello. I really enjoyed this video. Like that pack! Question on the inverter with the Anderson powerpole. Did you make that or did you purchase this? I really want one of those. Been looking and can't seem to locate it? Could you tell me where you got it? Thanks keep up all these great videos. John KB1EEU
Check out KM4ACK's video of streaming your phone GPS to the Pi. One less thing to carry and it frees up a USB port. Great video, nice setup. 73 de KF7VUT
Nice go kit. I also like the NanoVNA. I think they are great little analyzers to carry along. Unlike my Rig Expert AA-600, which is very large to carry around in a back pack, the Nano does as good of a job and is so much smaller. You can even put it in your shirt pocket.
Thanks for sharing you go kit. I hope it gives some hams an idea of how much fun it would be to get out and operate portable.
Barry, KU3X
Thanks for the kind words, I did end up switching to the stick 230 now but the nanovna has it purposes around the shack still!
Bill-N6EF-I have a pack similar to yours that I'm still getting set up. I've only done 5 POTA activations so I'm still getting the pack dialed in as far as what to include. I have the Wolf River Coils Mega set up that I either keep in the pack or a 27 inch tripod bag for transporting depending on the situation. I haven't used the WRC on an activation yet but it worked great when I set it up in the driveway at home. I have the 30 foot fiberglass mast from DX Commander that I use with my homebrew end-fed halfwave that I set up in an inverted vee configuration. The EFHW setup works well for me so far. The EFHW is my go-to antenna set up right now. I'm using a common mode choke in a 4x4 electrical box that's too bulky for portable operations. I have to try the beads on the coax to reduce the weight and footprint. My 49:1 EFHW transformer is also in a 4x4 electrical box which is also too big for portable operation. I have to figure out a way to make that a bit smaller but still handle 100 watts. I keep my NanoVNA in the same pocket of my backpack as where you store yours. Very handy. My rig is a Yaesu FT-857D that I put into an Apache 4800 box similar to what you did with your 891. I have the Raspberry Pi, charge controller, Bioenno 20Ah battery in the Apache box. Everything is included. It's too heavy to carry far but it's fully self-contained. I can connect a solar panel to the box to charge the battery. Can't think of anything you forgot. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the long comment, it takes a few times to dial in! And it keeps evolving afterwards!! Hope to hear you on the air sometime! 73's de WI9MB
Impressive, but where is the radio and power?
See links in description
@@HamRadioNewb For car or bike portable you are fine, but you have to be pretty desperate to lug the backpack and Apache case 1-2mi by foot. A couple hundred feet for a POTA park tabla yes.
You've got three computer devices in your antenna bag. If you put some apps on your phone you should be able to drop two computers. Then there are ?5? power cables between the two kits. Dump a couple power cables. Dump one coax and use an EDHW antenna like a Packtenna and you should be able to get everything else into your backpack that you could lug a mile or two. Depending upon your location and trees, you might dump the push-up pole as you are already focused on NVIS.
Your stated deployment is man-portable 1-2mi. Not with both the backpack and Apache box.
@@vironpayne3405 I appreciate the concern, this was at that time designed to be a very flexible and stand alone kit. I have since moved to a more discrete and modular setup.
Everyone has different goals and different capabilities, what works for one doesn't work for another.
Feel free to share yours setup on here too and post the link below!!
@@HamRadioNewb Right now I am running a FT-857D with Portable Zero rails, and Portable Zero battery box with a 12Ah Bioenno Lipo4 battery, in a portable zero bag. I have one PL-259 25ft coax with 8 ferrite beads, one 6ft BNC, coax, LDG z11 ProII tuner, and rubber duck. Inside I have a Ziplock bag with various adaptors, power cables, GPS dongle, Mobilink, 4-way PowerPole adaptor, and interface cables. Hanging on the single shoulder strap is a Cha Emcom III Portable antenna. Additionally, I can strap a MFJ coil, and Buddipole collaspable whip. The on pieces of cardboard I've wrapped a two 50ft lengths of monofiliment fishing line, business card with about 15ft of electrical tape, 35ft of mason line, one Power EpicPWRGate, and three 0.5oz fishing weights. Sometimes I put in my NanoVNA.
What I have to carry separately is the battery which has a carrying handle, and laptop. Also, I need to purchase a small solar panel. I am looking at the Rockpals 60W or 100W. A fancy roll-up PV panel is off the budget line at this time. I could move to a larger standard backpack and only carry the fold-up PV panel.
Also, I have two 5ft x 1/4in stainless steel ground rods. In Florida they are usually pretty easy to get into the ground. I use them with my preferred 80m-10m 135ft EFHW antenna.
Everything fits in the back top box on my KLR 650, so I can usually get closer to my destination than I could by car.
The weaklink is the Cha Emcom III Portable when used for 40m and 80m NVIS. 20m and up its a great antenna.
Separately I do have 16ea rigid 100W PV panels, two Morningstar PS-MPPT-40M charge controllers, 4ea 75Ah AGM batteries, and 3000W pour signwave inverter. All for my condo after a hurricane or portable in my Chrysler 300.
I've been moving away from my FT-897D for portable ops.
Don't forget to comment down below with anything I may have missed or must haves in your kit!
Great job with the video! Nice idea with the coax/ferrite so you don't need a separate choke. You have obviously put a lot of thought into this kit. How do you like the wrc antenna? I am torn between a wrc-style vertical and a shortened end fed half wave...
I think they both have a place and both work well. When throwing I can't get more than 15-20 ft up and it takes a bit of time to do. for an emcomm or quick stop in the park for an hour or two this will only take 10 minutes to set up... If the radials cooperate.
I have both the WRC and a homebrew end-fed halfway (65 feet of wire for 40 meters) and have only used the EFHW on my POTA activations. I use a 30-foot fiberglass mast from DX Commander and set up my EFHW as an inverted vee with the apex around 30 feet. I haven't used the WRC on an activation yet but want to set up both and do some side-by-side comparisons. I've set up the WRC in the driveway and made quite a few contacts so I know it works. It's a bit finicky to set up so I suggest an antenna analyzer while you're getting it set up. I use a NanoVNA to tune it which works great. I recommend getting the MFJ-1979 17 foot whip in place of the whip supplied with the WRC. The '1979 is really hard to get right now so be prepared to wait a while if you order one. Bill-N6EF
@@billmungaven506 great suggestions Bill! There are so many ways to do antennas, glad you like your wrc!
Brother. You are awesome! I’m a noob but soaking up everything I can about HAM. I need more teaching , can you help me...could you pm me for more questions on a go bag for comm. plz also need a lil guidance with my pi-star, cloning sd card and other tech things.i want to be good at this. This may save a life
Hello. I really enjoyed this video. Like that pack! Question on the inverter with the Anderson powerpole. Did you make that or did you purchase this? I really want one of those. Been looking and can't seem to locate it? Could you tell me where you got it? Thanks keep up all these great videos. John KB1EEU
I've had that one for like... 6 years? I cut the cigarette end off and put on the pp
Did I miss the radio?
I had another video with that in th-cam.com/video/jJGb9tCwAAo/w-d-xo.html
@@HamRadioNewb Thanks. I'm off to watch that.
@@w4mkh don't forget to subscribe! I'm putting together a much better version today!
Do you have a transceiver and battery?
See linked videos for my kit at that time
Check out KM4ACK's video of streaming your phone GPS to the Pi. One less thing to carry and it frees up a USB port. Great video, nice setup. 73 de KF7VUT
I have since revised the kit! Raspberry pi 400 goes in the hf case!