Jim:
I would just like to point to a very nice (if somewhat costly) piece of radio equipment, The Buddipole from: http://www.buddipole.com/ It is an extremely flexible antennae system, which gives you coverage from the 40 meter band through the 2 meters – it is possible to tinker with a lot of different setups and it has a proven track record and is currently in use with your Special Forces teams as well as numerous hams. Budd Drummond who runs the company also has a very good customer service and is a great person to discuss antenna needs with. (Just for a teaser: the smallest variation of the system weighs 2 pounds and is approximately 13 inches long – how is that for portability?)
As for further investigations into “stealth operations”, I would like to recommend this site: http://www.tech-pro.net/g4ilo/index.html , its a ham in England with interesting solutions to running low to none visibility stations with various equipment. – “Beau-Cephus”
James:
Regarding the HF stations in today’s blog: The “MFG” cited should read “MFJ”. [JWR adds: I just went and fixed that. Thanks!]
See: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/index.php
I would also recommend a BETTER quality than the little travel tuner. Why go so small when your already toting around a pack full of other gear. The SGC ADSP2 is way overkill at $130 its a bit much for a survival station. I would also suggest adding a good set of headphones to the list. The “spool of wire” should be a bit more descriptive. What kind of wire, For power? for antenna?, co-ax? If for power, then you should not have a very long run. If for antenna the list should also include “antenna building” supplies such as insulators and center conductors. Might want to include some coax to connect the antenna to the radio as well as some patch cables to connect he radio to the tuner. The Ham stick is a single band antenna, you would need a pack of hamsticks to cover many bands as well as a ground mounting system. No mention of how your going to connect or hold the UHF/VHF antenna up in the air. Need some mast and co-ax Why go to a sub laptop, use a normal sized one. Again you already need a Sherpa to carry all this stuff. How big of a solar panel does he plan on carrying? The 706 draws 2 amps at idle with no audio, Its a power pig and not very solar friendly. Same issue with the battery Not sure if he talking about 16 D cell batteries. If so they things will be drained in just an hour with JUST the 706. I can drain a car battery in a weekend if I leave my 706 on all the time. Not that this is not a good radio, I have 4 of them, but his List is just incomplete and not functional as a portable station without a good power source handy. Also just a note, the 706 will go on the AM broadcast band with mods, Its just above the 160m ham band. If you want a true ham portable station the SGC 2020 or the Yaesu 817 is your only option. If you want a GOOD package station then the Yaesu 897 is a good option. – Gary in Ohio