Amateur radio and travel…for me.
By David Saylors WK4DS
When I travel there is usually not a lot of time left in the schedule for ham radio. Occasionally though, there is and if I know about it in advance, I will plan on bringing a radio. This has pretty broad rules too as it just depends on where and how I am traveling there, to determine which radio I take.
For instance, if I am flying, I will normally take a very small radio like the Penntek TR-35 and an EFHW antenna as this whole rig will fit into a medium sized “admin” pouch. Complete with power source (a AA battery pack) it only weighs a few pounds and I know it will not get lost as it is on my person while traveling.
If I am driving, then all bets are off, as I have converted the bed of my truck into a giant trunk by installing a bed cover on it. This allows for multiple radios, antennas and extra batteries and things like spare coax and even tools! Since I have a 3/4 ton truck my weight limit is actually set by what I am willing to pack. Lol.
I am a CW guy at heart, even though my speed would be considered mediocre by “real” ops and so my radios can be quite compact because of this. You simply need a key of some sort and the aforementioned other items and you are on the air. I have done POTA activations with a broken key a couple of times. Since you can send with by touching the two wires together as the simplest form of a key, there really isnt much to stop me in this arena.
My cohort on this site though loves other modes (he likes CW too just currently into digital modes), those digital modes typically will require a little more technology to operate. Since these involve connecting a computer to the radio, it adds a device in this respect, but things are getting smaller as technology improves. This means that what was once a burdensome system to travel with can now be small and also fit into that same admin pouch. With improvements in technology all the time, I expect that even these digital modes will eventually become fully integrated into the radio and simply be a button press away. It is already starting with experimental radios from small startups like HF Signals with their sBitx V3 that uses a Raspberry Pi 4 as the heart of the machine. I really think it is a matter of time before the big names in the arena puck up on this tech and run with it. But I digress…
So a typical load out for a mechanized trip (one where I drive my own truck) would look like this.
Hamstick mount and compliments of antennas
Radials for the hamsticks
Several coaxial cables
Two radios
Two CW keys
Antenna tuner
41’ random wire antenna with counterpoise
Battery of some sort for dismounted ops
nanoVNA for measuring the antenna information prior to starting
All the odds and ends like notebooks and pens
This is a well rounded mobile operating position for me. None of it is QRO but it is enough to activate a park pretty easily in 2024. Over time, the kit has grow from a repurposed camera bag to multiple hardshell cases and a tool tote full of stuff. This is separate from the antenna and radials in the truck bed. It is pretty large, but it gives me contingencies in the event of component failure.
This is overkill you say, but to be honest, I have had the following fail during activations…
Two CW keys (at two different times)
Coax broke internally at connector
A different coax had a bad center pin (BNC was made wrong)
Dead batteries (I know, I know…)
Wire antennas breaking at crimp connections
One radio died in a park
And a cheap coax adapter shorted to ground.
The last one is why I put the nanoVNA on the antenna every time now.
So what would I take if I am going to fly commercial? It would be drastically different to be honest. I have a small kit built with a Penn-tek TR-35 radio (pictured below) that will fit in my carry on easily that will allow me to get on the air pretty easily. It uses a 40m EFHW wire antenna and a AA battery pack for power. I really like using this battery pack as batteries for it are literally everywhere in the modern, industrialized world. I can operate for quite a while on one set as well so it works out pretty well for me.
As you can see, my load out can vary pretty drastically from one trip to the next depending on what I want to do or how I plan to travel. To be honest, the Penntek TR-35 kit would work in all of these scenarios but I like my other radios too. Lol. So if you don’t know what to take on a trip, it is simple, just take whatever you have and don’t worry so much about building a “kit” to deploy with. I see this all too often, people get caught up in minutiae of assembling a go kit of some sort and never get out and use it. The kit you put together from the gear you currently have will serve just as well as long as it is portable enough for your travel needs. You get the point.
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