First Dry Run of Portable HF Station

Putting it all together in the rear garden

9m tall Prowhip aerial erected in rear garden ~ tunes on all the Amateur HF ('Short Wave') bands.

Solar panels charging sealed lead acid battery ~ Yaesu FT450D HF radio on white folding table.  

This is my 6-year old sealed lead acid battery ~ used as a spare as the leisure battery is being charged.

The solar panels are working really well ~ allowing me to run 100 Watts output from the radio. The battery is being topped-up as it is being charged at 40 amps via the solar panels. 

Front view ~ note aerial coaxial cable off to the vertical antenna. Cable is 24 feet long, which helps with the tuning process for the vertical aerial on Amateur Radio HF bands.

Yaesu FT-450D radio ~ using a Heil Hand Mic for good audio response & driving of the rig (to get high power output ~ closer to 90W on peaks).

Even though the bands were not very good, due to a recent solar flare that knocked out HF communication to some extent, the radio did pick-up many Italian & German Radio Amateur Stations.

Getting everything ready for portable HF operating ~ Part 2

Vertical Aerial

The Prowhip vertical aerial that I use is based on a fibreglass fishing pole which is less than 1.3m collapsed and 9m extended. Link HERE.

The aerial wire, shown here in red, travels up the fibreglass pole as you extend it to its fullest length. The wire is captured at the tip end, so no threading required!

At the bottom of the aerial you can see an UNUN ~ which allows an unbalanced piece of wire, as shown here in red, to join with a length of 50 Ohm coaxial cable to the radio, without the signal from the radio feeding straight back & frying it. This way, the aerial can be electrically tuned ('cut' to length electrically) using an aerial tuner ~ allowing the maximum signal to get out into the ether and around the globe :-)

Here, at another location from my own, you can see the vertical aerial fully extended ~ 9m ~ mounted on the aluminium post (shown behind the aerial in the photo just above this one). The coaxial cable feeds from the bottom of the UNUN to the rear of the radio.

Yesterday, at this location, I was able to tune the radio on all the HF ('Shortwave Bands' = High Frequency) bands that we can use, including the additional 6m band (50MHz) that we have access to here in the UK.

Stations worked included one in the Azores on the 20m (14MHz) band, which was not particularly 'alive' as conditions were electrically noisy (recent Solar Flares).

I am very happy with this aerial & await using it further this Summer :-)

Yaesu FT-450D HF Transceiver

This is the transceiver that I intend to use whilst out and about working HF portable. It is a very good (smallish) size, whilst maintaining good ergonomics, power and facilities. The internal tuner works very well with the vertical aerial mentioned in part 1.

I will be writing more about this little gem another time.

That's it for now :-)

73 de John G0GCQ

Prowhip Vertical HF Portable Aerial

https://www.prowhipantennas.co.uk/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=54&virtuemart_category_id=6

Using the lower radio bands ('Shortwave Bands') from a portable location takes some planning. You obviously need a radio, but you also need a lightweight, easy to erect and take down, portable and efficient aerial. That aerial also needs to be able to electrically tune to the several 'bands' that we Radio Amateurs use.

I could have made a similar aerial but, after much research, I found that I would not be saving any money & the 9m vertical aerial from Prowhip is tried and tested.

I shall be posting some photos later and give you a 'user's view' of how well the aerial works - although, on first testing, it seems to be very efficient & effective.

73 de John