In this video I show how easy it can be to set up a portable amateur radio station on holiday. Kit used in this video include:

Sotabeams linked dipole, short fishing pole for mast and the Xiegu X108G radio 20 watts. 30 contacts over a few days even with poor conditions.

Simple can be fun.

I finally get chance to get to the beach in South West Wales, beautiful part of the Country.

I work the 20m band using a Xiegu X108G radio, MFJ portable tuner and a brick of a battery. The antenna was a homebrew 1/4 wave vertical wire with around 15 to 20m of radials. The antenna was simply a wire cut for slightly longer than a quarter wave, helical wound around a 4.1m flag pole with the remaining sloping down.

I used a spike to sit the pole on set at an angle to make sure the sloping radiator did not get twisted and wrapped around the pole.

The MFJ tuner worked perfectly, I attached the radials to the ground lug and the radiator to the long wire post.

Part 1 of a 2 from an overnight trip to the Peak District. My experience working 2m VHF SSB portable during the RSGB contest. It is fair to say there are many lessons to be learnt in this hobby. I hoped to make more contacts during the RSGB Christmas contest however had not planned my portable station well.

Here's a review of the Yaesu radios from an outdoor perspective. This review does not cover the extensive features seen in other reviews but looks at some of the features geared up for use outdoors. music: bensound.com

I recorded a fun couple of days out camping and operating amateur radio on 10m, we had many stations on air so it was a successful few hours working the portable radio.

Kit used:

Xiegu x108G
Yaesu FT7900 in the car
Magmount for 2/70
5/8 wave vertical antenna for 10m.

Portable QRP activation using the Yaesu FT817 radio with Windcamp battery and the MP1 SuperAntenna on 10m.

A very interesting night operating from the bunk barn in the Peak District. I was joined by Paul (G1WHP), Tom (M0RMY) and Jacob who will soon by an M7.

The day was spent building new antennas, breaking antennas, diagnosing antennas and fixing antennas. Also we got to try out some new radios, make a few contacts, ate good food and had a jolly good trip out.

Kenwood TS-2000
Yaesu FT-450d
Icom IC-7200
Racal Cougar VHF
4G booster (failed)

In this adventure I camp overnight at a campsite in high ground. The plan was to run some SSTV experiments on 2m with fellow operators.

I used an Android tablet with DroidSSTV app plus the wolphilink adapter.

Wolphilink
DroidSSTV
Samsung tablet
FT897
Slimjim antenna
DX commander pole
Leisure battery generic