Portable – What can go wrong will go wrong... (Part 1)

Portable – What can go wrong will go wrong...

Part 1

One of the things as a Ham Radio op that really appeals to me is working portable.

The fresh air of outdoors, the challenge of getting your system setup & running.

I look at /p as good practice for if there was ever a natural disaster that required me to setup in a remote location and be able to call for help or be able to transfer emergency messages for the local community.

So far, my /p experience has not been a great one. I have been cursed with issues – the first with battery problems, my old 24Ah Lead Acid battery would not hold a charge for any length of time when operating, even at low power levels.

Antenna system’s that would not work in the field in terms of tuning.

Coax cables that have not worked or failed when out.

Connectors falling to bits or just breaking.

Power connectors & leads falling to bits.

I guess this is all part of the learning experience or is it?

Battery:

I have now replaced my old battery with a brand new 45Ah Lead Acid and I am in the process of making a battery box for it, Using a Tool Box.

Now before people start saying ugh “Lead Acid, that’s so 20^th century you should be using a Lipo”

I don’t do SOTA so I don’t have to worry about weight, I’ll be using the battery from the car 90% of the time and 10% from just outside it, so weight is not an issue for me.

Also, I know that Lipo batteries are better for the environment & have a better power output curve however this lead acid battery was cheap.

Most Lipo or LiFePo4 batteries that I have seen on the market are still stupidly expensive - for me anyway.

 

Antenna’s

One of my antennas is a wire up a 10m fishing pole, I was given this by a ham friend and was told to use a 4:1 Balun and a counterpoise.

The antenna system did not work as I was using a 4:1 Balun when it should have been a 4:1 UnUn.

I was helped a lot from Nigel M0CVO who advised me that I needed a 4:1 unun (Un Balanced to Un Balanced) system.

This said one was put on order & has now arrived.

The unit feels like its ooooozing quality, A nice heavy block made from plastic but with quality parts as you would expect made from a Ham who knows his stuff.

Looking at Nigel's website - 

(www.m0cvoantennas.com) he has a lot to offer the ham op.

At the time of writing this we have had about a week of high winds & rain hampering my ability to get out into the garden to test the unun but rest assured I will & report on how everything goes in part 2.

Coax Cable’s:

The Coax cable I was using was some that I had been using for a while for other projects and was a good few years old.

I use 2 reels of coax in my /p box – one is 10m (32ft) and the other a 21m (70ft) of RG58.

My 10m coax was the one I used the most and was the one giving me all the problems, looking into why it was not working I found that there had been water ingress at some point and the copper braid inside was quite green.

My 10m coax has now been replaced with new RG58 double screened coax and is working much better now.

Coax Connectors:

After replacing my coax, I needed some new connectors for the ends, so I went onto eBay to buy some more, I found what I thought was a bargain of 3 for 75c from China.

How wrong could I have been!!

Total cheap tat, I guess this is what is now expected from buying from China these days – it all seems to be made a cheaply & quickly as possible.

These went into the bin and I ordered some high quality PL259 plugs from an antenna company in the UK. The plugs were £1.50p each but well worth it for the high quality that they are!

Power Connectors & Cables:

Much like the coax plugs, I had cheeped out on the connectors.

I had been testing a few different types before deciding on what I wanted to put on my power box.

12v Car Accessory Socket

Bullet Plugs / Sockets

Banana Plugs

Anderson Power Poles

The Car Accessory Socket are only rated at about 10 amps so they would not be any good for the radio, well not for full power anyway!

Bullet Plugs & Sockets are just not up to the job and kept falling off even when soldered & crimped.

So, now I’m looking into Banana Plugs as these seem to be used on a lot of power supplies & all my equipment has these fitted now & seem to be working quite well for now.

I had also looked at using Anderson Power Poles, but these are far too expensive to buy here in Ireland, I would also need to get a tool for crimping them as well.

Maybe I will look at these in the future if I win the lottery 😊

Other connectors I was having a look at was the ones used on some of the RC batteries.

These seem to be high current but again they are very expensive to buy here in Ireland.

I think one thing to take away from this so far is that it’s not wise to cheap out on equipment or parts when you are trying to make up a kit for the field or for emergency use.

Catch you in the next part where I report back on how all the kit works…