I have always enjoyed field station and portable operation in the past. It was mostly when I went hiking or when there was a QRP contest that I would venture into the wild with my radio. I also operated maritime mobile from 1997 to 2000 while on my yacht Vesperra.

With retirement came plans to travel more and explore, initially at least, Southern Africa. I enjoy landscape photography and I have recently started making YouTube videos that are mostly photography related. With this in mind I hope to acquire a mobile home soon, this will enable me to stay over close to photo locations that I need to visit with sunset and sunrise. If you stay in accommodation like a guest house or hotel it often means that you need to travel in the dark, sometimes on back roads to get to and from the location. With a mobile home you can stay a lot closer and spend more time on location.

Now this all leads up to my plan to install a decent mobile amateur radio setup in the mobile home. It will mostly be used when actually stationary with options of a mobile antenna or more likely a small, collapsible mast/pole  (like the 8m one I have but have never used!)and a decent antenna that can be erected once on location.

I will also use the setup along with Winlink and VARA software to maintain email capabilities even when I am out of range of mobile and Wi-Fi communication. I have been testing this setup at home with simple wire antennas it is working well.

I still need to decide what radio to use and also look at antennas, will update my progress here.

Portable QRP setup using the trusty FT-817
Power from a 3S 5000mah LiPo battery.

Update 2/1/2023: I have ordered a 6 band hex beam that I am hoping could be modified for quick setup and fold-up for transport. If I can make it work it will become my portable and field station antenna, specifically to be used with the motorhome. I am hoping to receive the bits next week. At first I will test it at home, if all is well I need to see if my collapsible portable mast, a Comet CP-80, will support it. Maybe not at the full 8m height but I would be happy if it would work at maybe 5m?

Time will tell! Now it is just the choice of a new radio that remains, maybe for initial shorter test trips I will just use one of the radios I already have.

Update 25/12/2022: I have been thinking of antennas to use while out in the field and potentially operating from a few spots that are one people's "wanted" list, maybe even a few local, less often activated, DXCC entities. For this I feel I need more than a dipole antenna.

After some research I have decided to get a 6 band hex beam. Looks like it would be easy to modify for quick deployment and easy transport. I ordered one this morning (yes, Christmas day!). I will first run it at home to see how well it works and then modify it for quick break-down and setup if I am happy. Hope to report back on that soon!

Update 01/09/2022:  I recently saw an advert for the new Yaesu FT-710 and it looks like the perfect radio for my "mobile home" use! The receiver technology of the FTdx 101 in a compact radio, perfect! It also sounds like the price will be really competitive, well done Yaesu.


Update 03/04/2022:  I have decided, initially at least, to just use my Yaesu FT-897 for my "mobile home" installation. I might change that to a FT-891 if I can find one locally but for now my trusty FT-897 will do the job.

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