Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Pedestrian mobile with Paquito, Man-Paquito

These are some videos of my new light-weight backpack radio. It is made out of a Yaesu FT-857D. The whip is 2.9m long and the antenna tuner is an SG-211. Thebattery is home made out of 4Ah NiMH cells and the power I was using was 20W.

The battery is a home-made 13.2V NiMh battery and the antenna is a 2.9m whip of military origin. My first QSO was with Canadian station VE2JCW on 20m SSB when I was tuning my antenna, before I could start the video recording.

The second QSO with IW3RUA from the North of Italy was on 17m SSB, and I was delighted to get such a good signal report.

The final QSO with the Czech Republic was slightly more difficult, but the new little manpack behaved like a champion. Test passed!

12 comments:

  1. Looks like a nice man-pack! Puts my installation in the car to shame ;-)

    (located from the Yahoo FT-857 Group)

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  2. Very nice Diego. What make/model whip do you use? I had to look up the tuner - very good specs but discontinued and commands a high price. Hope to work you soon.

    73, Bill KJ4VTH

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  3. Excellent idea and results, Diego. I was very pleasantly surprised at the results obtained in this fashion. 73 from Puerto Rico... KP4 LAND.

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  4. Bill,

    The whip is of unknown military origin, bought in Greece. It is 9.5ft long, colapsible in 8 sections.

    It must be a sort of European version of the AT-271, because it is marked as such but the thread at the bottom is metric (M10) so I could not use the standard 3/8x24 antenna mounts and had to make my own instead.

    73

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  5. Detail pictures of how you put the set together would be very nice.

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  6. At 46 seconds on the first video I see a wire (a ground /radial) trailing on your right hand side.....
    How long is this wire?
    A radial this long can not be safely used in town without some mishap to other pedestrians.
    Which bands were you operating on ?
    I have comtemplated using the ATAS antenna system when backpacking.
    73
    Keith
    M0KLL

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  7. Dear Keith M0KLL,

    The radial I was using on this test was 9m long. It came directly from the Clansman counterpoise set (British military surplus). I don't think you need such a long dragwire for the higher bands though, nor the plastic spool at the end either. I agree it is not practical.

    The ATAS is a good option. I have only tested the mobile version (ATAS 120) and the advantage of the tuner-whip tandem is that it is much faster to change bands looking for a QSO.

    73 de Diego EC1CW

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  8. I said that the whip was marked AT271 but I was wrong. In fact it is marked ANT 129.

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  9. Nice Work and Videos... Cheers! 73 - Karan, VU2YEP (New Delhi, INDIA)

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  10. Bravo! great videos,
    73 de John ZL1PO
    Hamilton,NEW ZEALAND

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  11. Nice videos and a great concept.

    I operate /Pedestrian Mobile using also the FT-857, MFJ-934 Ground Tuning Unit and Manual Tuning, 12V 60 AHr battery and antenna is a Full size 1/4 wave vertical mounted on a SOTA pole with a 'Top Hat'all mounted on a two wheeled 'old ladies' shopping trolley.

    Details can be found at my website: http://www.cqportable.webs.com

    73's
    Ian 2E0EDX

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  12. Great site and great rig. Thanks for sharing!

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