rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Mar 13, 2018 16:41:51 GMT -8
Shemaugh, 4" fixed blade knife, Well, to me it seems big and heavy compared to usefulness.
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ErnieW
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I want to backpack
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Post by ErnieW on Mar 13, 2018 19:39:40 GMT -8
You don't have to ask about it in a private message, in case anyone else is curious about it, or about the hobby in general. Do you carry a radio sometimes on your hikes? What type? Thank you for the links. Some interesting pics. I know there are at least one or two other hams here. I'm kind of new to the hobby. I have really only been doing 2m and 70cm repeater. Due to my job and 6 year old twin daughters I have been sort side lined from hiking. But now that they are a little older and I have a new job I am getting some more time and am starting to get back to hiking. The girls are hiking too now. So I have a Yaesu VX-6R for hiking. It's small, good on batteries and submersible waterproof. It does 2m, 220Mhz and 440Mhz. I have a 1/4 wave whip for it that does pretty good. I just bought a slim jim dual band j-pole from N9TAX and from my tests it works very well when pulled up in a tree. I do want to get into HF (high frequency long distance) but not CW (Morse code) to start. The field set up I have been looking at is lug-able. I joined my local ARES/ RACES so it is more with an eye for that. And I didn't really think I carry anything odd.
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Post by lostwalker on Mar 14, 2018 4:14:49 GMT -8
rebeccad sorry I can not figure out how to Quote on here yet. LOL Ever since i was 8 my grandfather and father always camped, horseback camped, hiked with and taught me how to use a knife and incorporate it into any situation. I know backpacking is a lot about weight. but if i'm ever in the back country and something happens I would want to have it as a tool. However now we have the SOS signals and 2 way communication it is not as important.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2018 4:57:36 GMT -8
You don't have to ask about it in a private message, in case anyone else is curious about it, or about the hobby in general. Do you carry a radio sometimes on your hikes? What type? Thank you for the links. Some interesting pics. I know there are at least one or two other hams here. I'm kind of new to the hobby. I have really only been doing 2m and 70cm repeater. Due to my job and 6 year old twin daughters I have been sort side lined from hiking. But now that they are a little older and I have a new job I am getting some more time and am starting to get back to hiking. The girls are hiking too now. So I have a Yaesu VX-6R for hiking. It's small, good on batteries and submersible waterproof. It does 2m, 220Mhz and 440Mhz. I have a 1/4 wave whip for it that does pretty good. I just bought a slim jim dual band j-pole from N9TAX and from my tests it works very well when pulled up in a tree. I do want to get into HF (high frequency long distance) but not CW (Morse code) to start. The field set up I have been looking at is lug-able. I joined my local ARES/ RACES so it is more with an eye for that. And I didn't really think I carry anything odd. Welcome to the hobby. My work and an aging parent have been keeping me off the trails, but I do manage to get out a couple times a year, usually. The only VHF or UHF handheld I have is ~30 year old Ten-Tec 2591 that doesn't even have a subaudible tone encoder. Someday I'll need to upgrade to something more modern. The VX-6R looks really nice. Some guys are doing 'Summits on the Air' with VHF/UHF handhelds, so you can look into that if you're interested. It would help a lot to have a compact beam (or even your j-pole) to use with it, and be on summits with some proximity to metropolitan areas. For voice portable HF, some guys are using the Elecraft KX2 or KX3. The battery life on them is better than the Yaesu FT-817, which is another popular QRP SSB rig, but it pulls on the batteries pretty hard.
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ErnieW
Trail Wise!
I want to backpack
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Post by ErnieW on Mar 14, 2018 9:10:36 GMT -8
I was chatting on the air with our local repeater engineer this morning and he was saying that the VHF/UHF is pretty popular with the "Summits on the Air" crowd. A good antenna anywhere can get you around the world on HF but for VHF/UHF the height of a mountain really buys you some distance that you can't get at home. He said these guys reach out to repeaters 150+ miles away. I am thinking about getting a Buddipole. It can be configured for VHF but when I am ready it can do HF. There won't really be a place to hang the J pole on a summit. It is more for camp. Before I pull my food up the hang rope I can pull up the J pole and see what I can contact on VHF. I am looking at starting HF with a Yaesu FT-991A. More as a home base station that can be thrown in the car and also lugged with batteries out to a field location. Backpacking, it would probably require its own dedicated backpack. And I hope the doing radio from summits isn't in the same class as flying drones there. Practicing this type of radio can be helpful when there are real emergencies so hope there is some mercy.
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rebeccad
Trail Wise!
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Post by rebeccad on Mar 14, 2018 9:11:08 GMT -8
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rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,685
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Post by rebeccad on Mar 14, 2018 9:13:33 GMT -8
Ever since i was 8 my grandfather and father always camped, horseback camped, hiked with and taught me how to use a knife and incorporate it into any situation. I know backpacking is a lot about weight. but if i'm ever in the back country and something happens I would want to have it as a tool. However now we have the SOS signals and 2 way communication it is not as important. I would never count on technology to get me out of a jam (for one thing, I don't carry phones or SPOT, etc.). But I always figured I could do enough with my 1 1/2" blade. Might be harder, but for the most part I wouldn't expect to ever need it, even if we're in trouble, so I'm willing to take less weight and maybe less "what if" insurance. But I shouldn't go there--we have this discussion on an annual basis
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rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Mar 14, 2018 9:15:46 GMT -8
And I hope the doing radio from summits isn't in the same class as flying drones there. Practicing this type of radio can be helpful when there are real emergencies so hope there is some mercy. I'd say that if you do it when there's no one else around, that's your business. If there are other people, it may look like an intrusion into their wilderness experience. I get the importance of radio operators like you in an emergency (we stumbled on the annual practice weekend last year on a local hike, and they told us about it). It looks like the ham clubs could use younger members, so maybe you can get some kid interested and do us all a service
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2018 12:53:17 GMT -8
I was chatting on the air with our local repeater engineer this morning and he was saying that the VHF/UHF is pretty popular with the "Summits on the Air" crowd. A good antenna anywhere can get you around the world on HF but for VHF/UHF the height of a mountain really buys you some distance that you can't get at home. He said these guys reach out to repeaters 150+ miles away. I am thinking about getting a Buddipole. It can be configured for VHF but when I am ready it can do HF. There won't really be a place to hang the J pole on a summit. It is more for camp. Before I pull my food up the hang rope I can pull up the J pole and see what I can contact on VHF. I am looking at starting HF with a Yaesu FT-991A. More as a home base station that can be thrown in the car and also lugged with batteries out to a field location. Backpacking, it would probably require its own dedicated backpack. And I hope the doing radio from summits isn't in the same class as flying drones there. Practicing this type of radio can be helpful when there are real emergencies so hope there is some mercy. Yes, it depends on the area you're in. SoTA is very popular in Europe (actually it began in the UK), and the summits there have relatively closer proximity to populated areas. Along our east and west coasts, or the Colorado Front Range it could be similar. In some parts of the mountain west, it could be an exercise in frustration. Also, for purposes of the SoTA awards program, contacts through repeaters aren't allowed. SoTA rules are flexible enough to hopefully mitigate the effects you're referring to; you just have be to within 25 (vertical) meters of the summit, which in most areas is enough to allow you to leave the "actual" summit for other hikers.
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Post by lostwalker on Mar 14, 2018 12:55:34 GMT -8
As you can see I got it!! Thank you!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2018 12:59:36 GMT -8
And I hope the doing radio from summits isn't in the same class as flying drones there. Practicing this type of radio can be helpful when there are real emergencies so hope there is some mercy. I'd say that if you do it when there's no one else around, that's your business. If there are other people, it may look like an intrusion into their wilderness experience. I get the importance of radio operators like you in an emergency (we stumbled on the annual practice weekend last year on a local hike, and they told us about it). It looks like the ham clubs could use younger members, so maybe you can get some kid interested and do us all a service Yes, it's best to do it when no one else is around, and headphones are always advised. You're right about typical ages; at my job, I'm one of the older people around; when I go to an Amateur Radio convention, I'm one of the "kids".
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ErnieW
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I want to backpack
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Post by ErnieW on Mar 14, 2018 15:11:45 GMT -8
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