Portable Stations
Yaesu FT-891
I primarily use the FT-891 when I operate Winter Field Day or the occasional POTA activation. It is also useful for HF Winlink operations for Emergency Communications when paired with a lightweight laptop like the Evolve III.
VHF/UHF Go-box
I have a Tytera TYT-8600 radio in a small go-box configuration with an included 12 Ah Bioenno \(LiFePO_4\) battery.
Satellite station
The IC-9700 forms the heart of my still-in-progress satellite station. Also new is the CSN Technologies Self-contained Antenna Tracker (S.A.T.). This interfaces with the IC-9700 and an antenna rotator. It provides a web browser interface for most controls. Within a few minutes of connecting it, I was able to monitor DX traffic (Alabama!) on the ISS FM repeater using my vertically oriented Comet antenna.
Finally, I am assembling an \(M^2\) SATPACK1 antenna array. If my initial forays go well, I may think about upgrading to a system with Yagis that can be pointed at satellites.
Packet
I’ve recently assembled a portable VHF packet/APRS/Winlink station. The radio is the ICOM ID-51a. A Digirig device with a cable specifically designed for ICOM HTs provides sound card and PTT functions.
The ID-51a supports CAT control via CI-V, and Digirig could support this. But CAT control is overkill for this use case. It’s trivial to change the radio frequency manually, and the mode does not need to change.
The Digirig cable takes the grounded speaker line from the ID-51a and sends it as an RTS signal to the computer. So, once I’ve set the packet software to use the correct COM port on the PC, PTT works well. The virtue of this scheme is that it can also work with other HTs.
An Evolve III netbook running Windows 10 runs the relevant software. I’m using the UH7HO Soundmodem package for packet radio TNC services, Dire Wolf as an APRS TNC, and Outpost Packet Message Manager as a packet terminal client. I also use Winlink, and the VARA FM Winlink client, but of course, I could also use standard packet as the Winlink client.
The IC-705 can also work as a portable FM + HF packet station using the same PC. I’m experimenting with making different copies of Soundmodem and VARA FM and then naming them for the different rig configurations, as neither package supports switching between multiple rigs.