Ham Radio QSO Parties

While preparing for the Virginia QSO Party expedition class I decided to walk the halls of an office store and Dick’s sporing goods to see what gear may prove helpful to set up a semi-permanent Portable KX4O/P radio station. What I found was encouraging and may be helpful for two aspects: protecting and organizing the radio gear and provisions for shelter.

Shelter:

I am assuming a good portable expedition operation will include long periods of operation followed by drive time then repeat over and over till you have operated from all the counties and cities you wish. Unless one has a comfortable Van we are stuck with our Sedans and SUVs. I operated this way last year with the radio balancing on the dashboard with accessories strewn everywhere. It worked, but was not very elegant.

A better operation includes more comfortable desk-like seating, table or bench and equipment arranged usefully on top of this.

While at work I wondered by the mechanics office area and saw a hunting blind set up. I don’t have any idea why it was there, but I stepped inside and found it to be a perfect size for a small table, two chairs, two operators and accessories. It has flaps that open in all directions and options for routing antenna cabling. With this in mind I visited Dick’s sporting goods and found two blinds available for sale on the shelf. Both were about $70. Blind #1 has the following specs:

• Dick’s Stealth Hunter
• 66″ (5′6″) Height (at apex of dome roof)
• 60″ (5′) Weight and Depth (square)
• No floor
• $70
• http://www.allaboutgame.com/

Blind #2 is slightly smaller…

• Dick’s Pursuit
• 58″ height (flat roof)
• 50″ x 50″ floor area
• No floor
• $70
• http://www.allaboutgame.com/

Both are easy to open and close taking just a minute or two to deploy and store. Next steps to consider include calculating just how much space to people need to sit comfortably. More details later.

Radio storage:

One that the continues to drive me nuts is not having all the radio gear pre-assembled in a ready to go state… just add power and antenna and start operating. My days as a musician and band roadie taught be the value of good rack mount solutions for expensive equipment. My Icom IC-746 fortunately has an off the shelf 4U rack mount box available. This plus a good hardshell portable case will run well over $300.

I decided to roam around Office Depot just to see what interesting solutions might be there. I stumbled across something called the Foray Mobile Workmate costing about $90. It is an interesting cube about 15″W x 15″D x 12″H. It has the following features:

• Roll-away wheels with handle that extends high enough to be useful
• Three sided zipper opening top
• Front five inches or do of depth contain a 8.5″ x 11″ hanging file folder plastic bin that slides out as a unit
• Next is a thin laptop case
• Finally there is space left for another organizer containing pockets and such for housing accessories
• $90

I took note my Icom can probably fit into the stiff plastic hanging file folder and slide into the front. An MFJ balanced tuner might be able to fit in the back with room for accessories next to it.

If I were to use this I would put the radio facing up in the front file folder area, an MFJ tuner behind that and then set the whole thing on the table with the radio and tuner facing forward. The zipper top opens up in this tabletop configuration thus needing something to hold it open.

I did not buy anything yet because a rack mount solution with road case would offer the best protection for the radio gear. Still, this suggests there are a lot of products out there from the hunting, office and other communities we can take good advantage off for our radio pursuits.

Cheers