My website is currently in development. It may take a little time between activations.
Radios:
Icom - IC-7300
Icom - IC-7100 x3
Icom - IC-2730A x2
My main radios for POTA are my IC-7100s these days. I activated for well over a year with my IC-7300 which is a fine radio although the IC-7100 became my main rig for POTA due to the ease of mounting one in my vehicle full time. Another plus is having 2m and 70cm available for the band openings.
Headset:
Koss SB45 x3
Heil Proset-Icm
My main headsets for POTA are my Koss SB45s. I picked these up as discards that were still new in the package and hacked a connector together for my IC-7300. When I moved to the IC-7100 I bought the heil adapters for both radios and had to make a stereo to mono adapter for the microphone input. I eventually also purchased the Heil headsets which I have used on a few activations, althoguh they generally stay at home due to my paranoia with breaking them.
Antennas and couplers:
SGC-230 x6
LDG RT-100
Spider Beam 12M HD x2
Tarheel Little TarHeel II x2
MFJ-1979 x2
WRC TIA
Various pieces of wire
Oh boy, what can I say... I am a fan of the SGC-230, it is simply a fantastic coupler of high quality. I use these at the base of my Spider Beam masts feeding either a 43' vertical wire spiraled around the mast or a 40m delta loop. I find the non-resonant length of wire does well with the coulper at the base with 7-8 radials in conjunction to coupling with my car.
On 99% of my activations I use my vehicle to hold my SB masts. I use a cameco flag pole holder I purchased from Amazon that I cut the bottom off and jammed a 2" plumbing quick cap onto the bottom to protect the mast bottoms. From there I weled a makeshift rack to the back of the pole holder for my coupler to mount on and an extra piece of angle iron on the bottom that is drilled for attaching radials. I generally run 7-8 radials with my verticals. The radials range in length from 16' to about 50' and I lay them out in any manner I can; straight, zig zagged, and in cases I have even just left them wound up when space was limited.
As mentioned, I also have a 40m delta loop I have used on occasion suspended by my SB mast and fed at the top with ladder line for a horizontal orientation. I use this in references that are RF noisy. I have found I can tune it from 6m to 80m easily with the SGC-230 but trying 160m with it is finicky.
One of the best features of the SGC line is that you do not need a radio interface to use the coupler. You simply connect the coax from it to your radio and supply power. With wire connected you send a carrier or rf such as a whistle and it will tune. There is a SmartLock device to use with the coupler that has a status indicator light, lock switch to stop it from re-tuning, and a button to force a re-tune cycle. I currently do not own one of teh actual SGC brabded locks and instead follow some schematics online to create my own.
I also use an SGC-230 at the base of my EagleOne with 7-8 radials. I generally use it with a net support pole top spreader as the base and use it to setup at places I am camping.
The Tarheel I use in situaltions where I can not put up my mast or on run and gun style activations where I am trying to get in and out and on to my next park. I use the MFJ-1979 on it as the whip when I am stationary. I find it gives me a lot more bandwidth per tune and as a huge plus it allows me to work 160m.
WRC TIA is a back-up oh' poop antenna. I actually started out activating with it like so many others have, but quickly learned that it is not the best antenna for me and my activating style. I currently have it loaned out to a hopefully soon new activator...
Batteries:
ToBattery 35Ah
Expert Power 20Ah
FeMart 32Ah x2
Li+Age 32Ah x4
SLAB 12v Deep Cycle 100Ah x2
I started out activating with the SLABs because I was able to obtain them locally and got an excellent deal on them. These days they stay in my shed with a trickle charger. I put a load on them monthly for incase I ever need to use them for off-grid camping
The ToBattery I purchased after several activations when I quickly determined that I did not care to lug around the heavy SLABs. I ran it as my primary battery for well over 100 activations and never ran it down completely. It always prefeormed well and based on testing with my West Mountain CBA delivered the rated capacity with a 10 amp load although based on pricing and opening it up and taking a look I suspect they a "B" cells
The Expert power was an Amazon purchase to have a lighter battery for field and pack usage. It tested well on the CBA and has been a good addition to my battery fleet.
The FeMart and Li+Age batteries came from Battery Hookup as medical cart pulls. I have purchased several 4 packs of them and shared with club members. Every set I have purchased has tested above 90% on the CBA. I generally run 2 of these in parallel in my vehicle for my activations and have an extra with me incase I setup in a shelter or pavillion. I then have an additional 2 in parallel back at the camp.
I hope to eventually put all the 32Ah batteries in parallel in my 6'x12' Go-Box on wheels that will double as a stelth camper.
Chargers:
Powerwerx DC-DC 8a LIFePO4 charger
ISDT Q6
Imax B6
HiTec RDX1 Pro
I had been a fan of ISDT chargers although I have recently been through 3 of them . I had a Q8 max burn up and 2 Q6s that have gone "wonky" and either drift and need constant calibration or just fail to charge.
I am looking in to the PowerWerx charger as a replacement but have not made a decision as I do like the hobby chargers features and being able to see a status as well as the alarm and beep functions when charging and key presses.
Well I have stopped looking and have been running a Powerwerx DC-DC 8A charger for a few months now and am happy with it's performance. I do wish there was more then a red and green led but soemtimes simple is better.
