What I'm wanting is to get started in HF as I get my General license soon.  I've only used HTs for the last 10 or so years I've been a HAM and figure its time to get into the hobby...because i only have the license and radios for emergency use.  I don't want a mobile setup in the car..already use a HT and magmount just fine for my purposes.  Don't want a home setup.  I'd like a portable kit I can keep very minimalist.

From what I gather, I can run off a small 12v SLA or lithium battery and keep it charged via solar, use something 'like' a Yaesu FT 857d which I obviously can't afford, and throw a slick line antenna up a tree when i need to operate the station.

What of the following would you recommend as a 'best bang for the buck' parts list for me as I am starting from scratch and don't know jack about big boy radios like this?
1) Batteries?

2) Radios (HF at least, HF and VHF hopefully, and HF, VHF, and UHF the ultimate) possibly near the 500 or less dollar range and new?

3) Antenna options?

Thanks!

Regarding 2) The only way you're going to fulfill this wish list at this price is if you get very very very lucky to find a Yaesu FT-857D used that someone hates and wants to let it go cheap just to get it out of their sight.  You're better off looking at rigs that are just HF in order to hit that price point.  Even still you're looking at used.  Best to save up just a little more for an Icom 718.  You may be tempted to take a look at the Alinco DX-SR8T since it is brand new at the $500 price point.  Unless you live on a mountain top, far from any sort of interference, keep looking.  I suffered with one of those for 18 months in a high noise environment before I finally gave up and got an IC-7200.  Life is better now.

1) Regarding Solar, I have a Zamp 120 watt portable solar panel setup and an Optima blue top battery.  I can run radio, led lighting and a 12v fridge pretty much indefinitely on this setup as long as the sun shines.  It really depends how portable you want to be.  I also have a 4.5ah NiMH battery that I take when I want to operate in the woods.

3)  Antenna for what?  That question is THE Pandora's box of ham radio.  :-)

Don't be hesitant to buy used gear. I've owned about 15 radios in the last 8 years, all used, and I haven't had a single problem with any of them (KX3, KX1, FT-817, FT-857, IC-706, VX-7, VX-8, VX-1, etc.). Other than the KX3 I haven't spent more than $500 on any of them...

A better idea of what you want to be able to do with this setup would help us be helpful.

Since your wanting new I would keep on saving and target a 857.
Single band wire dipoles aren't expensive and that will stave off a tuner.  Then it's just coax and power.

E-mail coming at you.
Sarge

Yeah a bit more background would be good, especially qualifiers like "obviously can't afford". Also, I have no idea what you mean by "slick line antenna" but I've read enough terrible survivalist lit over the years as to ascertain thats where that "gem" came from.

Throw my user name into the search feature for portable ops stuff I've done. I mainly use milpacks for it, but I do run an FT897 and an FT817 setup as well.

Define Portable? From the trunk of the car to the pick-a-nick table portable? Haul it 3 miles up a hill portable? Take it backpacking for a week portable? Do you need to run HF on the move? The more you want to do, and the less skill you have the more weight and cost you are talking about.

Can you run CW? This is the cheapest and best way to go if you can.

Some general bits of advice.
Generally speaking portable ops are usually a shitty race to the bottom between bad antennas, bad power output and bad operating times. Try to improve any of those and portability suffers.

Antennas, try to use the best possible antenna you can. This will likely be a wire of some sort, and even then it will likely not be great.

Power, if you are talking about SSB, 25-50W is generally about as good as you are gonna get power wise portable unless you bring alot of battery.

Run time. Most battery setups will run a few hours before you have start carrying tons of weight. Figure out your run times by assuming a 50% TX/RX cycle for typical HAM use. SLA's are cheap but suck to carry, Lipo's are light, powerful, but also dangerous and more expensive.

To more specifically answer your questions

1)
SLA's are cheap, offer high current handling capability, and are stupid simple to charge. They are of course heavy as shit.
NiCd/NiMH, battery packs can be made sort-of cheaply, and are fairly resilient and not too hard to charge and are somewhat lighter than the lead.
Lithium, there are several different chemistries and options. They will be the lightest and most expensive option, they will also require specialized chargers, and you will have to storage charge the batteries. They can also combust in spectacular fashion if abused.

2)
Multiband, FT817,857 and FT897. The 817 is low power, so it mostly rules out reliable SSB without an amp, CW or data are fine. 857/897 are mostly the same radio, the 897 is heavier, but you can stick batteries internally which is nice. None of these are 500 new. You might find one for 500 used.

3)
Honestly the best antenna is a dipole
You can use end-fed antennas but they are less efficient if your feedpoint is on the ground (and it will likely be).
Worst case, whips can work, but they are least efficient choice. However they are fast/easy to deploy and don't need a tree.

This^^^^
FT857 id a great compact multi-band radio. Its the best compact 100w multi band HF rig, period.
There is nothing wrong with buying used as long as you use common sence. A used one can be found in $600+ range. Be careful, I've seen some used ones that were filthy dirty.
A used IC-706 can be found for around $400 but it been discontinued long time ago. They are good reliable radios but bot as good as the Yaesu.
Another choice would be to look at Icom IC718 but its a base radio. New one can be bought for around $600 when they run specials on them. It's an entry level HF, 160-10m only radio. It's  very simple to use but don't expect any miracles.
Wire antennas always work relatively well and dont cost much to build. Dipoles work great. My favorite field antenna is an End-Fed dipole. It takes seconds to deploy and it works great. Google: End-Fedz 10/20/40 antenna. You'll love it.
You don't need an expensive coax for HF bands if you don't plan to run high power and long coax length. A 100 ft of RG8x will work just fine with negligible losses.

Forgot to mention. Stay away from old used hybrid radios. They are fun to play with but can be a pain to repair and tricky to tune.

I agree it is hard to beat the 857d for portable use.

Fairly light and includes 2m/70cm.  Oh and 100W if you want it.

I do keep thinking that a mfr ought to make a mid-power rig with the same features as the 857d.  Same rig but limited to 50W or even 25W would still be enough for SOTA and such but hopefully reduce the weight by a proportional amount.  I suspect the chinese mfrs will hit this target before Yaesu does.

Thanks for all the replies.  I wish I could understand more of your recommendations and radio talk, but I'm coming up short here and there.  For example, i simply don't know what components I need...auto tuner, dipole, multi-band antenna, wires, coax, etc.

I can better describe my mission.  Backpack HF either QRP or up to 100watts off of SLA or LiPo batteries.

I've seen a Yaesu ft8900r that is $325 new that is quad band. I understand it has no SSB ability - not that I know what that is other than an optimal use mode of transmitting and that plenty of folks use it.  What am I missing in this radio?  Is there a glaring reason why it's  <$500?

Yes, the 817 looks like another winner though it's only 5w.  However, I understand I can use an amplifier?  I've seen tuners that have various amounts of wattage (100w, 200w, 300w, etc.)....is that what would be needed with a radio like a 817 to reach out stronger, or is there yet an additional amp I'd need?  Like I said, I don't understand what components I need.

My goal is to be able to DX around the country or further on battery power with 25-50 feet of antenna strung up in trees with solar power recharging batteries, etc.  Survival comms in other words.  I want to learn all the technology and be able to teach it..and of course use it and build a hobby out of it.  I'm in the Bitterroot mountains in west montana and have a nice valley I live in or considerable elevation advantages if I head into the mountains around me.

Anyway, keep coming with the recommendations and thank you for your patience.

ETA: Harli, yes, that 817 setup you have is exactly what I'm going for.  I don't do or know cw, don't know what rtty is, I'd only do voice...if that answers other questions.

You need an Elmer.

Check out qrz.com to see if there are any hams or clubs in your area. Elcope is from Montana I think, but it isn't exactly a small state.

Learn how to operate before you buy gear. I highly recommend buying a used radio and setting it up at your house. Use a single band or fan dipole so you don't need a tunner.


Right now what you are asking is how to shoot F class because you got a taste of a red rider. It will come in time but you need to learn some more and an Elmer is the best way.

Voice...SSB...means you need power to be heard.  Again, elevation will help, but 5W vs 100W is like 3 S-units.  I'd rather be heard for an hour than ignored for 5.

^^^^  
This, or a lot of very dedicated reading.

I'd recommend a used hf rig and antenna that you can set up AT HOME so you can start to get some hands on and figure this stuff out.  Right now, it's too abstract for you and there are too many options.  For example, that FT-8900 is not an HF radio, that's why it is <500.00  It would not do anything you have described.  It's not designed for that.  Try to find another ham in your area that has a shack and can walk you through it.  That would help more than you know.

Ok, I understand what you want to do, and to do that you really need to start doing some serious homework. As others have suggested find a teacher (Elmer) in your local area, try the "local" radio club. I understand that if you are in MT that might be challenging. Go get a few books from ARRL on HF radio, and absolutely include the AARL antenna book and start reading about propagation theory to get an idea of what you will need to do what you want. You can usually find these books at the local library, or they can get them for you. Don't worry about which edition, the basics of radio haven't changed much in 50 years. The more you know and learn the less gear you need for good communications. The less gear you need the more portable it is.

Generally speaking for the types of communications you want you need a HF radio that will work on the 80m-20m bands at a minimum. Most general purpose HAM HF radios will cover 160m-10m.  And the FT8900 is basically a fancy VHF radio (works 10m-70cm), and totally unsuited to what you want to do, (its fine for local comms).

Antenna wise, revise your estimates for antenna size a bit upward. Most reasonable wire antennas will be roughly 1/2 wavelengths long i.e. 40 meter band antennas will be 20 meters long (i.e. 66ft).

To start with you will need a radio to transmit and receive signals, and a matched antenna to get those signals out.

Tuners basically electrically "match" your radio to your antenna, but you can also make antennas that don't need matching. Again the antenna book is your friend. The ratings for tuners have to with how much power they can handle. I.e. if you have a 100W radio, you need a 100W tuner. 5W radio, 5W or better tuner (most low power tuners can handle at least 20W) basically tuners let you use sub optimal antennas or give you the ability to use marginal antenna setups (like a wire in a tree for example). If you try and transmit into an unmatched antenna you will likely fry your radio as all of that power will be reflected back into your rig.

Voice communication (SSB) is the least efficient form of HF radio communication (but the easiest for people since you already know how to talk). You can think about how much "space" a transmission uses. A SSB signal takes up about 3000hz of space, so you have for example 5W of signal to fill up 3000hz of signal space. compare that to digital modes  that use maybe 30-100hz of frequency space (this varies alot by which mode you use), so you are taking that 5W and squeezing it into a much smaller amount of frequency space. Morse Code (CW) is one of the best as a CW signal is only a few tens of hertz.

This is pretty much why people are recommending 100W rigs for you, 100W is generally fine for SSB work, 5W is pretty hit or miss for SSB depending on what part of the solar cycle we are in (we are coming off a solar peak, when conditions are good, but this solar cycle was weak and it will get worse for the next several years). However 5W digital modes or 5W CW is just fine, it just takes more gear/skill to use.  For reference most military manpack radios designed for voice communication run around 15-50W in terms of output with the average being 25W.  

You can use an amplifier with the 817 as pictured in my kit which can amplify the FT817 to about 45W. It will add weight and you will have to provide power for it.

And the more power out, the more batteries you need to power it. The reason the 817 is popular for portable work is because you don't have to lug a giant battery around for it.

Solar, you are going to have to learn some basic electrical skills because wiring alot of this stuff up is going to be on you as well as most ham radio gear like this are home brewed. Notice all that shitty wiring on my 817 kit, yup most of those cables and connectors are home made or home adapted.

Also, I can't emphasize the doing it part enough. The first time you setup portable and key the mic and nothing works will be special moment for you. You will then probably pack everything up and go home and spend a pile of time figuring out what went wrong. Then you will do it again. And again, and at some point it will work, sort-of. And then you will learn what works and what doesn't. The more you do it, the better you will get, the more you will understand your gear and what it can do.

Yeasu 991

Seriously? The guy is cringing at a 500 dollar budget and you post this?

I paid $500 for a used 857d on craigslist...it does happen.

You might see some 857ds free up when the IC7300 starts shipping...maybe.

Or then again maybe not...I am unwilling to sell mine.

OP also stipulated new...

You want HF on the cheap and you want a non-standard setup.  That's what makes this very difficult, as we can get you close in certain things, but you have a hi-point budget and most of us are paying at least glock prices.

OP is talking backpacking and 100w.  Those are going to be some big batteries.  33ah is on the small side for this and they weigh about 25lbs each.  That would get a couple of hours of intermittent operation at 100W.  You could stretch things if you cut power, but it's still not really backpack friendly.  

Backpack portable is possible, but most people run QRP and that's not really ideal for someone new to HF.  The immediate answer that comes to mind is the SOTA guys like the 817nd or an Elecraft.  Budget puts Elecraft out of reach.  817nd is $650ish, so close.  If you did CW there are other nice options for low bucks.  Again, this is all QRP, so not ideal for a beginner.  

Honestly, I'd back up a touch here and recommend you get an ic7200 or similar and make a "go box" if you want to be portable.  You're adding some constraints that make this pretty much an impossible mission.  

With all due respect, what the OP wants to might not be bread-n-butter type HAM work, but its quite possible, since its what I do all the time.

You don't need a 33Ah battery to run a 100W radio. You can do it with 4-10Ah LiFePo4 or LiPo if you are reasonable. Assuming a 50% RX/TX cycle (fairly heavy use) and a 1amp idle current and 18amp TX current (roughly what an FT897 or FT857 run) a 4Ah battery will last about 1.3hrs of operations. Cut that to a 1:9 TX/RX cycle which seems much more in line with what the OP is envisioning for survival use and you stretch that to 2.7hrs. A 4AH LiFePO4 battery weighs about 1lb. And that's assuming 100W TX levels. You cut the TX power in half to 50W or 25W you roughly double or quadruple your operating time and reduce your transmitted signal by .5 to 1 S unit. Assuming your scenario with a 33Ah battery, OP would get 11 hours at 50/50 TX/RX ratio at 100W. That might be great for field day, but its hardly what I think the OP is talking about.

The Ft857/897 make pretty decent base rigs, and they can be used portable, yes they are heavier than QRP rigs but then again they have alot of TX power in a pretty compact package. My 897 rig comes in ~12lbs with batteries, tuner, homebrew antenna mount. Is it heavy? Sort of. My lightest military rigs weigh in at about 10-15lbs with batteries, and don't offer 100W of power out. My FT817 based setups can weigh in at around 3-4 lbs with antennas for the whole setup, and a few pounds more if I include the 45W amp.

I think the main thing for the OP to consider is the budget. $500 won't get you very far in HF world where rigs typically cost 1-5k. A used FT857 or FT897 would not be a bad place to start, and might be obtainable near $500.

I have a 7200 that I love.  I love it so much that the day they announced that it was discontinued I bought two spares that are still in the box in a closet upstairs.  Having said that....  I also have an 857D and it is better suited to the constraints and requirements that the OP posted.  The 857 is my Swiss Army Knife and the 7200 is my machete.

Thanks again folks.  And no, I don't have absolutes here, just threw out those numbers because that's what I can work with for now.  I can obviously save and keep shopping.  Was just asking about the 8900 and why it was so cheap; i got my answer.  

And I am someone who will work relentlessly until i key the mic and actually get heard.  I am self employed and have plenty of time to study, test, troubleshoot, learn, etc.  Elmers around here are total knobs who'd talk for 4 hours offering maybe 20 whole minutes of edification..i have tried some.  I have a friend who i'll be consulting with who is like minded and wont gab all day.

A friend and I are getting funded by FEMA to begin a CERT charter in my valley and with that will include some basic traffic handling and other comm stuff that we'll teach in addition to CERT stuff.  I'd like to develop beyond my occasional technician HT usage into a proper comms presence where I'm at.

Learning a lot in this thread.  I now know HF doesn't really include 10m and 6m.  Good to know.  Gigaparts has a new 857D for $824 at the moment, however it does not include 30m - 160m with the exception of the 60m band which is as I understand now all it does.  Used i'm guessing that radio can get down in the 600s probably.

10M is the top edge of HF but it's only a very tiny part of it.  The 857D covers everything including 30m through 160m and if you want, everything in between.   I'm not sure what you're looking at that is causing the confusion.  The 857D is a ham shack in a box.  It can do pretty much everything that you will want to do in ham radio.

Looking here at freqs...  http://www.gigaparts.com/Product-Lines/HF-6M-VHF-UHF/Yaesu-FT-857D.html
Wide Frequency Coverage
Providing transmitter coverage of the HF, 50 MHz, 144 MHz, and 430 MHz Amateur bands, the FT-857 also includes receive coverage on 100 kHz to 56 MHz, 76 to 108 MHz, 118-164 MHz, and 420-470 MHz. Enjoy the excitement of public safety monitoring, along with weather broadcasts, AM and FM broadcasts, aviation communications, as well as the action on the Ham bands!
Versatile Memory System

My apologies in not noticing this thread sooner. I see you are in MT, I'm in Whitefish and if you are in or West of Helena or Great Falls I will drive my portable set-up to you and show you what you want to know. From set-up to tear down. If you're here in the Flathead, I'll gladly have you over and demonstrate my station, or come to you.

Why would I do this?  Comms is that important and you need an Elmer.





If you're in Jordan or Circle, you're on your own.

J/K, if you are in West Dakota, I do make it out there once or twice a year for rifle matches and can arrange to bring my portable, which I usually do anyhow.


Most of the questions have already been answered by the capable guys here in the Ham forum.

HF/VHF/UHF is near complete coverage of the most common Amateur bands and I think the newer 857's even cover 60M band. IOW, it is more coverage than you typically use.

If I were on a budget that you specify, an FT-857 would be my first chioce. As others mention, it is a complete shack in a box.

I can't remember if non-team members can view archive posts, but here are some solar, portable experiments I did up the North Fork of the Flathead last summer.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_22/680981_Gear_Review__Goal_Zero_solar_Ham_setup_.html

But did you learn HF operation doing this? It's a specialty discipline and far less forgiving than more typical HF setups, especially for voice operation.

How does the 857 handle battery operation? Most genuine QRP portable radios have far lower power drain on RX and greater tolerance for input voltage variation.

Why I love this place

There are several members here that run the 857/897 portable. I think full bore RX current is about an amp IIRC and you can get it down to 700mA or something like that if you turn off the bells and whistles. Compared to most ICOM rigs like the 760 series or 7200 which run ~2A on RX its really not that bad. Not as good as dedicated QRP rigs, but not terrible for short ops.

Agreed.
Hell, I'm tempted to go road trip to MT just for that lesson if he opens it up to us flat landers.

Actually I did... I had to wait a while before I could put up a permanent antenna so I started operating portable. That was also why at one point I posted about the first time I did it and got everything up and running and nothing worked, and I learned from that, and I tried it again, and again till I got pretty good at it.

It's tough to beat an 857D in a box.

I've replaced the lead batteries with LiFePO4 to reduce the weight and get longer run times.



One thing I love is the ability to dial back the power when I want and dial it up when I need to.

I'm kind of the odd duck on this board because unlike most guys here that went from 2 meter to HF to portable HF I took my own route and followed my own dreams.

I had no FTF Elmers and figured things out on my own as best I could.

I went STRAIGHT to portable ops with a PRC 320 and amazed myself.

There is certainly a lot to be said for working DX with 30 watts and a wire. I am glad I went this route and did things the hard way.

Much of it has been improvise, overcome and adapt. My 2 proudest QSOs are Swain's and Navassa Islands.

I worked splits on a rig designed for simplex. My fingers bled but I did it.

I did make a couple of $500 mistakes along the way so get all the help you can wherever you can get it.

Good luck. IMO there is nothing more fun than portable ops.

I run an 857d for SOTA and USIOTA.

I run full power and from fully charged 3S batteries.

I stop TX when the battery voltage drops below 11V on TX.  This is storage voltage for the batteries, so no time spent on that after the activation.

I get an hour per battery.

I carry the radio, 15-20ft of coax, and one or two end-fed antennas.

Yup, pretty much the same for me. I started portable with an 897 and when that wasn't durable enough I started using mil rigs. Eventually I got my 817 and went that way for long term backpacking due to the much lighter weights, then I graduated to a KX1. So 20lbs->1lb for reliable comms for me.

Honestly I've had exactly one DX SSB contact using my milpacks that I thought actually understood what the hell I was I even doing and was blown away by it. But I was blown away by every DX contact I made operating this way, for me its way more fun than sitting in my shack spinning the dial.

So I probably shouldn't post this for the OP since he is a n00b. But since its currently sold out he can't do anything too impulsive

One radio that I don't have any experience with but is in the "kinda-want" category is this:



Youkits TJ5A

I've been back and forth on this rig for a long time, and keep hoping its updated with a few more features since the owner does listen to reason sometimes. But for 400 bucks its really tempting.

One the plus side:
It does put out 20W on SSB which is respectable for voice comms, however no voice compressor built in (a DYC817C or other kompressor might be adaptable).

It does do 10W CW and presumably data over SSB, so 20W for that is plenty. (you would have to roll your own data interface, though I suspect a wolphi link would be easy to adapt)

Its reasonably compact 2.2x7x9" so a bit larger than an FT817, and comes with a clip on lithium battery.

Low weight: without the battery pack is 1.5kg, so call it about 4lbs with a 4.4AH lithium battery.

Receive is fine 80m-10m (most of the HF band) but AM broadcast and 160m would be nicer.

It also comes with a mao-syled carry case

The not so good.
No internal speaker (gotta use phones) not really a big deal but I figured I'd mention it.

TX is 40m,20m, 15m and 10m... (so not all the bands, but enough to be pretty useful, I'd rather have 17m than 15 but thats just me)

The almost deal breaker for OP's purposes would be no 80m or 60m, which for NVIS work is IMO needed for his stated purposes.
The likelihood of additional bands getting added is unfortunately low for various reasons, like the fact they like to keep radios simple, and they are AARL tested for spurious emissions, but I would personally trade 15m for 80m in hearbeat if Ymin is listening.
The other issue is no tuner, though I have talked to the owner, Ymin, and he claims there is enough room in the enclosure to fit an elecraft T1 in line. Then again you can plug in something like a resonant paar EFZ 10/20/40 and be good to go on 3 bands.

The other thing I don't love is that the antenna connector is on the side, its not a deal breaker, and better than the back of the rig IMO but I would rather have it on the top of the rig.

Also durability and waterproofing is likely shit like any other ham rig, so in a gallon ziplock bag it goes to be "waterproof".

Harlikwin, my brother, you and I are tracking like a VLA.

The chinese, love or hate them, are very likely to nail this niche before any of the big three.

Your criticisms of the current offering are spot-on.

Again...I want an 857D, but limited to 50W SSB/CW/digi.

Elcope, i'm in Corvallis, south of Missoula and I don't get out much.  Sounds like a very generous offer I'd learn tons from.  I'm working with 2 resources here for some of that mentoring I desperately need because yes, I am quite a n00b.

That radio in a box looks nice.  I do have a nice pelican case I've thought about using for a portable rig with everything locked down in it as in your picture.

Well, I've gone through a couple of the general testing units from hamwhisperer.com and I'm getting 100% and I'm memorizing the bands.  Not to the hard stuff yet though.  I think this is going to be a six month project at least...get the general license this month likely...start reading important books mentioned in this thread to understand what the heck I can expect from different equipment/hardware, bands, etc., and study what the heck most of you are saying that's going right over my head! lol  I have no doubt I'll meet with success eventually as I like this kind of challenge.  I'll probably bump fire a full mag up in the mountains after my first successful DX (to Idaho or something)! lol

I am leaning towards the 857 and li-po batteries..just have to sell that shotgun I don't use.  I'll figure out what antenna/tuner setup to go with after reading and seeing more video demonstrations and consultation with friends.

I bought a TJ4a back in 2012 and enjoy it. Mine has mostly been dedicated to digital modes because it runs them with no issue. The power draw is excellent and overall a great little radio. Mine as a TON of space built in. There is enough room in the back to mount a lot of batteries. I have been thinking about how to go about it but since I got my KX3 I don't take it to the field much and leave it on the shelf for 14.070 or 14.076. I do like the 5 trimmed the extra space out.

http://www.446shop.com/Product/Pro705.Html
http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?item_id=346&category_id=65

Well it looks like I can take the mask off because I ain't the Lone Ranger.

I started with an ft817 but have also used the 897 and 857. In my opinion the ft857 is the best bang for the buck. It's small, rugged, all band and can be dialed down for portable operation.

I now use a Codan 2110. It's the single best portable HF radio I have ever encountered. The sensitivity, DSP filtering and syllabic voice squelch make HF ops as close to an FM experience as I have ever encountered. It's water proof, light weight, ruggedized, and consumes only 100mA on receive. It will run for 32 hours on the smallest battery. The bad part is it's ridiculously expensive.

Yep...




Price needs to drop at least $100
...and I would prefer 40 or 50W.

Sweet mother of Hiram Maxim!

It ought to come with hookers and blow for that price!!!

Yeah I've seen the X108 as well, but it seemed less suited for OP's role and budget. Once you get into the price range its typically selling for an 857 seems like a vastly better way to go.

In my case it was that i didn't have any choice but portable ops at first. Eventually I did manage to put up an antenna at home, but I still enjoy portable work way more.

Every Memorial Day weekend I shoot in the NRA Highpower Service Rifle and 1K Match at the Deep Creek Range West of Missoula. I usually drag my camper and last year I did bring my radio along to show it to others who were interested.

If you're interested we can meet up then?

Ok, if anyone is reading this thread, I just did a breakdown on using an FT817 system vs a FT857 system for backpacking/emcomm  HERE

It's a great first rig, and a great portable rig, and it's what is in my go-box.  Consumes <0.5A current on receive, joining only the FT-817D and the KX-3 in that regard for anything portable with a wide range on HF.  It can also transmit on any frequency in HF with a resistor removal only for SHTF/MARS/CAP situations.  Just make sure you get the roofing filters for digital/CW in case you have close adjacent signals because the DSP filtering is not very effective in such cases even with the AGC off.

Which rig are you talking about? And I'm pretty sure a 857 pulls way more than .5A on recieve, everything I've seen says about 1A, which based of my experience with the 897 is about right.

I have an interest in this radio as well.  The battery pack is 6 18650s.

Also, I emailed to find out when it would be back in stock and the answer was 3-4 months.  It's currently being redesigned.