It is fun. Having a balcony helps. It is possible with a little thinking outside the box.

Here is the equipment from Jacksonville FL and the JT8 results. I was recieving very strong signals from AK and Japan on 20mbut they could not hear me. The hotel firewall was blocking my reporting to the pskreporter server.

CS108G 20 watt radio
MFJ portable tuner
LiFePO4 battery 9 ahr
Signal link
Microsoft surface 3 and a wireless mouse
MFJ-1899T portable vertical antenna with taps 80m-6m straped to an ironing board and 3 very above ground radials
coax and cables

Attached File


Attached File


Attached File

Interdasting. My experience has been less than satisfactory for hotel HF. I suppose if you are on an upper floor and you can access a balcony, you could do what you did and do OK although I would think you might have some signal blockage in the backfacing direction just due to all the concrete and steel in the building. Having both the MFJ-1899 and the similar MFJ-1699, I can say that the 1699 has a wider SWR bandwidth although still extremely narrow. The CS-108G did OK for me from the car when I was in PR, it's really a nice portable unit. I've also used my Comet UHV-6 from a hotel room. It doesn't pack as small as the MFJ but I can still get it into my bigger suitcases. I hadn't thought about using some radials with the MFJ, I'll have to try that.

I'll also have to try JS8 next time I'm in a high-rise hotel with a balcony.

The radials make a massive difference. For some odd unknown to me reason a 13 foot radial works the best for 20m with the 1899T and a 1/4 wave radial does not.  The tuner makes it much easier to use instead of adjusting the telescopic part.

For the lower bands I made a coil that I clip onto the 13 foot radial instead of laying out a longer radial and it works well adjusting the 13 foot radial to work on 40 and 80

My room balcony was facing south. You can see from the FT8 pic that most of my PSK reports are from the north which was nithing but concrete andcsteel in the way, even up in AK from FL. The only way I can figure how my signal ( and receiving signals from the north ) was getting to AK with 15 watts was bouncing off that building in the background in the antennna pic.

I was also getting really stong signals from AK and Japan, as in +several db strong but they could not hear me.

I have also operated from an outdoor pool area when all I have is a wndow.

I have also operated through a big window but with much less coverage.

I have walked to city parks to operate but have never set up due to rifraf in the park.

The best is having a balcony but that is pretty rare these days

FT8 makes a world of difference due to almost QRP and low signal strength through a very compromised antenna and less than ideal sky access.

But it is still better than watching TV, and I really like that small radio. it works very well for it's size and having 20 watts instead of 5 makes a big difference too.

I used to bring a power supply but now bring a battery and that has opened up many more locations to operate from

I have that same antenna..I try hotel portable a lot.  I can get reception A.N. do copy digital at some, but using my 817 haven’t been heard.  Most of the time I’m in the room with no balcony however.  I used to take dipoles and string them up in the room.  Believe it or not, I could her ok on them.  Best I ever did was on a balcony in Alabama.  Used a dipole and worked Europe and Russia SSB with my TS50 at 50 watts.  Was a family get together thing so I brought the radio.

I operated from the Thunderbird Beach Motel in Daytona Florida back in 2001.

I was going to attend MMI in Orlando for a year and arrived in FL a few days early

and decided to spend a few days in Daytona before school started. I had an Icom

IC-751, MFJ 949 tuner and an Astron RS-20a with me. Unfortunately I didn't have

any wire for an antenna with me and had to use some thin speaker wire I found at the

local Walgreens. I strung up a makeshift dipole on the balcony with the speaker wire and amazingly

it tuned up on 20m. I worked Europe and Russia in the mornings. The room faced

the ocean and I was on the second story.

I also saw three shuttle launches from Titusville when I was there and used the 751 to listen to

the solid rocket booster recovery ships while they were recovering the boosters.

I also had a scanner with me and listened to the "Cape Radio" broadcasts.

I had quite a crowd gathered around my Bronco listening in.

When I was in college many, many years ago, a good friend, ham (and Electrical Engineering major, go figure) operated
from his dorm room on th 7th floor with a wire slipped out the window.  A fishing weight on the end kept it more or less
vertical.  That was it.  Transceiver and tuner on his desk, wire out the window.  Never saw him operate, just that he
said he did nearly as well as at home.

I was in a 3rd story room with the PRC 320 a couple of times and sailed a wire over a nearby tree and did well.

I've taken a slightly different approach to operating while traveling for work.

Usually I am at a location just a night, maybe two, often getting to the hotel end of the day and heading off the next day of meetings early the next morning.

Doing a full portable setup when actually at the hotel for at most 9-10 hours doesn't make sense.

So I remote my station - link to blog post:  REMOTING VIA SMARTSDR AND SMARTLINK V2.0 – IN DAILY USE

I can use my cell phone as a hot spot in a pinch if the hotel's internet is subpar.

Additional plus is the gear all fits in my carry-on if I am flying without checked baggage.

73

Steve
K9ZW

I also remote my station and play that way. I am using an Apache Labs ANAN-8000DLE, Elecraft KPA-500, and MFJ 998R remote tuner. I use RDP to remote into my station computer via my Ubiquiti VPN router, have full control of everything and run QRO.

I also have the ability to remote power cycle everything, just in case something goes badly sideways during operation.

As long as I have 2Mbit/s down and 1Mbit/s up internet service it runs fine. Faster is better, of course.

I have remoted my IC-7300  and have used phone over my laptop and FT8 over my laptop and my phone

but I dont like leaving my antennas and radio plugged in when not home and I just dont get the same fun out of using the internet infrastructure to play ham radio

so I no longer remote. I get much more fun travelling with a small station operating without infrastructure with a 20 watt radio and portable compromised antennas