Ham Radio Manpack for VHF/UHF - KG7JQY
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Work in progress of my manpack for tactical style communications for VHF/UHF ham radio. I'll make an update as soon as I get the H250 handset to work with the QYT KY-8900.
Shout out to The Tech Prepper KT1RUN for his videos with similar manpack setups that I took some inspiration from for this project.
Very creative manpack design. Nicely done. I love that you have multiple battery and antenna options. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.
Thank you, it was in part inspired by some of the ideas in your videos. Im really liking the manpack concept.
@@JackTradeMark It's a great operating style. Field expedient manpacks for the win.
Subbed both you guys from this video! Very cool concept 💡
Thank you both for sharing your content 😊
Amazing. You've inspired me to make my own pack frame with PVC board and a heat gun. Why not..? lol
Great work. Looks like you gave it some serious thought. When the Hurricane Harvey floods hit Houston in 2017 VHF/UHF radios were extremely important as the grid shut sown in certain areas. Great work!
I am using a QYT 8900 for my go box rig, because it is small, powerful, runs on very little amps, and works well! I like that pack idea. Good job.
I have the BTech version. I like the Peppers' manpacks, and was seeing I could the MP the BT.
Excellent, exactly what I was looking to do once I get back into things.
Nice! One of the best set ups I’ve seen so for!
Nice kit. I've watched a lot of Tech Prepper's man pack builds, too. The kit I'm putting together is more like yours. A Retevis RT95 25W, N9TAX Slim Jim, 1/4 whip and duck, 6mah liFePo and varied pigtail adapters. It's my base for home and quick and light for the go bag. 73
Do you worry about heat build up from the Retevis operating inside a bag?
That's look interesting...I have play Whit doses portable packages.. for years...whit some 5 Watts HT.. dual band .and some old 25 Watt VHF radios they work good for camping and hiking on weekends also for emergency situation.( I use one set-up like this one in huracain Irma and Maria back in Puerto Rico Sept 2017 )...now Whit the new VHF/UHF 25 Watts mini radios and small battery packs..it more fun..I like that idea of a military package easy to have the extra accessories available..( I normally use the old military bullet mental case..that is water proof ).. will Tay this one and see how it works whit a Anytone AT-778UV in that package I my have some space for a 8" tablet..to program the radios and a small 2 element home made antenna.....73's.. good Dx's.... from Wp4efm
Excellent video. I will be borrowing some of your clever ideas. Thanks for sharing. Double check that rubber duck can handle more than 10 watts.. Many are 10W max. 73
Yeah they are both rated up to atleast ~20w and so far seem go be holding up fine. I dont have a power meter to hook up to the radio but im assuming thats about all I'm getting out if it anyway.
This is a good video Maby put the parts list in the discription thx
Nice little go-bag. A small assault pack works well for hands free coms too. Enjoy playing radio.
Lots of innovative ideas here! Great work! 73 de K2CJB
Love the radio cage
Clever setup. Like it!
pretty cool set up mate!!
Nice set up!
Nicely done!
Nice set up. Might wanna give a look see at some Aluminum Unistrut for your frame mount...Given what going on today I'll bet people whom are a licensed HAM/GMRS operators might be thinking that the gov knows you have the EQ and can come out and collect your gear...Is why I choose CB SSB set ups...but buy cash at your local suppliers though....wouldn't want a credit paper trail now would you ....Cash is king...yet 😵💫
cool manpack and video
You can get Otto, Viacom or Harris hand mics wired for Kenwood and you'll get better audio in and out than with the Baofeng. Of course the 250 will do nicely as well once wired, but there are impedance problems with those that you might have discovered already.
Good looking rig.
Awesome video! Have you updated your setup in 2024?
Like it, but running 3s means you likely aren't getting a full 25 watts out based on the voltage.
Hello from Brazil =D
Great video, use what you have available some very good ideas❗️👍73 KV5P
Thanks for the inspiration, I like it. Was wondering if I wanted to spend the money on a Yaesu for this project and now I know there's an alternative.
Yeah. But personally depending on what you are doing, id probably just go yaesu, especially if you can go used. I ran into recieve sensitivity issues with this in the field and my ht with rubber duck was outperforming this radio with roll up j pole on recieve and i build a new version with a yaesu ft-1900r that i got used on ebay for $80 which is basically the same price as this was and its been a lot better radio
@@JackTradeMark Checking out used Yaesu radios now. I think I also need HF.
@@roscoe1052 yeah hf definately is where the real capabilities are at, theres a bit of a learning curve but its not too terrible.
Great pack, can you operate with the pack on your shoulders and walking about? I am working on a similar pack but the antenna bumps my torso and seems to get interference from contact with my body. Any suggestions?
I have an antenna and handset kit from an old PRC-77. Look forward to seeing if you can get the handset to work with that.
I got the h250 to "work" but im having issues with the mic gain being low and this radio doesnt have the ability to adjust the mic gain in the menu so ill need to use an op amp or something and do it through electronics so ive been holding off on that for now.
@@JackTradeMark That was something I heard years ago and promptly set aside trying to use it with an HT or mobile UHF/VHF. My IC-746 has mic gain. I wonder if I can write up an adaptor or rewire it to work with that Icom on the very rare occasions I take it out to the field (I've worked an entire Field Day with it and one deep cycle battery into a 1/2wave 20m dipole up 30' into the trees...worked Australia one saturday at 2am during FD).
Thanks for the update.
@@MTimWeaver online W2ENY and some other guys sell some "h250 style handsets" that are wired for various radios but i really want to get an actual military one to work. I might just rewire it to make it work with a different radio
@@JackTradeMark Something classic about those handsets, so I totally get it. :)
@@JackTradeMark The problem is that you are trying to use a150 ohm mic element (dynamic) on a radio that requires a 2,000 ohm impedance (Electret Condenser) mic. You will have to purchase or construct an impedance matching (audio) transformer for the audio line. Heil Sound used to sell one, not sure if it is still available.
Cool setup. I have the same radio. How do you know what kind of batteries to use? Are your rc batteries compatible with the radio's plug? Or did you have to rig something up?
Yeah ive soldered xt60s to it and thats what i typically use for my primary electrical connectors and wire up pretty much everything that way. For something like this your current consumption is going to be relatively low so pretty much most electrical connectors and batteries for really any automotive or similar type of task should work as long as youre being somewhat reasonable about it and not using super tiny wires or something.
Goid idea. Not good for dessert use, overheats. Need to remove radio completely to ensure cooling . Great in cold weather!
Can you share some more detail on the PTT wiring with the RJ45 connector? That would be really helpful as it is one of the more daunting parts of the setup for me.
Yeah. I need to try and fix it because ive had problems with the mic gain being low and the radio not being adjustable but if you email me at jackmarkee@gmail.com i can send you a picture of the wiring diagram i made for getting the h250 handset to work with the radio.
I am looking to build 2x manpacks for relatively cheap and I’m thinking of copying what you have done here. Do you have any issues with the antenna being so close to the head unit? Or the hand mic being so close to the antenna? A few years ago I tried doing something similar with a different radio and I had some weird “noise” with everything being so close together.
KT8900 ~ Radio
I like it , you should be more concerned with simplex though, but thats ok , its a starting point. I think that a better antenna would better for you ( like maybe one of those Abree type where you get a half wave antenna for it ) , anyway I do like it and I think its a great start. Keep working on it and show us what you have done . Thanks for the video.
Why should he be concerned with simplex more?
What is the range like? I'd love to get one for me and my parents, they live about 100 miles away and we both are into prepping
100 miles can be done on vhf/uhf but can be a real rough time without really stellar line of sight loke mountain to mountain or going through a repeater way up high, really depends on specifics
Thank you!
Interesting.
That's pretty slick. Do the rails give the radio enough space to circulate air around the cooling fins to prevent overheating?
Yeah. In the bag cooling is still obviously going to be compromised to an extent, but for my intended use case i wont be doing real long rag chews on it so i haven't had any issues yet but ill try and test that this summer some more.
Good video. You do need to get a tripod for your camera.
There are military style handsets with Kenwood plug on ebay!!!
The key word there is *style* im trying to make an actual one work to have a bit more durability but i need an impedance transformer and i might just convert it for a different radio anyway since it turns out this one doesnt have adjustable mic gain
What happens when its raining? How long does the battery last on full power?
Nice little set up you have there. I read through the comments about the military handset, and I was wondering have you made any headway on making those work in the last month or so? Thanks, and keep up the great work.
Not yet becuase i ran into issues at needing the impedance transformer and not having enough mic gain so ive been working on some other projects but ill see what i can do. I'll probably actually try and rig it up to my ft1900r ive been working on.
@@JackTradeMarkI was wondering how you were going to deal with that mic. I had one on an old military mobile rig (seriously old rig, all tube, heavy chassis, heavy mount) and when I took it over to a ham buddy who was a Vietnam vet (familiar with the rig) to check out. Long and short I learned it is not a good thing to have a frayed microphone cable on those old carbon element mics, that bit me hard enough I saw a flash. You think about making a "breakout box" or little transformer box for it? You could integrate something like a wolphi link interface for doing digital modes with your mobile device. That would give you other options as well, could integrate a pi zero, small gps device, have APRS run, send messages. just a thought. Love the video, glad I found your content, going to toss ya a sub since I am getting ready to document my manpack project myself. Keep posting the videos too!
@@jwreagan yeah it definately needs some kind of impedence transformer type of thing. I just still havent gotten to trying to figure it out yet.
@@JackTradeMark understood. My manpack project has not moved out of the "I should build a manpack" stage lol. I got an assortment of ham gear I picked up off a gent who had plans to get into the hobby. His plan was buy the gear to commit, then get the license. Unfortunately he had a very serious house fire and lost almost everything, including his desire to be a ham. I tried to convince him to stick with it, after a while he wound up just selling it all to me. Well, now after sifting through what I plan to keep, I have the majority of the "guts" for this project. I posted a short last night but it doesn't show much, I found a knockoff pelican case hiding in my basement that the manpack project seems to fit in very well.
So why are you not comfortable using the KT8900 radio? It is just as good as any japaneese made radio. Oh and as usual just like your Yeasu radio, for full power out you need a full 13.8 Volts instead of a 3S 11.1 Volt you need a 4S 14.4 Volt battery.
Im aware of the discrepency in power but its a fraction of an s unit and since i currently dont have a functional meter to measure output power, thats not a big discrepency in my mind, so i just use the quoted spec and ymmv. And actually recently i took it on a sota activation and had issues with the recieve sensitivity of it not actually being "just as good" and with it attached to a tuned j pole 20ft in the air i was unable to even pick up stations with the squelch open that i was able to pick up and work with my handheld ft 60r with stock rubber duck.
Ive actually recently kind of repurposed the manpack and rebuilt it with a used ft1900r i picked up cheap used (actually for basically the same price as the kt8900) to hopefully resolve most of the recieve sensitivity issue i experienced. Video probably coming soon.
Question: have you checked your SWR? Do you think you need a counterpoise for the rubber duck antennas?
Running low power on that im not too concerned about it but it would certainly help.
Wjat is the discharge on the batteries im curious
totally love it !!! I'm thinking of getting a cheap Anytone AT-788uv and making a set up. I especially like the H250, how did you acquire it?
I just got the h250 off ebay. It was actually pretty affordable at only around $25. I now have it working with the setup and used a disco32 kenwood adapter which was signifigantly more expensive than the handset but it works.
Question What are you using to power your rig, can a ZeroKor powerbank be used here are the specs:
Model No: R200
Input DC: 15V/2.4A
USB1output :5V/3A, 9V/2A
USB2,3,& & 4 output:5V/3A
AC output : AC110V 60Hz; 300W
DC output : 9-12.6V/10A max
Capacity: 280Wh
This is a 75000mAh power station. Please give me your thoughts.
@@ivanmendoza2704 yeah. Im using a 3s lipo. Your power bank is probably a lithium ion battery and if you took it apart my guess is the battery would be made out of a bunch of 18650 cells or similar. The dc out of 9-12.6 volts should be fine although the radio might have issues if your battery drops below around 10 volts would be my guess. But with your battery pack having 10a amp output at a nominal voltage of around 11 volts, you should be able to power around a 110 watt device, with a radio my really rough rule of thumb in my head is that the radio probably electrically pulls around double the rf output power power so if you were trying to run a 25w radio you probably need to be able to supply ~50w max and if you were at around 100w out with your pack you should probably be more than good. And you can always just use an amp meter to confirm.
@@JackTradeMark Thanks for the info. Have you heard of the Leixen vv898sp 25W? Thinking about that set up. If you have and knowledge concering it please let me know. Thank you for your vid it got me thinking .
@@ivanmendoza2704 i do not unfortunately
Bro doesn’t that radio get too hot in there? I see it melting it’s way out of the bag. Let me know if you experience excessive heat and how to deal with it.
Could you post a list of all components and the prices please?
Show us how it work on 20w UHF ? It will stuck and reset needed. This radio is not designed for working with long feeder line.
Better use any Motorola radio for manpack like this.
Yeah i dont disagree that motorola is signifigantly better and that chinese radios should be avoided for any serious use. I built this as a test of feasibility for the design amd for training. Ive built another one with a yaesu ft 1900r thats a little bigger and has been working well for the application. My next project is to work on building out a manpack for the ft 891 and after that id like to work towards p25/dmr type radios but for now ive been mostly sticking to the ham world
First!
QUAL ANTENA?
Could you communicate with baofengs with these radios? New to comms
Yes these operate over the same bands (vhf and uhf) as a baofeng on the same mode (fm) like a baofeng, in order to use them legally you'd need a ham radio license which isnt too hard to get and gets you access to the 2 meter and 70 centimeter bands and access to your local repeaters and local hams.
Do you have a link to that bag, how much did the bag cost ?
Its a maxpedition proteus versipack. They aren't the cheapest bag but i already had it from something else. It looks like theres some similar ones that are cheaper out there.
Idk if I missed it but what’s it’s weight
Ive since repurposed most of that stuff so i dont have an exact weight for the system but the total package with batteries was under 10 lbs, if i were to guess probably around 6-7
What type of battery are you using?
I'm using mostly the 3s lipo batteries I have from my RC stuff. They work pretty well. A lot of guys use other chemistries for ham radio but 3s lipos work.
I'm in UK, taking Foundation exam this month. Can anyone recommend a portable ham radio hand set with decent range, that I can keep in my bugout bag. My price range is maximum £150. Thank you 73 88
What bag?
Maxpedition proteus versipack
Any info on the bag?
Its a maxpedition proteus versipack.
@@JackTradeMark Thanks
I am looking for about your product. lace me a message. When I post this. I am looking for more information you get radio at and much one I want to use it for bug-out and for emergency or a faster I want where I could put one in my truck they sent me what I go on a trip or a boat trip I'll have it for emergency or for something for something comes up
⭐ 𝐩𝓻Ỗ𝓂Ø𝓈Ｍ
Too much gear and too heavy
Ok
What functionality does the GI handset offer that the stock mic does not? I get it and I'm nostalgic too, having retired after 22 years of service, but I can't see the benefit of the GI style handset over the stock mic - especially when you take into account all the controls on the stock mic.
I think the biggest one would be being able to use it like a headset as far as not just blasting radio through the speaker if youre somewhere busy in public. Obviously you could achieve the same effect other ways with headsets but that would be one benefit. Plus its designed to be in the field (and it just being cool is a good enough reason on its own right to mess with)
@@JackTradeMark I do get the coolness factor. Our gear, though made by the lowest bidder, held up pretty good back in the day. I joined in 1988, so ALICE packs, fanny packs, web gear, shelter halves, and all that good old TA-50 are right up my alley. That coyote brown bag you have is a very popular style, and it was my first HF go bag for my X6100. Great video, btw!
So which antenna do you use?
Ive been experimenting with all of them. But i do like that whip antenna thats a hys-771n if im running the antenna off directly off the pack or that j pole. That little rubber duck is just nice because it fits in the bag well.
To be completely honest, the other week i had some issues with the recieve sensitivity of this radio when i was doing a sota activation so i am currently working on building a mk2 vhf manpack around a yaesu ft-1900r. When its done there should be a video about it.
@@JackTradeMark i got! I just think about manpacking my 7900, and looking for ideas to do it using removable face panel, which allows access to sockets and air for cooling simultaneously. And antenna which can work on this rig)