I decided to bought a Yaesu FT-817ND portable transceiver in order to try out the traffic with a QRP station. The idea behind this choice is to restrict myself to a 5 watts output power that will oblige me to start to be more focused on propagation and antennas subjects to allow me making contacts.
The package proposed by Yaesu is perfect for me with this “ND” version as it come with :
- FNB-85 NiMH battery
- Wall charger
- Traditional batteries case
Despite many notices read on internet, this unit is capable to output 5W on the battery pack. For sure the autonomy of the original FNB-85 battery pack will drastically reduce, but if you are not part of the ones that spend a lot of time behind the radio it can be enough.
I bought this transceiver together with an ATX Walkabout antenna (that will be the subject of another post) in order to have a real portable solution to bring with me in week-end and/or holidays.
This is my Yaesu FT817-ND together with the Kenwood AT-130 Antenna Tuner and the Microset PTS124 power supply:
The portable station together with the ‘Ham Radio Deluxe’ software in order to run digital modes :
The portable station in SSB operation :
