QRP is great for being prepared because:

[Quiet1]

Go with a 857D or the 897D with batteries.  Take the 100 watts.

Couldn't agree more.  Especially with the downside solar cycle, QRP is getting to be too much of a sporting challenge hobby and less of a practical way of yelling for help.  Throw in the new LiFEPO batteries, and suddenly operating 100w backpack portable is way more doable than ten years ago.

Guess I finally overcame my desire for an 817.  Too many VOACAP simulations of the realistic coverage area next Aug 29th^* on 5w vs 100w (for both SSB and CW) did it for me.  Even if this means giving up on the dream of 3 lbs of Camelbak portable.


^*Trivia Question: What two, ah, survival events are associated with this date?  What were the years?  Hint: one is fictional, the other all too real.

[spacecase0]

I debated with myself for a long time over the 857 or 817 choice
got the 817 first in an error...
got the 857 much later because that is what I wanted in the first place
now many many years later
the 817 runs perfect, my 857 is broken, no one can here me on HF at all, they say it sounds like RF feedback to the microphone. and that is not it at all as I have tested it
the idle current gets messed up in the finals of each of the radios, so after time you have to go calibrate them again
I did this for each of them and did it for my version of the radio
still did not fix the 857 (other than on 2M ssb)
now I can listen to myself and here perfect audio from the 857 on HF, but 50 miles away no one can copy me.
so after I came to terms with the 857 failure I had my FT2900 fail on me, it was a filter.
turns out that they put DC voltage on filters that the specifications say you should not be doing
and it was not just the FT2900 or the 857, it was also the 817 and the VX-3
so out of 5 radios from them (2 were the same), I have one that still works
was likely blind luck that my 817 is the one still running
even talked to a representative about this at the visalia DX convention and they said they knew about the issue and that the engineering department had been told and seemed not to care.
so my suggestion to others is give up on the 817 VS the 857 question and move on to any other brand
my alinco dx77 is the only thing that seems to make contacts on lately, and I find that sad because it was suppose to be some low end junk, yet it has been perfect through the test of time.
go look at the schematics and see if your radio puts DC voltage on your IF filters

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Space

Have you tried the Full CPU reset on the 857?  I have had to do it to mine about 3 times.

We get a lot of static built up in wire antennas with the dry conditions(low  humidity) has caused issues in the past as well as conditions with T-Storms and big electrical discharges ie Flash-Bang Thunder. 

Look at page 117 and domthe full reset
Home +Power On

[spacecase0]

will try that, did it before with no results,
but if you needed to do it 3 times, will try it 10 or more to see what it does
should I go through the service calibration again after I do it ?

[Tempstar]

Did the QRP thing, lots of fun, but if I really needed that radio, I'm gonna blast 100 watts until I make a contact, then I can reduce power to continue.What good is a lot of battery life if you can't be copied?

[Quiet1]

Did the QRP thing, lots of fun, but if I really needed that radio, I'm gonna blast 100 watts until I make a contact, then I can reduce power to continue.What good is a lot of battery life if you can't be copied?

Pretty much my take on it too.  At this Winter Field Day, I made a dozen contacts running 100w and went through 4 AH of current off my LiFEPO battery – that's one third of what that 3.6 lb batt holds.  In a real emergency, backing off to 50w could almost double this.  That's more than enough for a month of post-hurricane daily check-ins.  If I can't dig my solar panels out of the debris or scavenge another power source and get things charging again in that time frame, I've likely got bigger problems than a low battery.

[ghrit]

This one is a bit heavier, but might serve.
http://www.lithiumion-batteries.com/products/product/12v-20ah-lithium-ion-battery.php?gclid=CJ7B0aL7xtICFdK3wAodsD0DmA

[Quiet1]

This one is a bit heavier, but might serve.
http://www.lithiumion-batteries.com/products/product/12v-20ah-lithium-ion-battery.php?gclid=CJ7B0aL7xtICFdK3wAodsD0DmA

Pretty nice.  I went with a Bioenno a few months ago.  Don't know how their products compare directly, but the prices are a little better.  Here's their ham/comms line-up: https://www.bioennopower.com/collections/lifepo4-batteries-for-communication-equipment-ham-radio

The whole world of batteries is changing so fast that last month's fantastic bargain is this month's old news.  Talked about it with a chemist who's up on battery technology and also a ham last year; his prediction was that this battery situation wouldn't settle down for another five years or so.  In the meantime... enjoy the show.

[apache235]

Interesting info on batteries, thanks for the link 

[spacecase0]

I talked with an engineer for Bioenno power for about a half hour, he knows radio because he is a ham radio operator
he was very technically skilled, knows of the failing points of designs that most companies seem to have and showed me how they had made sure to avoid every issue I came up with.
with them you are not going to have failures from some RF getting into your battery, corrosion or damp dusty environments should not be an issue, they are fully protected and continually balanced so you can decide never to charge them past 80% and nothing will break, and many more things I can't remember.
can't imagine that any other company has done better than they have.

[spacecase0]

Space

Have you tried the Full CPU reset on the 857?  I have had to do it to mine about 3 times.

We get a lot of static built up in wire antennas with the dry conditions(low  humidity) has caused issues in the past as well as conditions with T-Storms and big electrical discharges ie Flash-Bang Thunder. 

Look at page 117 and domthe full reset
Home +Power On

that seems like it should not have worked to clean up outgoing audio quality,
yet it did...
thank you.

[Quiet1]

Thanks for the word from Bioenno, Spacecase.  Good to hear that it's a real company with real engineering going into their products.

on to another topic...

that seems like it should not have worked to clean up outgoing audio quality,
yet it did...

Go figure.  Maybe it reset some of the DSP stuff?

[spacecase0]

I put all the settings back the way they were, had the DSP off for testing before the reset anyway,
and I figure that means that it reset some "hidden" setting (it always worked fine on FM )
maybe it got messed up when I used CHRIP to program the frequencies a few years ago ?

need to make paper backups of all the memories if this thing needs to be reset all the time

[ghrit]

I put all the settings back the way they were, had the DSP off for testing before the reset anyway,
and I figure that means that it reset some "hidden" setting (it always worked fine on FM )
maybe it got messed up when I used CHRIP to program the frequencies a few years ago ?

need to make paper backups of all the memories if this thing needs to be reset all the time

I've never used Chirp, so don't know how it works or what it looks like on screen.  But RTSystems saves the settings in an easy to print out format sim to Excel.  I keep hard copy with the mobile, comes in handy when out of the usual stompin' grounds.

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that seems like it should not have worked to clean up outgoing audio quality,
yet it did...
thank you.

You are welcome sir.