Your portable kit cannot be fully completed until you add the 817 Sherpa II Pack by Portable Zero LLC. It is another “must have” add on! Especially designed for the FT-817/818, this pack makes sure all you essential gears needed for your outdoor operation will have it’s dedicated space. All pictures are a courtesy of Portable Zero … Continue reading 817 Sherpa II Pack by Portable Zero LLC, a must have for all backpackers

The Z-817 from LDG Electronics is an automatic tuner intended for use with the Yaesu FT-817/818 QRP transceiver. It interfaces with the transceiver through its CAT port set at 38,400 baud rate, providing full control of the tuning cycle. This makes it an integrated tuner powered by the interface; with the internal 4 AA batteries, … Continue reading An automatic tuner to seriously consider for a FT-817/818

Obtained years ago (look at my serial number 000A) from his creator BG5ROJ Xuan Wang, I recently brought back to life this marvellous piece of hardware, that is indeed a great portable solution for the digital enthusiast in the field. The digital modem can encode/decode BPSK31/63, RTTY, QPSK and CW modes without a PC, specially … Continue reading BG5ROJ digital modem, a great solution for the digital enthusiast in the field

It might be easy to memorize only some functions, but to be efficient at all time, it may requires when using a bunch of functions, maybe a little bit of help will be welcome. The cheat sheet is a nice reminder on how to use almost all available functions with the BG5ROJ digital modem. You may … Continue reading BG5ROJ cheat sheet, a must have in the field!

Back in 2016 when I attended FDIM vendors night, a nice antenna tuner kit called 4S-Tuner picked my curiosity, and this is why I decided to buy one! Designed by David Cripe NM0S, it is very versatile, and will let you tune from a single wire to a convential dipole or end-fed antenna. No power … Continue reading A nice kit to build, a versatile antenna tuner to have!

I recently found on Amazon a very nice small keyboard to use with BG5ROJ digital modem. Instead of using a regular USB keyboard, this one use a RF 2.4 GHz transceiver dongle. I found this approach very convenient when using in the field. The price is really cheap... around 20$ USD. Power consumption is really … Continue reading A great portable duo in the field!

I recently added to my portable gears the FT-817/818 escort by Portable Zero. It is indeed a really nice add-on to protect your transceiver when operating in the field. But much more, the tilt stand offers a more convinient position when operating. You may also use your original strap with quick release hangers.  Made from … Continue reading FT-817/818 escort by Portable Zero, a really nice add-on

I finally get back to life my digital modem from BG5ROJ. After 2 years stored in my closet, I finally decided to give it another try..... It woke up! In the mean time, I also upgraded the firmware to the latest I have 1.04C. The documentation, latest firmware and user cheat sheet are available in … Continue reading Digital Modem from BG5ROJ… back to life!