Hey thanks for the likes!
I forgot to mention the power source… A Bioenno BLF-1230A 30AH LiFePO4 battery. Also, a 2L Hydrapak for hydration, mounted externally inside the pack frame between my back and the main compartment.
The acoustic tube earpiece shown in one of the pics is awesome for hiking. You can’t even feel it while you are wearing it but you can hear everything loud and clear without creating a bunch of noise out in the wilderness. I made the audio output cable with a 2.5mm mono connection for that earpiece and a 3.5mm stereo connection for standard earbuds for more focused, stationary ops.
The DRA-30 PTT is wired to an aux input set to ‘alt ptt’ which is a separate identifiable channel on a per system basis so no matter what channel I’m using for comms, APRS beacons are always sent on the correct channel. Scanning is quick enough that I can usually catch APRS data while scanning so I don’t have to just sit in 144.39000mHz all the time to receive messages, although that’s the safest thing to do if I’m waiting for something important!
Lastly since the radio is FPP, I can simply alter the ‘DATA’ channel (activated via ‘alt ptt’) to use other frequencies for modes like VARA FM and never have to worry about the data being sent to a channel other than the data channel set aside for that system. This has been a tremendous learning experience and it’s all ready just in time for summer!!
-B
I forgot to mention the power source… A Bioenno BLF-1230A 30AH LiFePO4 battery. Also, a 2L Hydrapak for hydration, mounted externally inside the pack frame between my back and the main compartment.
The acoustic tube earpiece shown in one of the pics is awesome for hiking. You can’t even feel it while you are wearing it but you can hear everything loud and clear without creating a bunch of noise out in the wilderness. I made the audio output cable with a 2.5mm mono connection for that earpiece and a 3.5mm stereo connection for standard earbuds for more focused, stationary ops.
The DRA-30 PTT is wired to an aux input set to ‘alt ptt’ which is a separate identifiable channel on a per system basis so no matter what channel I’m using for comms, APRS beacons are always sent on the correct channel. Scanning is quick enough that I can usually catch APRS data while scanning so I don’t have to just sit in 144.39000mHz all the time to receive messages, although that’s the safest thing to do if I’m waiting for something important!
Lastly since the radio is FPP, I can simply alter the ‘DATA’ channel (activated via ‘alt ptt’) to use other frequencies for modes like VARA FM and never have to worry about the data being sent to a channel other than the data channel set aside for that system. This has been a tremendous learning experience and it’s all ready just in time for summer!!
-B
