Quote:

Quote:
Most of the repeaters in my area have diesel generator back up that's _supposed_ to be good for three days.

A backup generator doesn't do much good if it's under water. Some of the new Honda generators are more than enough to run a 100 W mobile station and portable enough to be moved up to the higher stories of a building, if need be. Of course, running a gas-fired generator inside a building is a questionable practice...

Uh, I guess I should have mentioned that the repeaters with diesel generator back up are on local hilltops a few hundred to a couple of thousand feet up, and they are not in buildings (although the generator sets are housed). If the backup generators are underwater, we have more problems than we can deal with. No one will be carrying the generators, as they are fixed in place. Nothing is portable at the repeater sites, and no one is living in the buildings with the generator sets.

Quote:
Or something like the Yaesu FT-817ND, which will work all-band, all-mode, and isn't much more difficult to transport than the average HT, plus it still runs off of AAs in a pinch, even at 5 watts. Most HT's won't run full power on AAs--they usually automatically turn down to 2 W, 1.5 W, or even .5 or .3 W when running on AAs. The 817 goes automatically to 2.5 W, but can be manually reset to 5 W.

I have an FT-817. I would not say it's as portable as a handheld radio. Especially if you are trying to carry it around by hand. See
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/sFFRQ2bAZ9o...FOR/manpack.jpg
(or http://tinyurl.com/ac6ao if the above link wraps and breaks)
for the most portable FT-817 I've seen used on HF. Instead of dragging a counterpoise, this user has an antenna with radials -- but be careful, it'll poke your eye out. I'd consider that get up much more difficult to deal with than an HT. Somewhere you cross the line between being hardy enough to carry that gear and being foolhardy for carrying it around. Imagine walking around in a building or getting in and out of an automobile with that rig.

Additionally, if you are trying to do emergency HF communications on an FT-817 at its maximum of 5 watts, you will be sadly disappointed. Five watts on HF even with a decent antenna just doesn't do the job.

My Icom T7H and T2H both run five watts on AAs, by the way. That's why I picked them. The thing about AAs, though, is that they're everywhere. You can scavange AAs from wall clocks, flashlights, transistor radios, backup power for alarm clocks, and on and on. When your rechargeable battery runs out and you have no power, you need another source. My preference is AAs.

Your mileage will vary. As will the Original Poster's.

Phil