[quoteUh, 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]

Good! I was just thinking of the emergency power contest announcement in QST, and their picture of W1AW's backup diesel generator. I think it's a 60 KW unit about the size of a large chest freezer, and probably the weight of a small car. I was thinking W1AW were ever to get flooded, that generator would not be of much use.



I just picked up an FT-817ND for myself, along with an LDG Z-11Pro and a few other accessories. The whole thing fits nicely into my Tenba camera bag with lots of room to spare. It's actually a lot smaller than I expected. Of course, doing HF while walking around is always going to be a compromise. BTW, that link didn't work for me...is that a pic from the HFPack group? I looked for K3FOR, and I didn't see anything in the photo list.



Five watts does just fine with a decent antenna. But, decent HF antennas aren't easily portable. Then again, the FT-817ND and my HT's aren't my only means of communications. There's always my FT-100 in the car.



According to Icom's specs, the T7H only puts out 2 W on 4xAA's. The T2H puts out 6 W on 8xAA's, and my W32A puts out 1.5 W on 4xAA's. The newer Yaesu units are even worse off, with the VX-6R only putting out 300 mW on 2xAA's.