He does do a good job of making videos.   I’ve watched most of them.  But don’t get too attached to some of the projects he posts.   I think he sold off this radio some time after finishing the project.

@Taft

I for one would really appreciate that. A good parts, battery, etc breakdown like a build list would be fantastic too.

Lots of this sort of stuff in the Ham Radio forum. ;-)

I had a backpack portable "DC to Daylight" rig for a while, to include a .mil handset. Spent most of it's life in the trunk, so I repurposed it.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/outdoors/The_EMCOMM_Box/22-648273/

I think it's a good topic for this forum. Also, The TechPrepper does the "no random contact" videos where he takes his gear into the field to make contact with a designated person thats usually several hundred miles away to show what works and what doesn't. That would be important in a SHTF situation where you want to contact family/friends for health/welfare info and news instead of ragchewing on the ham bands.

I think one of his limiting factors in his "manpack" ideas is the heat of his location. The IC705 is one of the best "manpack" radios for digital communication, but he doesn't like it. It could be because of the heat, maybe the screen can't handle it.

But the 705 is certainly is a smaller, lighter package. He is mostly about logical regional targeted comms in his area. I prefer Julian OH8STN for digital comms, as he really has things dialed in.

But it's good to see Gaston out there making things happen. He shows failures and successes, in the heat of AZ.

I'll distill this down to try to be as succinct as possible.

1) HF signal propagation changes all the time. Almost everything is a matter of probability as to whether a particular path is possible.

2) Amateur HF is a challenging operating environment as far as how things are organized.

3) Almost always (see #1), contacting random people at what most would consider to be long distances is easier than short distances for multiple reasons. To put numbers to that, easier would be probably 750 to 1500 miles, versus more difficult being under 300 miles.

To try to explain HF in a short paragraph, certain radio frequencies are bent by the upper atmosphere (the ionosphere). That "space weather" changes all the time but follows repeating patterns so with some experience you get an idea of where to go to do what you want to do. It is in "space" - the F layer that is mostly responsible for HF signal propagation is 100 to 300 miles up.  At any point in time, the ionosphere bends a range of frequencies, with lower frequencies bending more, and higher frequencies bending less. Bending less is easier, and gets you longer distances, until it's not bending enough to get signals back to earth. Bending more, to get shorter distances, is more difficult. Bending signals a lot, such that they are reflecting at 90 degrees, 135 degrees, even almost 180 degrees, as is needed to get very short distances, can be difficult to coordinate between the condition of the ionosphere and the frequencies that are available. Sometimes it's just not possible to make a particular path.

In a survival communications context, having at-will communications on amateur HF at all is a pretty challenging proposition. If you're willing to designate some particular times that is more reasonable, but there are still technical challenges as well as just the propagation that year/season/day/time/location.

What radio you buy or how you carry it or how cool your backpack is, is of much lower importance compared to propagation, antenna, and operating skill.

If you have fantasies of operating a backpack rig in motion, practical antennas are going to limit you to higher frequencies which limits your time of day as well as making shorter range distances pretty improbable.

+100.

I first got into radio because of this forum and during the first couple years with my general class license I thought I needed a FT817ND for all mode low battery QRP operation should SHTF (because the internet.)   Well I had that rig for a year or two and sold it.    It was hard enough to make pre planned QRP contacts using another method of real time communication to try and coordinate the contact.  Unless you have skilled operators on each end with a predetermined schedule good luck.  I soon realized the effort and reality of making long distance contacts while portable or mobile that would benefit me during any type of realistic or nonrealistic SHTF was pointless.  Currently I have one basic HF base station rig.  All my other SHTF prep radios are VHF mobile (in a car or setup as base) or dual band portables with a wide variety of interop frequencies preprogramed.

For portable operation I put a focus on wide all band receivers for monitoring purposes.  Much more realistic for me using a handheld unit and long wire powered up with 3 AA batteries for the purposes of gathering intel vs trying to talk to someone not in my immediate AO.

He really hit the nail on the head here. I will also add a little bit to this. Much like anything else, practicing and building proficiency is absolutely critical if you want some semi-reliable communications. Buying a radio and expecting to be able to communicate when SHTF is not going to work well for most people. Military ALE systems are an easy button for radio and that is not even 100%. Knowing how to configure the antenna and what frequency to use at certain times is absolutely necessary. This can be difficult with full size antennas with 400-500 watts. I could not even tell you how many times the noise level has been so bad that most people with 100 watts could not even be heard, and the ones that were heard were in that golden zone of take-off angle and MUF levels. Now trying that with 20-10-5 watts is an absolute challenge for even extremely skilled operators. Please do not let that stop you though, small packable rigs are great to have and can build operating skills. It is amazing where 5 watts can get you. Digital modes can also help that as well.

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Here is a portable setup I put together. Android phone running digital. Portable full size Dipole antenna with twin lead on camping close line reels. Also, have a multi band base loaded whip.

Amateur radio folks do a lot of things to see what is possible - that's fun for technically minded folks. Many things they do are on the fringes of possibilities... completely the opposite of "simple and reliable" which is what most would desire in SHTF communications. You need a background of knowledge and experience to see the "lay of the land" as it were, to know where the } fringe {} commonplace {} semi-reliable { continuum is and how to get where you want to go.

The common amateur practice for disaster response has been for folks outside of a disaster area (hurricane, etc) to maintain a loose network on particular frequencies, folks from inside the disaster zone could then hopefully contact one or more of those folks outside the zone, who could pass along traffic/messages as needed.

The Tech Prepper is building a knowledge base, what works and when and what doesn't. He makes no illusions that you just throw a wire in the air and you have guaranteed communication. I think he's trying to motivate hams to get out and try different things in the field and learn what works and what doesn't. Just like Field Day isn't a contest but a trial run for emergency communication, at least that's what it started out as before it became a contest. SOTA and POTA, while fun, are the same thing. It gets HAMS out of the shack with some portable gear to stretch their knowledge base.
I've been licensed for over 30 years and I think HAM radio and prepping are a perfect combination and am glad to see guys like TechPrepper mixing hiking/camping with HAM radio with a dash of prepping mixed in. He has motivated me to try some portable operating.
I'd rather know what works and what doesn't now versus after a disaster strikes.

I cannot get FT8cn to transmit. Something about android 11-12 update removing the audio from the usbc.