I saw this on a post to the POTA Facebook page by Mike Kelly. It seems he forgot to take a 12V power cable with him on one of his activations. He was using a (tru) SDX transceiver which can run off its USB port, so his day wasn't ruined, but he was limited to 0.75 Watts output. That my friends, is QRPp, and he was still able to make his 10 contacts.
In turn, after hearing his story, a friend of his turned him on to this, available through Amazon:
This booster will allow you to power your 12V devices from the USB-A port on your laptop. It probably kills the battery fast, but for only $10, it's probably a good thing to have in your go kit. I don't take a laptop with me on portable ops outings, but I'm thinking it might be a handy thing to have in the event of a prolonged power failure at home; or maybe during some kind of CERT activation.
Looks like Summer is coming to an end and the seasons will be changing soon here in Central New Jersey (it's official now, BTW. There IS a Central New Jersey even though those of us who live here always knew that - but that's a story for another time). We've been having a lot of rain and thunderstorms lately. It seems like almost every day for the past week or two. On Monday evening in particular, there was quite the light show in the sky during the drive home from work. However, today is supposed to be the last day of it. The forecast for the coming week is for cooler daytime temps and overnight lows in the 50s. We'll be able to turn off the A/C and open the windows - AND I'll be able to leave my antennas connected for the foreseeable future.
On the flip side, the leaves will begin their annual suicidal jumps. Charles Schulz had the idea!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
This is exactly the sort of thing I think about when I hear people saying that they're going to get some equipment ready, and then put it in a box for disasters.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to make sure that you're ready is to practice practice practice. Our friend Mike is infinitely more prepared because he has done it over and over again, And things like this show up in the course of going portable. And he gets to have fun in the process!