Things I want for my SHTF Ham Shack

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Links to products to keep in mind as I slowly prepare my shack for both emergency situations and portable ops. These are items I've either learned about through other hams who mentioned them over the air, or through online research. I'll include my thoughts about any of these that I own. If you have feedback about items I've listed or something that I should have listed, I'd love to hear from you!

Goal Zero Solar Power Supplies

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Yaesu FT-857D

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N9TAX 2m / 70cm Slim Jim Antenna

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Navy Flameproof CW Straight Key

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HB-1B QRP Rig Update

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My HB-1B QRP CW Transceiver with external 12v 6800mAH Rechargeable Li-ion Battery, DJG-K4 Morse Code Key, and an iHip speaker - connected to a 40meter simple wire-dipole antenna. Now it just needs an antenna tuner. Today I've been trying to make contacts on 7114.0MHz and 7110.0MHz, no joy so far. I was offered help today from KC4YLV & KB6NU (whose blog I've looked at several times over the last several months, as it turns out) after they saw that I'd be on the air on my Twitter ham feed. I am very thankful for the generous offer to help me try to make my first CW contact. The airwaves (or perhaps my antenna setup?) were not as generous. Maybe next time. We'll get it figured out soon I'm sure, especially with great folks out there who are willing to help a newb out.

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