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Home Gear Store Join HFpack Groups and Forums News and Info Nets and Frequencies Articles HF Antenna Shootouts HFpacker Photos Hall of Fame Equipment Ionosphere Maps  Propagation Meet the  Moderators About HFpack Gear Store  Customer  Support	HFpack News New HFpack Gear Store Grand Opening Have you ever wanted one of those T-shirts, hats or buttons you've seen HFpackers wearing in the field, at hamfests, and club meetings? Well, now it's as easy to get them as a click of your mouse. HFpack just opened the Official HFpack Gear Store, and it has over 100 cool items, including shirts, hats, clocks, mugs, field notebooks, camo/green stuff, accessory bags, buttons, stickers, mousepads, frequency lists, and many other things for your shack or portable operation. Now you can support HFpack and get the kind of stuff you like at the same time. Great for gifts... Immediate delivery... Check it out... HFpackers Converged on Pacificon HFpack group meets every year at Pacificon for technical forums, operating events, equipment demos, eyeball QSO gatherings, dinners, and other activities. Pacificon is USA's premier West Coast Ham Convention in San Ramon, CA USA, and this year it was held on 13-15 October. HFpack Event Director, Ken WB6MLC put on a great forum this year, and lined up plenty of interesting things for all the HFpackers to do. Read more... ALE On The Air Week, First Event of its Kind Just when you thought we were at the dead bottom of the solar cycle... ALE ham operators everywhere are making many successful Automatic Link Establishment QSOs on HF. Sponsored by HFLINK, ALE On The Air Week was 13-23 October 2006, and it was the first ham event ever based entirely on ALE QSOs. The reports are coming in from all around the world, with ALE operators in Argentina, USA, Australia, Switzerland,Spain, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, France, UK, and others on the air... many operators starting to use ALE for the first time. Read more...
HFpack Forum at Pacificon See Photos of the HFpack Forum    Featured speakers this year were: Wayne N6KR of Elecraft with the KX1 QRP transceiver; famous HFpacker Ken WB6MLC with the main presentation of HFpack Technology; HFpacker Oliver KB6BA with HF SSB Remote Mobile; Virgil K5OOR of HF Projects with the Super Packer 100W linear amplifier; Vern W6MMA of Super Antennas with MP1 portable 10 band rotatable dipole; Chris W6HFP of W3FF Antennas with the 80m Buddipole coil; and James KA5DVS of Pacific Antennas, with the Pac-12 portable antenna kits. The very popular Equipment Demo segment of the HFpack Forum included W6MMA's Motorized Cooler HF Mobile, WB6MLC and WB6W's AOR Digital Voice portable HF backpack-to-backpack QSO, KB6BA's HF SSB remote mobile to VHF/UHF HT QSO, and various interesting antenna setups.  CLICK photo to see HFpack Forum Photos The HFpack Forum theme this year was "HFpack Technology" The Door Prize Drawings at the HFpack Forum included many generous donations of HF Portable Equipment from LDG, SuperAntennas, HF Projects, Elecraft, HRO, Pacific Antennas, and Hendricks QRP Kits. Needless to say, we had many very happy HFpackers and QRP operators in the audience who won these great prizes! Annual HFpack Zombie Walk at Pacificon Those crazy HFpack HF pedestrian mobile "Zombies" were out stirring in the night air again on Saturday before the Wouff Hong had a chance to strike! This is a traditional event where strange backpack HF operators come alive outside among the trees. A real highlight this year was Dale WA7IXK running a VX-1210 backpack and 20ft whip with luminous spiral blue lightwire antenna. Most of the action was on 40m and 60m, and a good time was had by all, even though propagation was dismal.  Ken WB6MLC HFpack Events Director ---------------------------> Ken puts out one of the biggest Pedestrian Mobile signals on the West Coast USA. What's his secret? Why not ask him what's in his pack sometime? You can catch him on the air or on the HFpack Group. ALE On The Air Week Just when you thought we were at the dead bottom of the solar cycle... ALE ham operators everywhere are making many successful ALE QSOs on HF.  The reports are coming in from all around the world,with ALE operators in Argentina, USA, Australia, Switzerland,Spain, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, France, UK, and others on the air... with many operators starting to use ALE for the first time. In North America, ALE signals were happening every few minutes. The event ran from 13 to 23 October 2006. Even some 14MHz ALE DX pileups were seen! 7MHz produced some very impressive ALE DX, as well as solid regional and NVIS contacts. ALE operators also reported the160m, 80m, 30m, 17m, and 15m bands were producing usable signalsat various times of the day. If you have ever thought about getting started in amateur radio ALE, whether for Emergency Communications, or just fun, this is the perfect time to try it. There are some unusually good QSOs happening... Experience the power of ALE :) AOTAW2006 the Automatic Link Establishment QSO Party HFLINK sponsored this new International Amateur Radio event called ALE On The Air Week (AOTAW). All ham radio operators worldwide were invited to participate in 10 days of amateur radio HF-ALE Automatic Link Establishment and HF Selcall activity. It was open operating event for all hams to explore ALE communications and equipment. The experience gained is also useful for HF emergency and disaster relief communications.There are now hundreds of amateur radio operators worldwide with ALE stations. The AOTAW gave operators a chance to exercise ALE transceivers, antennas, software, systems, and operating procedures. About ALE On The Air Week AOTAW provided a way for more operators to gain valuable practical knowledge and expertise in the operation of an Amateur Radio ALE station. Amateur operators who use ALE for government and non-governmental organisations are especially interested, for it provided more chances to work with ALE linking and a greater understanding of the system. The 10 days of AOTAW enabled operators to participate as they could, for any amount of time in the event, and experience ALE operation under various ionospheric propagation conditions. Another AOTAW is being planned for early next year. More information: HFLINK WEBSITE HFpack Antenna Shootouts The HFpack HF Portable Antenna Shootouts compare a variety of HF antennas for maximum gain and performance in the typical HF Portable Antenna environment, applicable to QRP and QRO power levels. The HFpack Antenna Shootouts have become a standard benchmark for HF portable and QRP operators. HFpack is dedicated to furthering the state of the art for portable HF antennas and communications. For the QRP antenna ham operator, it is important to get the maximum signal radiated. Also, for QRO emergency portable operations, the antenna efficiency for a small antenna that can be set up on site is crucial to dependable HF and NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) regional communications. A pedestrian antenna is an antenna that may be carried easily and set up quickly by the operator. The HFpack Pedestrian Shootouts measured pedestrian HF antenna systems to a fraction of a decibel, and the reports are presented as a service to radio operators around the world. Read more... Meet the Moderators of HFpack Group HFpack has become one of the largest fully-moderated groups of this kind in the world. It remains a high quality group because a team of skilled moderators makes it run smoothly and efficiently. Every day, the volunteer moderators read every message posted by members. They approve it, reject it, or clean it up before it goes out to the 6000+ members via email or the web. Moderators process new membership applications, and help members who are having problems with their messages or membership. Such a spammer-free and flame-free group would not be possible on the internet without the watchful eyes of these talented people. All of the moderators on the HFpack team possess a unique combination of technical expertise, HF portable radio knowledge, talent for writing/editing, and even-handed patience for interacting with people. Every moderator is also an active HF portable operator and radio enthusiast. We hope the new Meet the Moderators section of the HFpack website gives you a little insight behind the scenes, into the human beings that make HFpack Group an enjoyable experience. Bonnie KQ6XA Founder/Webmaster/Moderator "I founded HFpack wondering if 25 operators in the world might be interested in lightweight HF Portable. 65 joined the first day and..." read more Virgil K5OOR -Moderator “I am happy to donate my time to help lift the quality of the HFpack forum high. My passion is the creation of home construction projects for the radio...” read more Ken N0VZ -Moderator "I first became interested in amateur radio as a means of emergency communications while hiking and four wheeling in the back country of..." read more Bob AB7ST -Moderator "I became a DXer as KA7RF while stationed in Fukuoka, Japan. Now in Utah, USA, my portable activity even includes HF Snowshoe Mobile and..." read more Sasi VK5SN -Moderator “Starting out as VU3SNM in India, my work as a marine biologist has since taken me all over the world for remote HF portable on islands and..."read more John K6ERO-Moderator “My first DX was Venezuela on 6 meters Pedestrian Mobile with an old FT-690RII at 2 Watts! From that point, I was hooked. I got into HF military packsets as...” read more Budd W3FF -Backup Moderator "My main interest is modular portable antennas. I've been operating HF walking portable for many years, and joined HFpack when..." read more Oliver KB6BA -Hall of Fame Curator “As an avid trail hiker, I began taking radio gear to hilltops, my Portable HF activity increased when I had HFpack friends to talk with while...” read more

About HFpack: However you spell it, HF pack H.F. Pack H-F pack or HF-pack, HFpack is all about: High Frequency Portable transceivers and HF portable antennas, HF antennas, portable HF antennas. HF SSB/CW/Data. Amateur commercial marine. Handhelds backpacks, carry-ons, HF pack manpacks. Pedestrian and Human Powered Mobiles. Manual and automatic antenna tuning. The HF Portable Antenna is a critical part of the HF portable amateur radio station. HFpack helps operators to choose the right antennas. QRP is an important aspect in HFpack for equipment and antennas. Telescopic tape folding and collapsible antennas, dipole, broadband hf vertical antennas. These are the things that make HFpack an interesting part of the HF operator's resources.  Battery solar crank alternative energy power supplies. Compact lightweight miniature equipment. Handsets headsets microphones earphones keyers. Low power TX/RX techniques. Portable amplifiers. Hiking camping bicycling kayaking and expeditions.