Hardware

This chapter is portable and tailgate radios that show up at parks, not a catalog of every SKU a manufacturer ever shipped. Each brand page uses the same skeleton so you can compare families without learning a new layout:

1. Who the page is for
2. Field vs shack table for that family
3. Power, battery, Anderson Powerpole, USB audio, CAT, GPS, Bluetooth — as they actually apply
4. One “first radio in this family” pick
5. Per-radio notes for the models that matter to POTA / SOTA / WWFF / satellites
6. Cabling to Digirig / USB codec / WSJT-X
7. Official manuals (links, not hosted PDFs)
8. Comment if your model is missing

We do not republish vendor menus, screenshots, or manuals. Firmware moves labels. Confirm on the radio and on the manufacturer site.

Brands

Coverage is not complete. If the table does not list your radio, it is not implied to be documented. Comment on the brand page and we will add it in the same skeleton.

What every family shares

Power. Field 100 W is ~20 A on a SSB peak. That wants Anderson Powerpoles, fat wire, and a fused distribution block — not a cigarette lighter. QRP wants a 4S LiFePO4 and a stop around 12.0 V under load. Internal radio packs (BP-272, KX2 cells, KH1) have their own floors — see the brand page. Ethics and pack sizing: ethics.

LiFePO4 in one paragraph. A 4S pack sits near 13.2–13.4 V for most of the discharge, then falls off a cliff. That flat curve is why radios like it. It is also why a voltmeter that still reads “12.8” is not a full tank. Plan hours from amp-hours × ~0.8 usable, not from the brochure. FT8 at 50 W will empty a 20 Ah pack faster than a voice pile at 100 W because the duty cycle is the enemy.

Digital. Radios with a USB codec (IC-705, IC-7300, FT-991A, X6100, FTX-1) go straight into WSJT-X. Radios without USB audio (FT-891, G90, IC-7100 ACC path, many Elecraft) need a Digirig or similar USB sound card plus CAT. Buy the radio-specific Digirig lead. DATA MOD on Icom must match the jack you plugged into (USB vs ACC) — copying a 7300 USB recipe onto a 7100 ACC cable is how you get PTT with no TX audio.

RFI / common-mode. USB codecs, laptops, and Powerpole pigtails all grow RF when the antenna is using the shield as a radial. Choke the coax, ferrite the USB, and fix the antenna. Brand pages do not repeat that lecture; ethics and EFHW do.

Logging. CAT is optional. Polo will take 20m + Send. Wrong band in the ADIF is worse than no CAT. One program owns the serial port: if WSJT-X or FLrig has CAT, N3FJP rig control is none — N3FJP digital setup.

Antennas. Radio choice does not fix a bad match. 4WAVE, EFHW, or a tuner — pick from antennas.

UTC. The radio clock is not LoTW. Set Polo / AC Log / WSJT-X from the same UTC source as the field sheet.

Station context

Station context

Same radios, different constraints: permanent shack · RV & camping · boating.

Habits / gotchas / checklist (any radio)

• Powerpoles on the DC pigtail. Fuse at the pack. Voltage under load still ≥ ~12.0 V on 4S LiFePO4 when you QRT.
• Low-power SWR sweep before 100 W. Tuner is a trim, not an antenna.
• Digital: DATA/USB-D, ALC just moving, clock within one second of UTC.
• CAT address and baud match N3FJP / WSJT-X. If two programs fight the COM port, one of them lets go.
• Band/mode in the logger matches the VFO even if CAT died.
• Official PDF for this firmware is a bookmark, not a file we host.