AmateurRadio.com

Thanks to Julian, G4ILO for drawing my attention to the Albrecht AE2990AFS portable rig on his blog.

As Julian describes, the rig is actually a multimode, multistandard CB rig, but it can be very readily converted for amateur bands use.

With solar activity starting to improve, it seems, 24 and 28MHz should become much more interesting and full of possibilities. Of course, low power and simple antennas will not always get through, but as conditions improve, so will your chances.

I was part of the team that operated from the Comoros islands as D68C back in 2001 and for many of the operators, one of the memorable QSOs that we had was with a portable station in California who was using a handheld 28MHz radio at a bus stop! And one solar cycle before that, I remember listening to mobile stations driving around Tokyo, Japan whilst I was using converted CB rig with a 28MHz vertical in the loft.

As I’ve already got an FT817 it would be hard to justify spending money on the Albrecht, but it certainly looks like a lot of fun and I can imagine them becoming popular.