I’ll be heading on vacation around the 4th here soon and I’ll be bringing my radio with, so I figured why not get a few new gadgets.

The first is a tuner (MFJ-902B).  For some reason when I got my general I thought tuners were pointless, so instead when I was outside I would raise and lower the Buddipole about 15 times to get it just right with an analyzer.  My hopes are I can get the Buddipole close, and use the tuner to fine-tine it.  If I can set it up and turn a few knobs instead I’m interested.

Next I got a battery booster (MFJ-4416C).  When I get outside I use a deep-cycle SLA gel battery and I’ve heard good reports here that this device can help keep the voltage up as the battery is getting lower.  Honestly I have no idea how this works (like how does 11 volts suddenly get changed to 13.8?) but if it can keep my rig inside operating voltages the whole time it should help.  I’ve heard these can destroy batteries if they are discharged too far, however my battery is a deep cycle battery that can stand being fully discharged up to 300 times, so I’m curious how far I can push it.

I also got the counterpoise wire assembly from Buddipole, I want to get serious about the vertical setup for 20 meters and lower as the bands have been crap lately.

Once I try all this out I will have some updates, and hopefully more contacts.