The photo on the right shows the portable set-up which I use these days. The radio is the Elecraft K2 which is powered by a NiCad battery pack which will allow operation during the whole of a week-end. I also have a small switch-mode mains driven PSU for when a mains hook-up is available.

My main interest is in CW operation on all the HF bands 80m and above. The rig will run about 15W output, but in the interests of battery consumption, and the wish to stay within QRP power limits, is usually set to 5W or less. Antennas vary with site, but usually consist of a fishing pole groundplane for the higher frequency bands and an end fed LW for all bands. The K2 has its own auto ATU which works very well indeed, and even allows fast switching of antennas for comparison purposes. For CW connoiseurs, the paddle is by Kent, and the keyer itself is internal within the K2.

The fishing rod ground-plane antenna can just be seen between the two trees on the left of the photo. At this particular site, the other antenna is a 90ft end-fed wire with the centre supported high in a tree. Very handy too! This will tune 80m to 10m using the auto-ATU in the K2.