High Bluff Trail & Yaesu FT-70d

In the gap two weeks between the opening few days taste of deer season and the For Reals Months Long Deer Season, I grabbed a quick hike today on the High Bluff Trail between Eastpoint & Carrabelle.  It was kind of impromptu: load the 22L pack with the day's supplies & go.  Beautiful weather, topping out around 60F under bright blue skies.  The trail was a little wet, maybe 3" at most, so I just bulled through and have my boots in front of a fan drying now.  The foliage was... well, it's what we've got here in NW FL.  Beautiful fall colors, no not really, but at least the turkey oaks can show a change of season.

I took along the FT-70 HT.  I'm getting used to it, and really starting to like it.  I kept it scanning the 2m & 70cm calling channels, the sports talk channel (the real one), and the local 70cm SARNET repeater.  Here's a short list of observations re the '70:

• The stock rubber duck antenna is convenient.  With the '70 on the pack strap (belt clip in a too-small cell phone pocket), it rides at the right height and the stock antenna doesn't poke my face or bang against my hat brim.  Perfect.  If only it performed better; more on this below.
• It was set up to scan the first three of the channels, but I wanted SARNET in there as well.  It's simple enough that I figured out without a manual.  Button's right there on the bottom row.
• Receive from the repeater – being 20 miles away – was patchy in the dips, but very steady on the hilltops.
• Transmit was somewhere between "no way" and "scratchy but useable" depending upon elevation.  This is no real surprise, as the repeater puts out about 10 dB more power.
• Solutions: (A) use the 16" long Comet whip antenna, gain maybe 6 dB, and live with it banging on hat brim; (B) previous, plus an 18" tiger tail ground wire, and gain maybe another 3 dB; (C) rock on with the rubber duck antenna for listening, then stop & hang the N9TAX antenna in a tree if I need to transmit.  Personally, I like Option C.  Also, when hiking Wright's Lake trail the duck'll do fine, being only 2 miles from the repeater.  Convenience for the win.
• A couple of feet of paracord (pictured) makes a first-class leash in case the clip fails.
  
• In real-world practice on the trail, I had to turn the speaker volume down and the mic gain up.
• The battery was already low, so I brought along a spare.  Didn't need it, but it was good to have along.  Li batts are light, too.  Remember, when not in use, pop a 70's battery out to keep it from running down.  Works great, these will hold a nearly full charge for... I haven't found out yet.  At least six months.
• The FT-70d has all but replaced the FT-60 as my go-to trail radio.  Still keeping the '60 though, because I'm thinking about branching off into satcoms.
• More on the FT-70d: manual programming, chirp programming, splits, battery management.
• As always: Do and Learn.

All for today.  Got to go finish unpacking, cleaning, & stowing gear.