Portable radio with the FT857d

I find operating the radio portable can be great fun, especially when the weather is fine. I have been tempted to upgrade the little FT290r for an FT817 all band transceiver but on HF life can be too short for QRP (low power) so it seemed to make better sense to set up the FT857d for portable use and courtesy of a fellow overseas amateur Adrian YO3HJV I have (with some assistance in the construction from Mike 2J0SZI) put the rig in a frame with a 7Amp sealed lead acid battery, the whole lot drops into a suitable rucksack with notebook, pen, compass etc. This works really well and has proved to be good fun whether on a clifftop or on the beach when combined with the superb collapsible Buddipole antenna which has also been modified with suitable guying and ground anchoring!! Even better the frame has been made to connect independantly (courtesy of the FT857's design) for separate HF and VHF antennae, a VHF dual band whip can be screwed on here and at low power (<10 watts) works perfectly as a portable with acceptably low SWR, oh dear, the poor old 290's days are looking bleak!!