I did some testing at The Abbey yesterday for several hours - including operating JS8, Winlink with VARA HF and also did some POTA hunting.
I'm going through the process of documenting configurations for my Icom 705 and 7100 to switch between multiple modes so I have the info handy for field use. I'm also working through what I need and what I don't need - as I have a tendency to take way too much stuff when I go anywhere to play radio.
One unresolved issue I discovered is that with my 7100, even on lower power settings (i.e. 15W), there appears to be RFI (likely) which is causing the data link to fail between the radio and the computer. I receive an error indicating the sound card couldn't be initialized. So I have been "studying up" on that - and have taken some action on it in an effort to resolve.
Thank you to Shane for assistance with tuning/cutting my new xtenna EFHW antenna. I used it almost exclusively during the testing and it has large swaths of "acceptable" resonance on multiple bands. I need to re-test it with an analyzer and put a label on it indicating where it's resonant.
Also - during my field testing, I did finally run out of power. I operated for pretty much 7 hours straight - and used my 6ah, 12ah and 30ah batteries - and had them on my 100w Bioenno solar panels for most of the time. I think I do need to get another battery, a 15ah, as the 12ah is a bit underpowered for QRO and the 30ah is just too big for field work, IMO.
Anyway, here are a few photos...
