CHA EMCOMM III Portable Guide: POTA and SOTA Operation

A field antenna earns its place when the operator can deploy it safely, point its useful energy toward the required path, and recover it without improvisation.

The CHA EMCOMM III Portable gives a field station more wire and more deployment choices than the smaller EMCOMM II V2 while remaining a one-pound, one-operator system. Its 73 ft radiator, transformer, line winder, and suspension hardware are designed to move from a backpack to an operating site in under 15 minutes.

What matters for this decision

• Inverted-L or sloping wire: deliberate general-purpose layouts, normally raised around 25 ft or higher; one or two supports depending on shape.
• End-fed inverted-V: a hasty medium-range compromise using one center support, with the far leg and return path arranged from the transformer.
• Horizontal NVIS: low horizontal deployment intended for strong high-angle regional work when propagation permits.
• Plan overhead clearance, public access, feed-line routing, and recovery before raising the wire.
• Practice the configuration before it becomes part of an emergency or field activation plan.

Why operators choose this system

The operator can choose a sloping wire or inverted-L when there is time to use one or two supports, an end-fed inverted-V when one center support and a faster layout make more sense, or a horizontal NVIS arrangement when regional coverage is the priority.

Published operating reference

• Published continuous frequency range: 1.8–55 MHz.
• Published power: 50 W continuous duty and 100 W intermittent duty.
• Published wire length and weight: 73 ft and approximately 1 lb.
• Published setup: one trained operator in less than 15 minutes.

Make the next deployment repeatable

Record product revision, configuration, wire dimensions and bearings, endpoint heights, support hardware, return path, coax and choke condition, tuner state, analyzer reference plane, weather, and on-air reports.