As ham radio operators we are looking for ingenious ways of loading more gear and during our  trip to the 2022 Dayton Hamvention showed no shortage of innovative ways  of making go- boxes, portable radio bags and other ways of portable means. As we walked past and toured the Emmcom vehicles over the course of two days it was really nice to see all of the different options and setups, however during the last day of the convention as me and my son were coming out of one of the buildings, behold appeared one of the more ingenious ideas nobody would think of...  at least not me.

Why not make your dog do the work? Above shows the set up and the guy was nice enough to let us photograph the pup and his harness set-up. 

Now a few things come to mind.....

Do you call it K9 portable or mobile? 

Does the dog need a license (LOL)? 

What would be the wavelength of the dogs tail, and would he needed a Balun ? 

Alright enough with the corny jokes right ? 

Overall I think it was a great set up I didn't ask what he had in the pouches but if one were to guess it would be medication and other essential needs along with the spare HT. This had me thinking if this small dog could carry all of that what could our Boxer-Shepard mix carry? Or any other large breed dog for that matter? Well to answer that question I have devised a list (keeping it under 8lbs) of gear that our dog could carry should we decide to put him to work. 

Here is that list. 

(2) HT radios one being my VX-270 and my DJ-MD5 DMR Radio 

(1) I.F.A.K (individual first aid kit with tourniquet) 

(1) Large pouch  with other supplies and spare batteries 

(1) water bottle holder to keep our friend hydrated

(1) small pouch with dedicated medications or maybe a few energy bars  

Now of course loading down your wife's 5 pound teacup poodle with 10lbs of gear would be cruel and I don't in any way shape or form condone cruelty to animals but it leaves food for thought have we been under utilizing our  4 legged friends?  

Until next time take care and stay Blessed ~73