Nice backpack for QRP work!
I was around 8-10y old, and my uncle in Belfast had gifted me his ZX Spectrum 48 because he had upgraded, with a bunch of game cassettes. This had to be carried around so Grandpa probably took me to a shop in Dundrum (Newcastle NI), they used to live in a nature reserve near the village.
It was one of those shops in small villages where they sell everything. So he gave me a small fishing tackle bag, including the waterproof removable bait bits. It was perfect for the ZX, power supply, games and a tape for loading the games + jacks. It just fitted everything nice and tight. For the next number of years I used to pack the ZX and go to friends to play games. It was simply brilliant.
Many moons later, I found it also perfect for carrying books around - and I used to be a massive reader of SF until COVID-19 made me too nervous to concentrate more than 15 seconds.
The bag still kicks around, about 35 years later, but it has worn off badly, and both of my NI grandparents are gone for more than 20 years now.
So, I was telling my wife about this bag, and maybe I should check fishing shop sites for something similar.
Then on an amateur radio group in Facebook I noticed another amateur showing off his wonderful QRP hiking setup. A fishing bag, with a perfect place to hang an antenna, and enough space for a radio, tuner and power supply plus other bits and bobs + and a sandwich and drinks.
And it was relatively cheap, around £27. So I ordered one.
It's perfect. I love it!
Side effect of all this is I've been thinking about my grandparents a lot. My last remaining grandparent, my Granny on my father's side had died last month and I still haven't fully appreciated the loss - with the lockdowns and everything I haven't been able to go to the funeral, it was in another country in any case and with my parents' ages and past illnesses it'd be stupid to risk it.
