Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

While they may cost more, a ground independent multi-wavelength antenna like the Diamond SG7900 works fine lip mounted and they run circles around 1/4wave antennas. The SG7900 even works great on my motorcycle.

 

A couple good portables...

 

I would personally go with a bigger battery and ditch the solar. I have a 110 amp hour SLA that I use all weekend on field day with a 100 watt radio and when I run radio ops for rally races with 50 watt mobile radio. If you rely on the solar and its cloudy, you could be effed. FWIW a buddy has a 75 amp hour and also has no issues running all weekend.

 

You giving it away?

 

No

 

Any thoughts how the Diamond SG7900 would work mounted in the pickup bed or just behind the rear lights on each side?

 

Directional....

 

<Raises hand>

 

I really don't like hood mounts for a variety of reasons. Blasting 50+ watts into your face violates FCC exposure limits. Depending upon where you put the antenna, the A pillar will effect SWR and directivity. I can get on board with a CB antenna on a ditch light mount. It's only 5w, and at 27 mHz. An HF antenna on the front brush guard seems ok as well. But I'd never do 2m / 70cm on a ditch light. IMHO.

I'd definitely prefer anything on the roof. I'd much rather have a short antenna on the roof, then a compromised gain antenna. Drill the NMO. it's the right way to do it. Additionally it can be less destructive then a mag mount. Magmounts tend to leave a circle of scuffed paint. You can pop a plastic insert into an NMO and no one will question it when you sell it.

 

After ripping the NMO roof mount out of my 97 Tacoma in the woods I now mount them on the bed rail in the 11 with an aluminum angle guess what not a damn bit of difference TX RX. 10-80 2-440 and 220 in between. So much for the need of a massive ground plane the biggest issue in a mobile is ground loss. Looks like a trawler but I have no issue communicating with the world.

 

"blast 50 watts into your face".

Use only the amount of power necessary to complete communication.

If you need 50w of vhf/uhf, your antenna sucks.

A 5w HT next to your brain is just as bad, if not worse

 

Maineah.....Any chance you can post a picture of your antenna and how it attaches? Thanks!

 

Because I couldn’t stand to think @m603holden thought I was a pussy for not joining his HF net last month I took my General tonight.

Of course now I have to go up to HRO and explain to the XYL on Valentine’s Day why we can’t afford to go out to dinner ever again...But that dual beam Yagis gonna rock the truck bed, just have to figure out how to get under bridges...

 

There was always the Thursday night 6m net!


... But now there's the Dork Den in 80 as well. Haha. That's a fun one.

Wednesday night at 7pm is our repeater net. 146.850.

And if you do Facebook, there's our local fun group as well. SOTA stuff, cook outs, product releases, important updates in the hobby, ect

 

Pic and specs of antennas?

 

Cut 100' of 450 ohm ladder line before the rain came.... on my way to getting back on HF... now 2 66' legs for the dipole and insulators next.

 

Anyone have an opinion on Icoms HF Rigs?
I like the specs on the 7610 (base) but I’m lost in the details.
I have great performance from my Icom mobile rig on 2M so am starting with them as a brand to research.

 

Icom does have the most widely popular hf rig on the market right now with the 7300. I'd say they're well liked.

 

Nice. The concept of a dual band on HF, does that make as much sense as it does on mobile? I have always liked dual band, but that means dual price and I’m not sure if its something that makes sense.
HRO has the 7300 on sale, so frankly could get two for the price of the 7610. Slightly less bandwidth.

 

Honestly, I'd do something like this instead. Keep your radio on whatever freq you want, have this as a stand alone going to the computer. Gives you very wide band panadapter. A friend of mine has his on a switch so when he hits the PTT on the radio it doesn't overload the device.

https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015965

I have the model above it, the RSPdx, just has better filtering and works great past uhf. Can't go wrong with either.

Bottom line is you'll still get a visual of the band, you'll be able to skip around if you'd like with still having the vfo where you'd like it. The 7300 also has memories and a super easy split function.

I'd probably suggest getting one 7300 and addressing how you'd like to tailor it to your needs as you go. TO be honest you might find the radio fine as is.