Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Anyone have any first HF portable/mobile antenna suggestions? I got a yaesu 891 from TWSS sitting at my house and I am going to run into gigaparts on Thursday.

 

https://www.qrz.com/db/KJ4ADN

I have their MK2 Sota antenna and Had the MK1 before. Have an OMTA that was operating previously, needs to be reassembled and ground radials.

 

My only HF antenna is an EFHW I built.

 

Airline buddy of mine is going on shift for this month and dropped this off for me to play with while he's gone.

 

40m dipole

 

True. Bigger is not always better. Unless of course you ask my ex's and they'll tell you bigger is better and fyi we did not break up because of a size issue. BAM!! LOL. You set that one up for me I had to do it.
As far as antennas I did have and I did like the Signal Stuff Signal Stalk mobile antenna which is only 19.5in tall. I really liked that little antenna. The issue was when I would be on the morning commute QSO's I would have trouble receiving from the local repeaters. My signal would get out just fine but the RX was always scratchy, I had to turn up the volume all the way and strain to hear what was being said. I then threw my 40in Comet antenna back on and all those issues went away.
It is true tho that it could have just been a bad antenna but I think Signal Stuff does good work. Plus the Signal Stalk I received is a new model maybe experimental and they could come out with better models in the future.
Does that make sense in my case that the large antenna works better? What do you think?

 

I've got both, for a moment--Tacoma and a Leaf. Trust me, if you take the Leaf off-road, you'll be talking to other trucks. Tow trucks. Going off-road in the Leaf is easy. Getting back on the road is a whole 'nother story.

W7MML

 

Passed my Canadian Basic and Advanced tests yesterday! 73 de VA3 MHO

 

Sold my FTM-400 to a friend. Now I'm shopping for a TM-D710G. If anyone wants to off-load theirs or comes across a used one for sale, I'm interested.

 

Why did you sell the 400 to pick up the Kenwood? (Someone who is looking at mobile rigs)

 

I know a few people that have done this. The APRS interface is better on the Kenwood. The TNC is presented as a serial port and can be used by other things. I liked the overall user interface better on the Kenwood. While that's subjective, it also seems common.

 

I just didn't love the FTM-400. I think I'll be able to do a little more with the TM-D710G regarding FM Packet. I don't use WiresX. The Kenwood has more buttons which should make changing settings easier. I the 400 is in my 1992 Toyota Pickup, I have a Kenwood TM-V71A in my 2020 Tacoma. I like the 71A a lot and figure the 710 will give me seamless APRS with the other aspects of the 71A that I like. I'm sure the 400 is a fine radio, it just isn't my radio.

Also, since you are looking at mobile rigs, I have zero complaints about the 71A. I plan to keep it in the truck paired to a homemade KISS TNC (mobilinkd schematics plus Bluetooth serial adapter.) It makes a great first radio as it was my first radio.

 

I have the 400 and while it's slightly annoying not being able to pull data off the radio onto an iPad, that functionality isn't useful to me. I like the large color touch screen of the 400.

 

Its shiny-ness is cool. More pleasing to the eye than the Kenwood. The friend that bought my 400, KC3CPO wants it for both APRS and WiresX. Plus, he likes shiny things. Same guy that lent me his 7100 and Buddipole this month.

On that note, so far I still prefer my FT-891 and EFHW antenna over his setup. Thinking of driving out and playing with both of them today still.

 

Doing laundry and playing with WSPR right now. It's really cool to see propagation through WSPR. Turns out my antenna isn't as deaf as I thought. Still not a beam by any means though.

 

Transferred the Yaesu FT 7900 to the new rig today. Working on the OBD2 reader now.

 

This is a long shot but is anyone using a Kenwood NX-5000 series radio? I am looking hard at an NX-5700 setup. My second choice is an FTM-400.

The Kenwood is 30 mm wider but I don't think it will be a big deal on my Taco Garage DMM rail.

 

Interesting idea. I am guessing it is pretty easy to open up for the amateur band? Do you plan on doing digital or packet with it or just analog FM?

 

The Kenwood 5000 series speaks a number of digital modes, the one I'm interested in is DMR. It does NXDN and P.25 too but I don't think those are commonly used by amateurs. The 5700 has no problem sending analog FM in the amateur 2m band. They also make a UHF deck. You can control two decks from one single head, but you can't get both bands in a single deck like you can with a unit built for the amateur market.

I priced out a 5700 setup and it was around US$1200 including the head separation kit, programming cable, and programming software.

https://www.kenwood.com/usa/com/lmr/nx-5700_5800/

 

I noticed they only come in single band models. I have used UHF so few times I can't actually remember making a contact on it. Is that price tag for dual band or single band setup? For that price, I imagine you could get a fantastic all mode, all band amateur-only radio.