Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Keep em coming. Just ordered that too. I now have the complete set!

 

Next project is to clean this up somehow (terrible pic, but the problem is obvious):

 

Here's my very modest/poor man's setup until I can afford the Yaesu FT857. Works quite well actually.

Wouxun KGUV6D paired with a fender mounted 5/8 2 meter whip.

 

Maybe something like this, to make it less of an eye magnet.

 

I have a UV3D setup in the same fashion to work as a APRS radio with a blutooth TNC, pretty effective with only 5watts

 

I need to get APRS setup. I'll look into the Bluetooth method.

 

Mobilinkd TNC with the APRSdriod APP is about as simplest as you can get

 

Trying out my portable mast system with an OCF 40-2 meter HF Antenna. This one is 28' high at apex. Very stable I might add.



https://www.dropbox.com/s/q38pno4du9spbm3/28foot_3.jpg?dl=0



https://www.dropbox.com/s/jkoqdexo81w8jxt/adapter.jpg?dl=0



https://www.dropbox.com/s/6xklhu19lsky0ho/40OCF_28_SWR.jpg?dl=0

Having issues getting DopBox images to show here. The links do seem active though.

 

You can't mount that in the bed of the truck so you can use it while on the road?

 

I haven't figured out which mobile antenna to get yet. Leaning more towards Tarheel.

 

I'm thinking more along the line of a recessed jack and a 3" pigtail on the faceplate. The space isn't big enough for a keystone so I'm trying to come up with a good alternative.

 

What bands? I can highly recommend this one for an inexpensive 2m and 440.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QFHXG4E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's 1/2 wave on 2m, and I've had great reception and transmission with it. It also increased my 70cm band quite a bit, even without it being installed with a ground plane in an idea setup.

 

I have a VHF/UHF setup already, I was referring to an HF antenna. Using a Relentless Fabrication hood hinge mount with a Comet 2meter/70CM 27" antenna. Clears the garage. Anything HF will have to have a fold over mount to it.

 

Roger that, at the moment I only have a dual band radio in my truck. I've seen some pretty gnarly HF antennas, a friends even has a button you can press to change it's length with a little motor for easy tuning to different bands. It's a wild looking rig.

 

For HF in a vehicle you generally have to have some sort of motorized antenna to operate on the different bands and frequencies. The mobile HF rigs are geared towards allowing the radio to tune the antenna.

 

That makes sense. I haven't messed with HF, so it was all new to me

 

Double cab, sunroof.

I just drilled my roof. I put it a couple of inches forward of the beam in front of the dome light in the rear. This is looking from the passenger side rear door. What looks like another NMO to the right is the sharkfin antenna.


This photo is one of the best that I was able to get with the headliner down that shows the location where I drilled.


I didn't take a measurement from the front of the sharkfin, but this is what it looks like from the bed. I also cut out a plate washer (so to speak) from 316 stainless. It's about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. The NMO is actually above the sunroof when it's fully open, but the NMO sticks down about a half inch and the sunroof has a gap to the bottom of roof that is about 1 inch, maybe more.


I was burning daylight, so I don't have a picture of the truck overall and I didn't take a picture of the NMO after install. The antenna is the Comet SBB-1 NMO. Guys on the local repeater said it sounded great, I was using a U5RV as I haven't had a chance to put the v71a into the truck yet. Still have to figure out the location for the head unit. I'm thinking either a seat bolt mount or the Hondo mount.
So there you have it, I had one guy quote me 300 to install the antenna, EFF THAT!

 

Interested if anyone has ditched the sharkfin and just put their own antenna there? I don't care about XM radio so I could stand to lose mine. Is the hole the standard NMO size or something custom? Could you actually reuse the connector that's there and just screw on your own antenna? Then you've got a pre-routed cable all the way up to the head unit?

 

Doubtful the plug is even remotely close to anything you'd wanna use for cb/ham. My bet is some kind of QDC plug. Being that xm/gps are higher freqs than cb/ham, you don't wanna use the tiny little coax that xm/gps would use.

Also keep in mind that is also where Toyota sometimes chooses to mount the GPS antenna, both XM and GPS stuffed under the one shark fin. Although I dunno if they did that with the Tacoma.

 

GPS and XM are under there. I had mine apart once so I could trim a bit off the top of the fin.