Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Just ordered all my radio stuff today from HRO!

Going to run a Yaesu FT-7900R HAM with a Diamond NR-770HB dual band antenna via a

$33 Larsen NMO-K 3/4'' Permanent Hole Mount with 17' RG58A/U Cable and UHF Male PL259 Connector

Larsen NMO-K cable setup. Going to fab up a little bracket out of angle iron that bolts into the track slots of my Prinsu.

As much as the dual recieve and crossband features of the 8900 are, I decided to keep it a little simpler knowing how I plan to use the radio.

 

Here’s my setup I installed a couple weeks ago.

Kenwood TM-D710GA
Larsen NMO mount
Larsen 2/70 NMO antenna
Relentless Fabrication hood mount

I’m really liking the Kenwood so far. It’s so easy to use and program and only took a few minutes to get the hang of the menu system. The APRS works great too.

The radio body is mounted under the driver seat. Faceplate is on a custom ram mount. I used a grommet under the driver seat to run the antenna cable and power. I used braided loom on all the cabling. I used a 3’ piece of cat6 and a coupler double sided taped to the center console for a microphone extension.

 

I’m looking to purchase a 710 after the 1st of the year. Already have a diamond antenna with a Larson cable into the cab. Ran a HT borrowed from @Chipskip previously. But now with the weekends becoming available again and an increasing interest here with the AZTW chapter for ham, it’s time to invest in a proper mobile unit.

 

You cant go wrong with a 710, everything about it is awesome. Easily the easiest radio to program without using computer aided software.

 

Just a heads up for anyone running LED pods/bars. I noticed my receive suffering greatly recently. Turns out it's my two Auxbeam led pods causing it. As soon as I turn them on, 90% of my RX is gone. My Baja Designs light bar doesn't seem to affect it any.

 

Good call. Less expensive LED lights typically are less expensive because they do not properly shield them or the boards used give off feedback. Higher end products typically do not interfere.

Also it could be the ground plane proximity to the lights? Where is your antenna located?

 

The antenna is on a fender/hood mount driver's side near the mirror. I actually have good swr in that location despite the sub par ground plane and close proximity to lots of electrical components.

It's just as soon as I hit the switch for the pods (mounted in front bumper as fogs), a strong signal turns very spotty. Took me a while to figure it out. I tested all my other switches/lights and it's all good except for those cheap pods. Probably some harmonics going on, affecting the 2 meter band.

Thinking about installing a rf choke at each pod to see if it helps.

Also, my radio has a shitty front end. Saving up for a Yaesu 857d. I'd be willing to bet the problem will dissapear with the Yaesu.

 

For the price of some ferrite beads, I'd try that first. If it's putting out that much RF, a fancy new radio probably isn't going to save it.

 

Agreed, I really want that Yaesu though!

 

Try the fbs first. I had the same issue with some KC pods on my motorcycle. I ended up having to remove the lights as the fbs didn't help. The lights actually created a 6ft dead zone around them. I tried working with KC, as they shouldn't do that, but they never fallowed through.

There are many posts in here and on the enterweb about this issue. I don't think the 857d will fix the issue, but I sure do agree with using that excuse to buy one.

 

ferrite beads are cheap enough to use as many as possible. Put them on the power cord and coax for your radio, also put them on your wire harness for your lights. between the switch and the relay and between the light and the relay. Is the wiring for the lights close to the coax? Try moving it away from the coax. When I had aftermarket offroad lights on a previous vehicle I dreaded paying the extra money for a name brand light but I knew I would be happier with the long and short term result.
If are running a Boafeng or Btech or QYT or similar variant, it's possible your're picking up noise that another radio won't hear. My Baofeng was picking up a hum that my other radios did not hear. It drove me crazy for several weeks till I couldn't put up with it any longer. After turning everything off/on or unplugging everything in the house, it turns out the noise was coming from an old power strip.

 

Pretty good deal going on right now for a Kenwood D710GA Dual Band + APRS on Amazon. $443 + tax (if applicable). Looks like it's from warehouse deals, so there's only one at this price.

 

@llibrm

 

Thanks man. After deliberating on getting the Yaesu FTM-400dr, I pulled the trigger on this one instead due to the good price! Now to learn how to program and use it! Lol

 

Theres a few good youtube videos of the D710 to watch that shows how easy it is to program with just using the mic's keypad

 

Edit..... Just re-read it you got the 710... Chirp is free and worth looking into



.....GEt the Rt systems software, unless chirp has been updated

I use rt on my 100dr, pretty similar to chirp and let’s you program every thing on the radio, only downside is you need a PC... Chirp can run on Mac... But last I checked they didn't support the 100 and 400 dr

 

Kenwood comes with free software. It is very simple to use, will get you up and running. RT Systems is worth the $$. I was using chirps and the kenwood software. After about two years I decided to spend the cash to buy RTS for each radio. Very glad I did. The copy and paste between different radios made it all worth it. Plus you get all the features out of the radio, not the limited ones chirps can do.

 

I got mine through the same thing on Amazon same price too. It said it was open box but when I got it it looked like someone opened the box then closed it again and sent it back. Everything was still in factory packaging.

 

I just wanted to give a thumbs up to the RT Systems software. I bought it to use for my Yaesu FTM-100D. I also paid to get access to RFinder as the RT Systems Software can download direct.

How they have this set up is that you can plan a trip on a map (looks like Google Maps) and set it to find all the repeaters within a setable range on your planned route.... Say I want all repeaters that fall within a 50 mile range of my route, it'll do that! Once that is done, you can import all the repeater information into RT Systems and tweak the settings as you see fit, then load it into your radio. I programmed about 700 repeaters in about the first hour of use. Super easy. Very awesome.

 

Been thinking upon getting a ham license. My question is if i pull the trigger will i still have cb channel or run 2 radio since the crew i wheel with uses cb radio.