Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Grabbing my bowl of cereal and sitting down with the headphones this morning. Got 45 min of code practice to hammer out.

 

Thank you. That's what I thought. The FTM-100 has a data port but the guys at hammadeparts have not been able to make that work with the TNC.

 

Any favorite beginner base and portable HF rigs? Open to input. We are looking to be in a house by Early summer 2019. But if we don't find anything then we won't rush it. If. We aren't in a house, the likely scenario is that I will be mostly operating when I go camping, which is almost every weekend.

As a new Ham on HF should I just learn the ropes and wait to get a Base in potential year or so? Or will I be ok developing my skills with a respectable portable set up? Input on rigs is more than welcome. I'll say my top is $800ish for the radio because there's still more equipment to purchase.

Btw my end goal is to go full portable some day for SOTA using CW, actively learning now with locals willing to help. Love traveling so that seems like a no brainier.

Elmers, thanks in advance.

 

I would look at the Yaesu FT-891. You can pick one up at Gigaparts for under $600. With the extra cash you could pick up a end fed halfwave that covers 80-10m. Add a battery and you are all set for portable ops.

 

As a base? Don't waste your time looking, buy an IC-7300. As a mobile? N1WLD is selling is Yaesu 891. I have a friend that used a IC-730 for a few months before getting an 891 and he loves it, he uses as his base. But when we do field day, he wants to use my 7300. It's a super friendly radio. Pretty much the only other option for mobile is the 857d, which is 20 year old tech at this point.

 

I know I'm late to the part here. I'm using an external speaker that I hid inside the headliner near the overhead console. It's the smallest speaker that match the v71a's speaker impedance. I only use one speaker. You can use either spk1 or spk2, it doesn't matter, just shove it into one of them. Then set it up so that both VFO's come out of the speaker, you can change this in the menus. Mic cable was long enough for me, then I made an extension to make it look pretty. As @m603holden said, one of our local guys made his own cable and there is a lot of interference, it comes and goes, some days it keeps him off the radio, other days you can barely hear it.

Mic cable looking fancy

 

I have an FT-857D and the only reason I would even consider it at this point is if you really, really, really want just one radio in your truck. The FT-891 doesn't cover 2m and 70cm while the FT-857 does. The FT-891 is cheaper, has the DSP in the IF, includes a TXCO standard. It's should be superior to the 857 on HF.

 

Any reason not to pick up an

$355 IC-2730a Dual Band VHF/UHF 50W Mobile Radio

IC-2730a before the end of the year to get the $20 rebate?

 

I love my KX3, been looking at also getting a KX2. But im an elecraft Fanboy. My next base station is going to be a Flex 6600m

 

Some good deals going on until Dec 31st.

https://www.hamradio.com/

 

A while ago we figured out that it's not going to play nice with TNC APRS like Mobilinkd. That was the only reason I didn't get it during black Friday sales.
Other than that, IMO seems like a great transceiver.

 

good to know. I'm not looking into APRS.... yet, so may still go ahead with the purchase.

Antenna mount location- I know an NMO mount into the middle of the roof is the gold standard, but how bad would I be handicapping myself by mounting it to the side of my KBVooDoo rack? I know 1/2 wave arent "supposed" to be affected by the ground plane as much, but I dont want to be unhappy either. I carry kayaks a good bit so would prefer not to do a roof mount. Would a CBI ditch light mount be better?

 

Sorry, I'm no help here...
For now I'm using a big mag mount on top of my roof. After reading some opinions posts and threads, I still haven't decided on permanent location for my antenna.

 

Before I drilled a hole for the current NMO mount my choices were limited with a Softtopper on.
I mounted a Diamond SG7900A above the right rear taillight with a RCI Bed Accessory Mount. Worked GREAT!
It's a tall antenna, but in that location I could still do drive-thrus and such.
Have a 4ft Everhardt there now. The Diamond is 1 foot taller than it.

 

That seems odd. Every 6 pin mini din that I have met was extremely straightforward with the mobilinkd. I've never used an ftm-100 though.

 

You may have a small reduction in gain in some directions. I doubt you'll notice it though, I anticipate it will work fine. If you use a 1/4 wave, then make certain you have a good electrical connection of the coax braid to the rack so the rack can be the counterpoise. Still using an NMO or another mount?

 

Plan is a 3/8 nmo mount.

 

Stopped by gigaparts and told them I was going to be mounting to an exterior bracket. This is the nmo mount they gave me. Will this be ok to be exposed? Looking at some of the Larson mounts they are covered in plastic.

 

I run my antennas on ditch brackets at the moment until I can get time to drop the head liner and drill NMOs in the roof. They actually work well enough and they are out of the way, so I don't mind them too bad.





But to answer @Leman's question about the under side of exposed NMO. Yes you should seal it from the weather, RTV, silicone, Liquid Tape. Anything will work but you'll get corrosion and risk shorting the antenna when it gets wet otherwise. That Comet might be OK, it looks like they may have done it already, but more couldn't hurt.

 

Looks pretty good. I like the high frequency NMO mounts for external mounts.