Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

I ran it on 10 watts just to see what it would do in the mountain, it took a good while for the GPS to find a satellite tho when I first turned it on in the morning before the run . I figure because of the dense tree line and being in the terrain that I was in. once it had a lock there seemed to be no problems.

 

Having a ground plane is always better, but you do not need one with a 1/2 wave antenna. That is why 1/2 wave antennas are recommended for wood or fiberglass boats and fiberglass cars.

 

Noob question, do you get the ground plane effect when the antenna is attached to a rack like a Prinsu if its over the cab?

 

It should work. The main concern should be your SWR. Ideally you want an SWR from 1.1:1 to 1.5:1. You really don't want to exceed an SWR of 2.0:1.

At 2.0:1 SWR, 11% of your radio's power is being reflected back to the radio, or you can say only 89% of your power is being radiated by your antenna. Large amounts of reflective power can damage your radio. 2.0:1 is acceptable but the antenna may need tuning or the antenna could be poorly mounted with an SWR that high.

My primary antenna is mounted in the center of my roof. I drilled a hole and use an NMO mount. I installed a ditch light bracket on the passenger side of my vehicle and instead of a light, I put an NMO mount in the bracket and use that as an auxiliary antenna mount. I have no SWR issues with antennas used with this mount. You would probably have similar results with your Prinsu rack mount.

 

One quick thing about black colored antennas. Most of them are painted black from top to bottom. That prevents good conductivity between the antenna rod and the mount/base that the rod is inserted in to. The electrical connection for the base and antenna rod is usually a scratch in the paint created by the set screw or screws that hold the rod to the base.

To improve the electrical connection between antenna rod and its base, I loosen the set screw(s) and pull out the rod. I use a piece of electrical tape wrapped around the rod to mark where the rod stops when inserted into its base mount. This preserves the factory tuning, especially with dual band antennas. This isn't necessary if you plan on cutting / trimming the antenna. I remove the black paint from the portion of the rod that slides down into the base. I reinsert the antenna rod into its mount/base and tighten the set screw(s). I have noticed an improvement in SWR with several of the antennas that I did this to.

 

Antenna Gain:

Every 1dB of gain raises your output power 20%, where 3dB doubles output power.

Every 1dB of loss in the system represent a full 20% -loss- of power. Just as in gain, 3dB of loss represents a loss of 50% of your power.

Antenna gain is a function of size, no matter what design it is. A small antenna that claims unreasonably high gain will not perform as you expect it to.

http://www.fab-corp.com/pages.php?pageid=5

 

Congrats!

 

Congrats man!!

 

Congratulations, now study for your General ticket while in the mood.

 

Working on it.

 

Yes. If the ground side of the antenna has a good electrical connection to the prinsu. Two issues to address: SWR and signal pattern.

SWR is easy to measure. Keep it below 2:1 to keep your transmitter from failing. Specifically the final transistor. 1.5:1 is the goal. 2:1 is poor, but minimally acceptable. A good electrical connection will minimize reflections.

If you mount the antenna on a corner or a side of a roof rack, then the pattern will favor the direction of the rack. You'll have a null in the direction where there is no rack.

Every mobile install is a compromise. A poor antenna is better then no antenna. Mounting to a prinsu is never going to perform as well as a drilled NMO in the center of the roof. The prinsu mount can be made to work acceptably well. I'd much rather attach to a prinsu over any fender mount.

 

I do a good amount of simplex with my antenna on a prinsu. My record so far is an estimated 22 miles.

Farthest contact to a repeater was 37miles. That was mobile so the truck orientation was constantly changing. wouldn't fear going to the rack

 

New HT came today.

So far looks and feel are awesome! The screen is outstanding on this one. Got it charging to program it up in a bit.

 

As a newbie in the amateur radio world, I’ve got many questions.

Like this one. When you are driving around and you aren’t aware of any local repeaters, what do you monitor?

I’ve been using repeater book and tuning into the closest repeaters but it’s not really great to do while driving.

Recently, I’ve been on the 2m call freq when unsure if the local repeaters with that being added to aprs packets going out.

What do y’all do?

 

I have a dual band radio so I monitor the local repeater on one VFO and the 2m call on the other. I live in a major city so I pick up a decent amount of transmissions on the call frequency.

 

CQ *callsigh* or *callsigh* on 146.520

 

DO some internet search for local clubs. If they host a local repeater that will be on their website and may have more traffic on it.

Also, just a warning, all ham radio websites are stuck in the 90s... seriously, they are all outdated. If you are prepared for that, it makes it easier to deal with.

 

If you have a local ham radio outlet or another store I'd just ask if they know someone in the community you could email and ask for a list. Wouldn't be that big of a deal.

When I programmed mine I just keyed up to all the local repeaters with my callsign asking for a radio check and normally someone would pilitelp respond or I'd hear the repeater open.

For far away stuff I'd just find what's local and do the same or wait for the repeater to ID itself. But everyone on here has done it far longer than I have. I'm sure they'll have great suggestions

 

KE8KNU checking in!