Amateur Radio / Ham Radio and antenna installs

Here is mine. Wanted all the installs as much out of the way as possible and with as little drilling as possible. Installed my Ham Radio (Yaesu FT-8900R - went with the Yaesu for the specific reason that it has a detachable faceplate and the rest of it is behind the rear seat) and

$152 ScanGauge - SG2 II Ultra Compact 3-in-1 Automotive Computer with Customizable Real-Time Fuel Economy Digital Gauges , Black , 5"

Scangauge II. I got a Blendmount mount (here) and then drilled the mount and fitted a longer piece of aluminum plate to it so I could fit the radio and the Scangauge. Had to due some drilling trimming on the back of the plate and Blendmount to mount the Ham faceplate but it worked out well as it was for the cabling. Ran the cables for the Scangauge (perfect length) and the Ham radio. Got to get my ham license now. Seems to be really sturdy and don't think I will have any issues with it bouncing around in rough terrain. I finally broke down and drilled two holes in the Sunglasses holder to mount the mike. Got a mount for the Ham radio that installs inside the tailgate (forget who but they are in the vendors) and have a Diamond CR8900A Quad Band FM Mobile antenna.











Midland CB is here. Works well enough for my purposes with a 5' Firestick on the rear bumper stud mount.

 

Some pictures of my 2012 Access Cab 4X4 install, long overdue on this thread.

Radios are an Elecraft K1 QRP 5 watt CW transceiver, and an old military AN/GRC-9 HF set that covers 2 to 12 MHz with 15 watts of CW and AM voice. Have worked the world on CW with the K1 at 5 watts on 40 meters with the hamstick using this setup, including New Zealand and Hawaii. The "really big whip antenna" in the last photo is actually the flagpole on Stonington Point, CT. The "capacitive hat" partway up the pole is actually a basket that is loaded up with flaming logs and lowered from the top of the pole at midnight on New Year's. That picture was taken early on a New Year's morning.

I mount the hamsticks on a 3/8 X 24 bolt inserted through the adjustable cleat in the left rear corner of the bed. The black box is where the feed line coax enters from a hole through the bed liner, and contains a 500 pf cap that is shunted across the feed point for optimum SWR matching on 80 and 40 meters, it is disconnected for higher frequency bands. The plastic cleat is an adequate low loss insulator for the low voltages involved at the feed point for an HF hamstick antenna.

Hoping to upgrade from the K1 to an ELecraft KX3 with an external matching 100 watt amplifier at some point.

Chris, AJ1G, Stonington, CT.

 

Tm281 for 2 meter and a diamond antenna on the hood hinge

 

Works great, 12GA from battery to unit under passenger seat.

 

Should have also noted that with the antenna set up as described above, and properly resonated for minimum SWR by adjusting the length of the stinger, I do not and never have needed an external antenna tuner to properly match the antenna directly to the radios on HF. On 75 meters the sweet spot is only about 20 kHz wide, so f you move up or down the band you dohave to re-tweak the stinger length. Some of the sticks have required using an extra long stinger to allow resonance down in the low end of the CW bands on 80 and 40, I used to use the 1/8 inch stainless whips that were sold by Radio Shack for CB use that had a base loading coil and were a good foot or so longer than the stingers supplied with the sticks. These are not available anymore AFAIK, but most of the hamfest commercial vendors that sell mobile antennas have extended length stinger rods. By careful tweaking, I can get the SWR at the radio down to 1:1 anywhere in the bands by just adjusting the stinger.

Don't let anyone tell you that hamsticks are a "dummy load on a stick". They might be a few dB down from a big screwdriver on 75/80, but not by much. Like I said, I have worked the world with them on 40 with 5 watts. In this years CW ARRL Sweepstakes, I worked something like 68 sections including Alaska and Hawaii from the truck with the K1 at 5 watts and sticks. None while in motion of course!

 

Good for you working QRP I love jumping into pileups with a 100 watts and a dipole it just goes to show you a kilowatt and a 4 element beam @ 150' is not king. There are several members of our club that do SOTA QRP and have a great deal of fun up in the mountains. Some of the sticks out there are just plain junk but you can get good results from the decent ones. I used the sticks for quite awhile but I got to say I love my Tarheel!

 

Larsen NMO-150/450/800 next to the stereo antenna, Maldol EX-510NMO on the driver's side.


Both are on 3/8" NMO mounts.

 

bump, i want to see more installs

 

Isn't that antenna a little close to your brain?! Before anyone flames me, I've been a ham for 18 years (kb9uwu)

 

I work on a 10,000 watt radio that is transmitting 24-7/365. If you live within 200 miles of one, there is a very good chance the beam has passed through your brain. You may have heard of it, it's called a doppler Radar. I also work on commo towers bristling with RF radiation, and have done so for years and I'm fine. /twitch

 

That's cool. I've lived near a 50,000,000 watt (only during daylight hours) AM broadcast array for 8 years and I'm still OK, too! But, 144/432MHz at 50 watts a few inches from your dome for long periods of time can cause some serious damage. I'm sure you're well versed on RF exposure limits when you had to take your comm license.

 

I don't do math on every tower, we just wear an RF alarm. You have to be pretty close to a tx to set it off, like 12". http://hintlink.com/power_density.htm

 

Subd

So I can blantenly absconded ideas easily.......

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...o-and-emergency-lighting-extravaganza.509280/

Here you go! Still working on mine though... Need an antenna for HF, but lighting was more important to me!