Hamming on the road and at home

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carson

carson

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 1, 2006
Posts
4,919
Location
Florida, USA
I know there are a bunch of us "Hams" out there on the road. Would like to start a little thread here to see who, what, where etc.

I am an active operator here in Florida. I am using an old Kenwood xcvr on either 12V or 110 AC, great for mobiling. Also have 2m gear. None of it is yet installed in the rig but I am working on it.

Would be intersted in reading about antenna ideas for Class A MH.
Anyone check in on the various nets?, etc.

I should be able to figure it out by myself; have been hamming since 1958. But I am always in a learning mode, so let's hear from some of you.

carson FL  82.9F
 
I run a TM-733 (kenwood) next to the driver it feeds a DIAMOND dual band antenna on the mirror on the right side of the rig

In the Ham Shack (AKA front head on my bath and a half) I have a TS-2000, it feeds an assortment of home made antennas

Ant-1 is a Kenwood random wire antenna tuner, it can get a standard CB whip (Wire wound fiberglass) A pole (3 copper pipes and another CB whip) or a long wire either thrown trees or hung from a balloon  I'm working on another solution as well.

High bands feed antennas that go on top of a flagpole  I'm thinking about some alternative antennas for that post
 
Hi John,
  Looks like you have the gamut, spectrum wise. Nice rigs.
My Kenwood TS-520 was one of the first Japanese Radios hitting the North American market back in the mid 70's. Have had it since new and it has nevver hiccuped yet. Used it on all modes: SSB, RTTY and CW, and now on PSK31. In July/75 I purchased the unit along with a Larsen mobile antenna system with 3 resonators, an Icom IC-22A 2-meter rig.....all for C$ 1000.00.

The Ic 22 became obsolete when the channel separation changed to 5 khz from 10.
  I now have a new IC-2200H--2m 50W.

  Am thinking of starting off using my mobile whips attached to the rear ladder with a good ground cable directly to the chassis frame. My 520 has a pi-network output and will easily load into anything thats near resonant. If the SWR is low I am off to the races.
For you the a-tuner is a must, I think, especially on the wire antennas.

One question on your TM733 mirror mount. Anything special in getting the base attached? What base did you use? And did you have to run a separate ground to the chassis?
For 15m I am using a 102" CB whip, which turns out to be 3/4 wavelength and it will tune with a reasonable SWR. I have an Autek RF antenna analyst, Model RF-1, the slickest little tool for tuning your antenna  and/or checked for SWR, length, impedance, inductance and capacitance. Covers all HF bands.

  Won't hold you any longer. When you have a minute, post a reply.

carson FL  83.8F

 
 
The antenna I choose needs no Ground or ground plane.  The only special thing is the metal on the mirror mount is very thick, so I had do do some serious metal work to get the mount I choose to fit... If I were doing again I'd pick a PL-259 mount as they fit in a much thicker base  But I got it to fit, and it works well.
 
Carson,

Glad you started this discussion!  Are you transplanted to FL or are you a snowbird? 
Ham VE7WCX/W4 
Click to expand...
  In what partof Fl are you located?  We are in Central Florida near the Kennedy Space Center.

VA3VH
 
Greetings, Steve,

  Thank you for your post. I hope we will get a bit of interaction from our friends in the radio hobby.
    I live permanently in Citrus County, a community called Lecanto. It is about 5 miles East of Crystal River, the home of the manatees. The county seat, Inverness, is 12 mile to the East on Route 44.

  I presume you are a Ham as well. Feel free to contact me via E-mail to learn more about my Canada/US connection.
  The information available on this forum is fabulous, friendly and nicely low-key.

carson fl 82F

 
Hi Carson and all,
I've been running ham radio on the road in our motorhome since 1995 and love the contact it gives me along the way.  We are currently wintering in Oceano, CA and join the local hams for all sorts of activity.

I use a Kenwood TM D700A and run APRS with it to mark my route when traveling or parked.  Also for its VHF/UHF capability.  I also have a ICOM7000 HF/VHF/UHF installed for the low bands mostly.  I use a screwdriver antenna (motorized tuning coil) for HF and it is mounted up high on my rear ladder.  Works very well.

Both my wife and I are hams and we are:

Steve Crouch, NO7V

Jodie Crouch, KD7QQW

Find us anytime by going to www.findu.com,  select the first server in the table and enter NO7V for the call sign.

Regards,
  --Steve
 
Greetings Steve and Jodie,
   Thanks for your post. I hope we will get a bunch coming out of the woodwork to share some of the wonders of the hobby.

   I don't know if we will ever hook up on the air; it's a big country. Perhaps if we shared a few favorite frequencies/bands/times, the chances might be better.
  Another is the various net frequencies that are active within our framily. If we all kept a dedicated log/list of who's who and where, maybe it'll lead to something interesting.

  In any case, let's see where this will lead. If it turns out to be popular, in time, maybe we can coerce Tom to consider a new Topic listing.

   Thanks for the findu.com URL. Never knew it existed. Will study it starting today. FB on your location, good images.

In the meantime 73,  carson FL  81F (temp)  VE7WCX  /W4

 
Two nets I try to check into depending on which side of the mountains I am

1: The Wolverine net, 6pm eastern (pre net at 5:30) 80 mtrs 3.935 MHz

And the FMCA net, The pre-net runs out of Texas, You can get both the time and frequency from the ARRL's net finder page

The other place I hang is IRLP sometimes on node 925-channel 0 (IRLP Address 9250) when I hook up, or on the W8HP 70cm repeater when I'm at home and in the car.  It is an IRLP node
 
Well, this thread didn't go very far. We must be a quiet bunch or is it it due to the current sunspot cycle?

carson FL
 
Or it could be the hams are busy hamming it up.... Now that I'm away from the noisy power line at home and sitting in a park I'm seeing lots and losts of carriers on digital modes. I've made some contacts using a home made interface and the excitment is back as it were.  I feel almost as heady as I did back when I first put WN8YXM on the air about 40 years ago.  And that's something.
 
carson said:
I know there are a bunch of us "Hams" out there on the road.
Click to expand...

I use a TS570 in the MH with a vertical and an SGC tuner.  In the car, I use a TS480.  I can control my base station at home via the internet.  I mostly hang out on 7272 around noon Mountain time.

Phil
 
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