Leaderboard

This is a Comet CA-2X4SR wide band antenna. I have it mounted on a sawed off metal stand with 4 ground radials. It worked well for Ham/GMRS/MURS. I used this setup when I lived for years in an apartment where outdoor antennas were prohibited. https://cometantenna.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/CA-2x4SR.pdf The antenna is a bit sensitive to the type of ground plane used, flat sheet metal - magnet mount - ground radials etc. I would recommend anyone using the antenna to test it in various locations and use the one that results in the best match over the frequency range of interest.

I picked up the very clean looking Bird 43 wattmeter at the Hamvention in Ohio, 5/2023, with a leather case for about $200. Shopping elsewhere in the flea market area I also got a “N” type connector, looked basically new for $30, to swap out the SO-239 one on the side. These wattmeters are well accepted as a reliable instrument for measuring RF power. It’s not uncommon to see radio service manuals refer to it when setting up, or checking, the power calibration on a radio. I also picked up a couple of 5 watt elements covering 100-250 MHz and the 400-1000 MHz range for testing used HT’s I buy. Would get some higher power ones in the future to test a few 50 watt mobile radios and some high power VHF and UHF amplifiers I own.

To kick off this gallery, I decided to upload a quick shot of my test rack at my house, even though it's not a GMRS repeater in it at the moment. Repeater is an Icom FR5000 (VHF) outputting 5W into a dummy load. It's connected to a URI for the Allstar link network, and the Dell tower is running the Allstar software. When I have the time I'll add a rackmount power supply, some shelves, and a server so I can eliminate that big ol' desktop.

2x Identically configured Radiodiity DB25-Gs each attached to their own cupholder mount.

Headrest speaker mount from Lido Mounts. I have dual hearing aids and had my previous speaker mounted in my previous vehicle above the seatbelt on the B pillar. Trying to keep this vehicle a little bit cleaner looking for all my installs. Speaker from Wally World. Sadly the wire is only 5 ft long and had to go to the right side of the seat so it would reach my mobile.

This is a rear view of the antenna and mount. This is the same antenna I had installed on my old Jeep. There is a photo of that in the album. Now it’s on my CX-5. The antenna itself is 59 inches tall. Then add a couple of inches for the rack mount and another 4 to 5 inches from the roof to the rack. It's up there.

This is my Anytone D878UV model 1 in digital monitor mode. I had my Kenwood TK-D340U programmed for this repeater and talk groups. However one evening the Kenwood wouldn't decode any audio. So, I grabbed the D878UV and used the digital monitor to see what was going on. Turns out this was an undocumented talk group on the repeater. While these radios don't have the best receivers, some remark in analog mode it's not great, they do make nice radios to experiment with DMR if you can get one cheap. I recently got a D878UV model 1 at a local Ham swap with antenna, battery pack and charger base in like new condition for $35. Ordered a cheap soft nylon case, $12, for it on line. While this radio won't out perform any of the commercial grade DMR radios it has one feature none of them have, the digital monitor mode. If you can get one of these cheap enough this feature is worth it if you use DMR and need to identify undocumented user ID's, time slots, color codes and talk groups that are in use. You can carry the radio in your pocket whereas that's not possible with an SDR dongle plugged into a laptop.

Used some Styrofoam stuffed in the narrow cracks to hold the thin coax in place. The gap between the tail light assembly and the hatch lip was too narrow to stuff even an RG-58 coax into it without having to really squeeze down the cable to flatten it out. That likely would have resulted in an elevated SWR. The only thing that fit was another mount with RG-316 cable. The losses where higher than I wanted, but I didn't have much choice.

What real propagation looks like.

Typical coax switch. This one has three positions and uses SO-239 sockets with the webbing insulator. If you don't want, or can't use, "N" type connectors then the SO-239 sockets with the webbing type is the best you can do. It helps to reduce the impedance bump, SWR issues, on UHF. What ever you do DON'T use the sockets with the red or brown colored insulator material!! The solid white insulator material is better, it's either Delron or Teflon, but sill not as good as the webbing type. https://diamondantenna.net/cx310a.html

Being in the radio hobby one soon accumulates a collection of various adapters and connectors. When I go to swaps I may pick up a few I don’t have. At times they come in very handy.

Crop dusting

This is the Kenwood TK-D340U. It is an analog/DMR 32 channel radio. There is a VHF version too. There also are the NX-240V and NX-340U radios, which looks nearly identical except they do NXDN. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/DMR_TK-D240V_D340U_K_letter_1124.pdf https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/05_nx240v_340u_K_1117_typeD added.pdf I prefer radios with a display however the price on this used DMR radio was too good to pass up. I've used this side by side with my Anytone D878 radio. The Kenwood seems to work better. It was able to more reliably decode DMR signals the D878 failed to even detect. That shows you the commercial grade radios do perform better compared to the cheaper Chinese radios, and the D878 wasn't that cheap! The TK-D240V/D340U along with the NX-240V/340U radios have been discontinued, and the replacement is the NX-1200/1300 series.

The new in the box TK-D300E radio arrived. I was lucky to find a source in the Netherlands that still had them. Supposedly they are discontinued. This cost me 271 Euros, about $271 US at the exchange rate when purchased. Radio Spec's: https://www.kenwood.eu/files/file/comms/uk/brochures/nx/TK-D200_D300_V4.1.pdf

This is a portable mast system for temporary use. The base is a heavy duty speaker stand I got at a flea market. The mast is from MFJ purchased new. The antenna is a telescoping dual band type that doesn't need a ground plane. With some aluminum tent stakes and small diameter nylon rope I can guy this for use in light to moderate wind conditions. In total the antenna is up about 20 feet. That gives an approximate calculated line of sight distance to the horizon of 6.25 miles. The antenna is an AL-800. There are various sources for this antenna all with the same model number but seems to vary in over all length a bit. https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/pry-al-800

I picked up a new electronic load specifically for battery pack testing. It has battery test feature built in. I have it set up on the kitchen table so I don't need to check on it by running up and down the stairs to the basement.

Yaesu FT-991A installed for a friend in a rural location to keep in touch with family and friends. I need one of these for my own use, great little QRM HF/VHF/UHF rig.

Stacked Icom mobiles, IC F-1020 on top and IC F-2020 on bottom.

Stacked Motorola mobile radios. UHF XPR4550 on top and older CDM1250 VHF on the bottom.