kidphc
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Posts posted by kidphc
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NMO27 on the roof is your best bet for your application. Its easy to remove and cap when not needed or in garages. Flexible and works really well. Heck 90% of the time on the interstate i run a VHF 1/4 wave on my CB for RX only. Works fine for 1-2 miles around me. If i need more range i throw the NMO27 on the mount. (run the vhf for car wash)
Thanks that opens a different possibility of putting the second 2m antenna on the fender, if I even go that route. Then place the CB where the 2nd 2m was going to go.
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I don't plan on DX'ing, so a SSB and a perfect antenna setup won't matter much to me. I really was just expecting close to 3-7 miles at most. Directional to the front won't be so bad fo the intended purposes of just listening for road hazards and such.
I had considered a No ground plane install, on the front fender by the windshield with a Firestick. I just didn't know what to do with all the extra coax. The FTM400 and all the other crap will be in the center console. The power line is coming through the steering column cover grommet, and there are additional power lines across the firewall for the dual battery and isolator. There really isn't any space inside of the engine bay to loose roll the coax and tuck it away.
A bumper mount would shield about 4' of the antenna. A front fender mount, about 2' would be masked by the truck. A rear fender mount would be about 3.5'.
I was going to treat it as an HF install and start bonding the truck. Atleast, I would be prepared if I decided to go HF.
Might have to revisit this later. Especially, after the FTM 400 is in and I can start getting an idea of what my noise floor looks like.
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It's a 02 Suburban. The whip was the first choice. There are alot of trees lining the roads so I was thinking left side was better due to it being in the center of the road.
I figured a 1/4 wave was better. How much degradation in signal is there with going with a trucker style antenna. What can I expect with a bumper mount vs rear fender mount?
Thanks for responding.
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Marc had mentioned he believes the current commercially available antennas are too small. So that had brought up some questions. I had planned on getting a CB radio for the interstate road trips. More comms, more situation awareness, or at least I hope. Currently, FTM400 CAP/MARS being installed with a Larson 2/70SH dead center in the roof. Probably will switch it out for a 2/70B in the center. Maybe a second 2/70B installed 20" inches aft for a ID 5100a. Stock AM/FM antenna is mounted to passenger side fender by the windshield.
Yes, parking garages are a big want, so I will need a reasonably flexible or lashable antenna.
It was going to be a small cheap 5 watt cb radio with one of the following:
-108 whip and breedlove ball mount on the rear driver fender.
--- This one is tough since the previous owner had damaged the rear fender and the gas fill port is on that side.
-108 whip on the rear bumper
---This one is tough since the whip will contact the body when it is lashed down.
-5" firestick or trucker whip with top loaded coil on the driver front fender.
--- Passenger fender has the am/fm radio
I know none of the mounting points even come close to a terrible ground plane. Any suggestions on radio, antennas, placement any thing else? Things you guys found on previous installs.
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Welcome.
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Yes about the atas 120.
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Curious what your long term opinion is. Everything I have read has not much nice to say about. Could just be everyone comparing it to its predecessor which a lot seemed to like.
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Marc how did you figure you had a powerloss? Swr?
Also, an ATAS 120 on a Camry... that should be a sight to see rolling down the road.
Now I am thinking I should pull the 12 gauge out put the 4 gauge to the secondary battery power and ground. Run that to the dual 4 gauge distribution blocks. To run everything. What are the chances of getting RFI that way? Especially, if i run multiple batteries and usb hubs off of that as power and ground?
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Some good info.
I was going to run a 4 gauge wire to 12 gauge inside of my truck to power a Ftm 400. Running through a relay to a blade fuse to have key on power. But switched to a straight 12 gauge wire run and just going to run the apo. Using the inline glass fuse.
Guess I will be hunting for a 12 gauge inline ato fuse setup noq.
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I love the power pole buss personally. Used them extensively on high voltage rc heli applications. Learned to start making them into T's after I popped a BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit) by simply trying to color code them. Well that was a very expensive lesson.
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Mu suggestion would be either to:
- rewire radio with Anderson powerpoles, and fabricate a pigtail for the power supply;
- rewire radio with Yaesu-Kenwood-Icom T-connector, and fabricate a pigtail for the power supply;
- keep existing connector on the radio (I think it is GM-style car radio power connector, available at auto-stores) and fabricate a pigtail with corresponding connector for the power supply.
My vote is for the rewire with Andersons. I pretty much use Andersons for my radios all the way down to my RC helis. You can even make them into a "T" shape to help with not miss connecting them. Once you start converting, who cares what type it came with because the wire cutter and crimpers are coming out it 10 seconds.
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I'm sure kidphc was talking about digipeaters and i-gates, not your regular voice FM repeater. Without digipeater in a good location the APRS network shrinks down to the range of simplex HT and even shorter (being packet without error correction, requiring better signal than FM voice).
I also use my FT1XD when hiking, however, here in California, the places covered by digipeaters most often also have cell connection. The exceptions are rare, one such weird place is a lake nearby - cell connection non-existent, but digipeater is up high and functioning. The Sierra foothills, where I like to camp or just tag around on foot/skies/bicycle etc has an abysmal coverage by APRS, it's like one huge black hole.
Yes. should of have elaborated a bit. For true emergency coms a satellite phone and a gps unit are hard to beat, well minus the cost.
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Thanks for the tips. We're going with ABCD123 {name} as that seems to make the most sense and allows us to listen for our names. Now to figure out the rest of the logistics and fun... There's a great repeater I can hit from the house on the handheld that I can't get most of the areas we go in the car.. so now I have to look at options to make it work in the car haha.. At least I have the callsign bit figured out!
Just remember to contact the repeater owner to ask permission out of politeness.
I try to do so even if it is marked as public. I like to let the owner know who is using it, that it is in use and thank them for the time they took to set it up and maintain them.
- rdunajewski and savery
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Not sure what is going on with your antenna. Maybe a short in the coax or bad nmo. What does your SWR look like, only reason I ask is because the antenna is supposably rated for 120w. Could just be a cheap chinese antenna, knowing Midland probably is.
As far as the DBI goes I wouldn't strain to much on that. You probably wouldn't even notice the difference between the 6dbi and 5.5 dbi.
What power level are you running at?
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Personally, I just assigned unit #'s for the radios. Although my family just adopted which radio they were on as their personal unit number.
For instance, wife gets referred to as unit 2, oldest child unit 3. So a call out over the radio (simplex or repeater) is "XXXXX(CALLSIGN) UNIT2 this is XXXXX Unit 3.
Works for me and my wife, since she doesn't want names out over the airwaves for the kids.
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Just went to O.C. this week end. Got nada from the inlet. Didn't get any repeater tail or anything.
With a chinese ht with NA771
GMRS-V1 with NA 701c
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BTW, a slightly belated congratulations on passing your exam.
Thanks.. More of a sweat fest because of the mentatility going in. Took longer to get test session setup them me actually taking the test.
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But, there is another option: Amateur Radio. This service would seem to check all of your boxes - in particular, a very active community and lots of options to join in. Depending on your choice of equipment, you can communicate around the block or around the world. The technicians license is not at all hard to get, and would give you a wide range of local communications options. The general license is a bit harder, but would, literally, open up the world to you.
My suggestion, stop bemoaning the way things are and asking the world to change and go find a way to change yourself (and maybe your expectations).
Pretty much how I look at it. Wife has been preaching to me for years about change yourself, you can't change anyone but that.
Side story:
In the D.C. area it is pretty much dead for simplex/repeaters on 2m and 70cm bands also with GMRS and CB, well at least up by Rockville. Spoke to a ham in my neighborhood for about an hour. Asked him if ham was really dead. He turned on a radio onto 70cm and started scanning simplex, turned on another radio and started scanning all the memory repeaters. 45 minutes of scanning and nada while we talked. Before I left he turned on a DStar radio it was just constant talking. His words were basically, it's not that we aren't out there. A lot of us are on different modes. Adjust your frame of thought a bit. The hobby is still alive and kicking just FM in our area is pretty quiet.
I should add the Technician test is pretty easy. I personally, think I could of taken the test with about 3 days of study. Unfortunately, couldn't match any test times. Which resulted in a 3 week study time.
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Good luck. Though I am sure you will do fine.
Thanks.
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That looks like it could be fun! But, yes... anywhere there is enough stray energy to light a bulb, its probably best to spend as little time as possible. The sad part is, so many people are soaking in it every day and don't even know it.
BTW, if you still like going offroad, Rausch Creek is about 2.5 north of there and is an amazing park to play in.
Looked at offroading there. Unfortunately, with a young family. Some hobbies are not in the plan. We do have land out in West Virginia so we get our kicks heading up to the mountains. George Washington National park (fire roads), our personal mountain range (well a portion of it) out on New Creek Mountain, as well as several runs out to Assateague's beach.
I do hope to do a Flag Pole Knob run and camp in a couple of years. Think I might have the burb ready for some light rock crawling and SOTA at the camp site by then. First gotta pass the Tech on Saturday.
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Everything is underground in my neighborhood, but when I get in areas with major above ground power lines, the low end of VHF and the high side of HF are all but worthless. Sometimes as much as 20 S-units.
Speaking of that, when I was in high school we use to run down to the power lines. There is a substation not to far from the house. We use to grab fluorescent tube lights and walk under the power line to light them up. Until, we thought about how if there was enough stray electricity floating in the air to light the bulbs up, it probably wasn't a good idea to be walking around there for any amount of time.
Google map of lines, the long open green path.
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Our neighborhood has most of the electrical underground. Except, for the transformer pedestal 50 feet from my front door.
Not much in the way with interference on GMRS, 2m and 70cm bands. Although, I mostly just listen. So I couldn't tell you how it affects transmit purity. One of my neighbors a couple of blocks over has his long wire slung in the trees. He doesn't have any complaints on any of the bands. Well I take it back, he was complaining about all the vegetation interfering with his satellite play time. http://k3rrr.com/
Now the plethora of Plasma screen T.V.s in my neighborhood make trying to listen to HF with the SDR is another story. Should mention I have neighbors up real close to all sides of my house. Close enough my kids watch his living room T.V. from our living room.
Another nub... how to ID random repeaters?
in General Discussion
Posted
There are apps that will decode CW for you.