KR8LR/M 18-Wheel Mobile Antenna Pics

These are some pictures of my HF antenna setup on the old truck. A new truck has been purchased, so the antenna is going to be refit to the new truck as soon as I get it. New pics of the new truck will follow soon, and I'll link to these for posterity's sake. A description will follow.



DriverBack

Above, you can see the ICOM AH-4 auto tuner, and the 8 gauge wire coming from it to the feedpoint of the first 102" whip. A wire is attached to the tip of the whip to continue around the front of the truck to the 102" whip on the other side, which is pictured below.

PassengerBack

Here you can see the termination of the loop, at the base of the second 102" whip. The base of the whip is insulated from the body by a pair of teflon insulating washers. I'm not running a "loop", per-se, but more of a "looped longwire."

DriverFront

Here is a picture of the front support on the driver's side. This support also holds the dipole for my CB (made with two Wilson Silver Load antennas) for my GrantXL,  and the Diamond dualbander for 2M/70CM on the 706Mk][G.

Front

Above is a picture of the front of the truck, showing both front supports. The passenger side support also holds up the 2M "Buck Buster" for the 2100H. The other Buck Buster on the passenger mirror mount isn't attached to anything, yet. It's going to be for the DR-135 for APRS in the truck. That hasn't been installed yet because I don't have a GPS or a laptop for the truck... yet.

The reason I chose to use 102" SS whips at the feed and termination, instead of solid wire, is because, on this truck, the mirror mounts are attached to the door, not to the body of the truck. So the SS whips serve two functions. They provide tension for the wire to keep it taut, and they allow me to open the doors to get in and out of the truck.. Even truck drivers need to eat once in awhile. Hi Hi.

Including the feed wire from the AH-4 tuner to the base of the first 102" whip, there is exactly 40 feet of wire from feed to termination. Those of you who have heard me on the air know what kind of signal it puts out. I only run the stock 100 watts that the 706Mk][G puts out. I do not own an amp.

Hope my description, "Horseshoe with Fangs" (HF) for this antenna now makes sense.

73 de KR8LR, Chris