N8YP's Mobile Page

Why go mobile?

 

At my old QTH, I had it made.  No neighbors other than family, no antenna restrictions.  2 acres, 100' trees, 45' tower, lots of room to play with.  When I decided in 2007 to go back to school, I moved to town where I now have antenna restrictions.  Until a recent purchase of a MFJ loop antenna, I had no way to get on the air other than 2 meters at home. 

 

"Mobile antenna's are compromises at best, don't try it."

 

Mobile you say?  How do you fit the 80 meter dipole on the roof of the car?  Will the 1/4 wave vertical fit under overpasses?  Where will you put the radials?  You can’t work much in the vehicle, nothing like a home station really.  100 watts, that’s QRP power.  That is a lot of what I heard researching before even considering what to install in the vehicle.

 

What I chose to try:

 

Yes, I will confirm that mobile HF is not easy.  You have to tune the antenna a lot if you have one like mine.  Let me just give you a quick rundown of my station:

Radio – Kenwood TS-480SAT (read my comments later)

Antenna – Tarheel brand Little Tarheel II

Microphone – Heil Pro Micro single side

Interface – SignaLink

 

That’s it.  I purchased a cheap older laptop that runs Ham Radio Deluxe when I want to run digital modes or use the logging program.  I will say this, look at mobile laws so you are not caught in the wrong by your operations.  I run solo, any logging or digital modes are stopped mobile/stationary.  I still sign mobile as I am not a base station.  The Heil headset allows me to run hands free other than using a push button keyer that fits in my hand while on the wheel.  I put a splitter on my earphone out jack on the rig to allow a handheld digital voice recorder so I have flexibility to go back on a call or learn from an operation.

 

What kind of power do I run?

 

Well, since the alternator does not put out more than the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity needed for the flux capicitor, all I put out on the air is 100 watts.  That’s it, I don’t have a mobile amp, and I bought a 480SAT with built in tuner as opposed to the 200 watt 480HX.  Had I have researched, the HX would have been better as I tune the Tarheel antenna to resonance, and could have benefitted with the extra 100 watt output. 

 

I purchased the radio used, in awesome condition and the transaction went smooth.  I put in the optional SSB and CW filters (CW someday, only made a few contacts so far and the rust is heard on the air), and the high stability crystal.  Purchasing something used is buyer beware, but I really lucked out and got a great radio.

 

The Tarheel Antenna:

 

The Little Tarheel II tunes with their flip switch that I run off the ACC plug (used to be a cigarette lighter plug in the old days), and works as it should.  I flip the radio to CW, and listen to the static noise.  As it gets louder, I key up and watch the SWR until it falls, and usually always get a 1:1 SWR on the rig.  After some time, this gets very easy and tuning is a snap.  There are other options, a counter or tuners, but I have to keep down some costs.  One item I purchased at Dayton this past year was the longer whip.  The Little Tarheel II comes with a 30” whip, and the longer one is 56” long.  I lost the use of 6 meters, but for all others and especially 80 meters, I noticed a marked improvement.  I kind of wish that I did get the high power version to use with an amplifier at some point, and we will get back to that in a minute.

 

What was that, the noise level is an S-7 on this end.

 

When I installed the radio, I had a lot of noise, which I researched and asked others about.  It was determined to be ignition noise.  I cleaned up some of that with bonding the doors, hood, hatchback, and exhaust to the frame of the car.  I use a Diamond K-400 mount, and instead of clamping it to the door, I screwed a stainless steel L-bracket to the frame as high as I could on the rear of the car to give the antenna as much height over the roof of the car.  I also ran a braid from the mount to the bracket of the car.  I picked up 1” wide braid that was used below and will replace the door grounds shortly.  The mount works great, used it on the trip to Dayton and back, lots of highway running and have had no issues and no bent sheet metal from the mount.

 

So, an $800 radio, a $400 antenna and more money in accessories, you should have a great base station.  Are you happy running around wasting gas at +$3.00/gallon?

 

So, I use a high quality mic, minimal power (100 watts isn’t 1500 watts), a small antenna, and compete with big stations, am I happy?  Well, I would have to say yes.  I can still remember my first run; I worked a station in Springfield, IL using 40 meters that I had worked ten years earlier from a base.  Upper Michigan to Illinois is a huge jump, I know. 

 

Since that, I have worked a few others: Aruba, Madeira Island, Trinidad & Tobago, New Zealand, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and participated in the Worked All Europe contest as a mobile.  Had a German station ask if I was in the contest when he heard mobile in the call.  On the way home from Dayton, after changing out the whip and installing the Heil headset and had a great time working Barrak, 9K2UU in Kuwait.  I couldn’t believe working Barrak, competing against the base stations and with only 100 watts.

 

I don’t know how much better I could do with more power or the different antenna.  I have had great audio reports on the station, and can usually work any station I hear.  In contest situations, I am sure more power would help me make a contact faster, but adding the mobile usually will help make the contact.  I am also becoming active in the County Hunter net on 20 meters.  You can catch me activating counties that I am in, so far in the central Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin. 

If you want to try ham radio with a twist, I would highly recommend trying mobile.  It has been a lot of fun and met some interesting people I wouldn’t have without a base station.  With a little bit of work to install and troubleshoot, you can have a great time with a different type of operation.  Also, you have the ability to have HF capabilities in a time of emergency. 

Thanks for reading these few lines of thoughts about my mobile setup.  Included below are a few links of interest.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me and I will try to help.  I have had a great time doing this and would like to help others where I can. 

 

My email address is n8yp at arrl.net, removing the spaces and “at” with @. 

 

73,  Jeremy, N8YP

 

Links:

MARAC – Mobile County Hunting - http://marac.org/index.php

K0BG site – he knows a few things about mobile HF - http://www.k0bg.com/

Tarheel Antennas – Great site for screwdriver antennas - http://www.tarheelantennas.com/

Heil Sound – This is the amateur pages, cannot say enough with my audio reports - http://heilsound.com/amateur/

Ham Radio Deluxe – Great program to use with rig control and digital/logging - http://www.hrdsoftwarellc.com/

April 20, 2013!  Yes, for the Michigan QSO Party, there was this much snow at the county line of Alger and Schoolcraft on M-94.