N8PJP On The Road

[N8PJP - On The Road]

The N8PJP "Grid Hopper"

Click to enlarge photo.	Back in 1993 N8NQS (Dave) and myself worked the 432 Sprint Contest and had a pretty good time from that point on I was hooked on portable contesting. It gives you a chance to meet new people and most of all you don't have to worry about RFI, TVI, Cordless Phones, or QRM from some persistent person beating down your front door trying to sell you a news paper subscription to the news paper that he had to step over to beat on the door. But that is another story. You might have to deal with turning on a burglar alarm (Right Dave). Over the next few years, I put together a lot of notes on every time I worked portable on what to do and what never to do again. With all these notes in hand the "Grid Hopper" antenna trailer came about. The biggest problems we usually encountered was on setup or tear down of the antennas with the respect to small mast, small antennas, no rotators (arm strong method) cabling, storage and lengthy setups and tear downs. With these things in mind and on the drawing board I set out to build the ultimate "Grid Hopper" that could be set up in 15 minutes not wear you out and look slick. Well we came pretty close to that goal with a 20 minute setup and a 26 minute tear down but I think with a few more practice runs the 15 minute setup will be feasible.
Click to enlarge photo.	To backup a bit, I took a serious look at some of the companies that are producing antenna trailers and was able to find only two. Aluma Tower and Glen Martin Engineering both produce a fine product but it was not what I was looking for. Both of them mount the towers at the rear of the trailer and did not have the stabilizing setup I was looking for. With all this in mind it was time to start scrounging around to see what I could come up with. The first thing needed was the tower. I came up with an old Hygain 40 foot telescoping tube tower and with a little swapping K8NNU (Terry) dropped if off at the side of the house where it sat for the next year while I looked for the other needed items and spent a lot of time on the computer making sure everything would work. Thank goodness for CAD programs.
Click to enlarge photo.	With every thing in place the new "Grid Hopper" was ready to be built. With the help of N8PJQ (Bill), and a whole lot of patience from the XYL (Onida), the pieces were cut and welded together. Heck Bill even came over in the middle of the night to help me stand it all back up. I had let a jack stand slip while I was moving the trailer around and the whole thing, tower and all fell over on its side. Of course, everything was held together with Vice Grips and C clamps but nothing was hurt but a little pride.
Click to enlarge photo.	My next goal was to try to make the trailer handle dual purposes. Because I wanted to be able to use it as a 16 by 5 foot flatbed trailer. In about 45 minutes it will haul a couch or a snowmobile in the winter. The next part of the Quick setup goal was to get this thing in the air and Pivot it from the front instead of the rear as the commercially built trailers do. This way I could always leave the antennas on the mast for swinging it up or down while it is still hooked up to the truck or for moving to the next grid if you are working the corners of four grids, N8WUD (Jim) came through on this one. With a little swapping Jim had a real nice Duel Speed Hand wench and some 1/4" cable. Again duel purpose one wench to tilt the tower to a vertical position and extend it all the way to its 40 foot position with the same cable. This produces a real time saver. The next thing I had to come up with was a rotator and control box. I just happened to have a Ham 4 setup that was given to me for taking down a neighbors old C/B tower. With a little clean up, a cannon plug kit from C.A.T's Rotor Service and a quick disconnect plug from Radio Shack installed by N8WUD on the rear of the controller this part of the project was out of the way. If need be it runs very well off of one of those little inverters that you plug into a cigarette lighter. With the two tee bolts at the end of the tower the rotator and mounting spud can be installed in 30 seconds. The next part of the project was the storage of the antennas, cables, rotator and spare parts. I have to thank my 10 year old son for the antenna storage idea. One day while going through Builders Square I told him I was looking for some Hinge Hasp like you to lock up a shed door. It was my intention to use them to hold the antennas to the side of the upright supports. Anyway we passed a display of spring clamps called Pony Clamps. They look like an over size clothes pins. He reached into the box, handed me one and said how about these daddy? Will they work? What a great idea and their Slick, Quick and Simple. Now for storage I had been eyeing a pickup bed tool box in the neighbors yard that was not being used. After a short explanation of what I could use it for and an offer to haul it out of his yard he helped me set it over the fence. But just as my luck would have it the trailer was about 6 inches to narrow for it to fit between the frame rails (Darn). A little later that evening I sent a progress report to N8NQS (Dave). Dave reported he happened to have a storage box that fit all the requirements. He even supplied one of the K8WKZ's 6 element, 6 meter rover antennas for the new "Grid Hopper." (Thanks Dave) On one of my trips through Meijer's I came across a very simple device called a cord real that would hold a 100 foot extension cord. Again very Slick, Quick and Simple. I am able to store 5 coax cables, 1 rotor cable, 2 extension cords, the rotor, a new bearing hub for the trailer all very neatly in the storage box. All of the coax cables are color coded with different color electrical tape for each band (i.e. 144 blue, 220 yellow etc.) this way when everything is hung in the air it takes the guess work out of what cable is for what band. The tower hangs off the back of the trailer about 3 foot but has not presented any problems as it is over 7 foot off the ground. But just in case I ran a 3 foot section of red seat belt from the end of the tower. This acts as a warning flag while driving down the road and also as a wind sock to tell you wind speed and direction when the tower is in the upright position. For the mast it is stored very neatly in a length of PVC Pipe with threaded end caps that is secured to the trailer with Electrical Conduit U Straps. By installing a long 1/4 inch bolt through the end of the threaded cap so no tools are required to remove or install the cap. This brings up another point. The only tools required to set up the "Grid Hopper" is a little electrical tape, 1/4 inch ratchet with a 7/16 and 1/2 inch deep socket for securing the antenna U-bolts to the mast. But plans are under way as soon as the lath is fixed to build up slip rings. This will enable me to just slide the antennas on the mast and drop in a quick pin. It will sure beat trying to get all the antennas in alignment during setup. For those of you who are able to view the pictures here of have seen the "Grid Hopper" you will also see a couple of Square Halo antennas for 6 and 2 (432 and 220 and 10M later). These are mounted on the tower pivot and the rear tower support. These are used for roving down the road and do not require any disassemble for set up as they are moved out of the way or ride up with the tower when it is cranked up to the vertical position. Again duel purpose. Just change the feeds and have fun! I think this just about covers the ideas behind the "Grid Hopper". The trailer tows like a dream, is easy to setup and tear down. The only problem we have had so far is when K8NNU (Terry) and myself was trying to find a place to setup for the September VHF contest. We were looking for a place just west of Standish, MI on the water (Just in EN84). But every place we tried to rent a room or cottage, they did not like the idea of the trailer setup on their property, we even tried the State Park. Feeling pretty discouraged Terry found a local repeater to put out a plea. Our call was answered by KB8YZZ (Ray) who was the ex-police chef of Oscoda. Ray took us to an unused Ice Hockey Rink and even supplied us with electricity for the first checkout of the "Grid Hopper". Setup took a little longer then originally thought but this was due to things that should have been taken care of before the trip. Such as not having the 6 meter beam checked out. Cables Color Coded and a group of people showing up in the middle of setup to tell us they where suppose to have a Birthday party where we were setting up. But all in all we got everything worked out (no cake) and Ray took good care of us while we were there and we had a lot of fun I will look forward to going back next year and passing out the grids. If you need any of the northern grids on 6, 2, 432, 220, 1296 or 2304 drop me a message and I will put you name on the list and let you know when I'll be up there. If you have any questions or suggestions please drop me a note I am always open for suggestions. 73 Stan Rover Home Page

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