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NEW: Mobile Antenna Testing Results Part 1

Updates:

Oct 2004: finishing up the mobile antenna shootout

July 2004: Added antenna testing and more photos

June 2004:
Laptop crash so I decided to completely redo the site..

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Ordering: It was easy to order off the web site. (nice job!) I had asked Larry some questions by email ahead of ordering which were answered quickly. After placing the order, I received a confirmation email from Larry. It might have been automatically generated but it didnt seem to be and I liked the personal touch.

It arrives! (Unpacking) The antenna was shipped postal mail, insured. This means in my town I have to sign for it or go to the post office to pick it up. Ended up that this very week, I was on vacation, but about an hours drive from home, so I drove home and picked it up and brought it to the vacation spot.. The difficulty here is that this location does not have all my testing and installation equipment. I was hoping it would be an easy installation, but after opening it: this is not to be. (see later) The antennas was packed nicely in bubble wrap and shredded newspaper which made a mess on the floor after I opened the box. I was very careful about cutting off the bubble wrap this time. The control cable was packed around the antenna so easy to spot. There was a separate bag for the mounting parts.

First impression. Looks like a nice antenna! Larry takes a different approach than the others.

• The mount is consists of a hole in the bottom of the antenna into which a long plug is inserted. This is bolted to something to hold it in place. Looks pretty solid to me, better than I would have thought.
• The motor cable is a thin set of wires out of the antenna. Larry supplies an extension to bring this to your control point. (Addressing a shortcoming of other vendors!) but the connector doesnt look like something I can get at radio shack. (Darn: might have to cut these wires! I just hate doing that on something new!)
• The manual is not as professional as the other vendors (and they are not perfect either!) but it is useable.The text is in large type, I guess Larry assumes our population is aging. (I felt he was yelling at me: I probably read too much email!) The problem for me was that there were no directions on how to hook it up to my AMAC controller
• Coax Attachment. The Tarheel and HS connect the coax thru a bottom fed arrangement leaving an SO239 to connect to: makes it really simple. Larry provides a screw to which you connect a spade lug (supplied). Humm.... I hate cutting coax.... but in the pursuit of science and all things ham...

Installation: This one is going to be a bit tricky... well atleast “different”.

Motor control: I sent Larry an email double checking about how to connect to the AMAC controller. There are 4 wires in the control cable so I assume two are for the motor and the other two for the switch. I will make an adapter to connect to the wiring I have already installed. Larry does supply a choke with the motor control and this one seems more robust than the one with the High Sierra (It is a donut rather than an inline one.) Stay tuned...

Coax connection: I will make up a pigtail to go to my existing coax (I really dont want to cut it!) Would have been nice if there wae a SO239 all set for me.. but that can a problem too...

Mounting: The bottom of the antenna has a cone shaped opening that is about 2”-3” high (guess). The antenna comes with a mating matal stud that is bolted to a mount and the antenna slides over this. I believe this works: it depends upon the weight of the antenna to hold it down, but I just did not feel comfortable with this. After all this work, all it would take would be going over a bump and what would I find? (Antenna projectile?) I have learned to trust my feelings (the FORCE?) so I reused the HS mount. I wrapped the mount with rubber tape so that the active with HF part of the antenna would not short.. then tied this together with large tie wraps and electrical tape. I was worried about the capacitance to groung, but it did not seem to make a difference!

Problems: This all worked very well... until.. I ended up with a final configuration that had the tophat on it.. in the wind, this causes the antenna to spin (!) What was preventing it from spinning was the coax connection.. until that failed... Yep to coax connector tore right off! I fixed this, but needed a way to make the antenna not spin. To fix this I took some plumbers the type that you hang pipe with. I cut off two lengths that had two holes each in them. With one hole I attached it the antenna at one of the screws and the same with the opposite side.. then over the mount, I connected both of these with a tie wrap.. no more spinning!!!..

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Copyright 2004 by Philip P. Thompson, All rights reserved.