Any ham radio guys here? AC8ZL

[DhabsDigs]

Hello, K4EJD here and my wife and I are waiting for our house to sell so we can get our truck and trailer. I'm planning on having a ham shack in the garage area so any input would be welcome! im thinking going with ICOM 7300. No clue what antenna to go with though.
LLAP

[SkipRD]

Hi Skip!

We're doing something similar ourselves. I've run coax through a window or even through the rubber seal at the corner of a slide down by the floor (just bend the seal back a little and you'll see a pretty decent gap). I haven't done POTA yet, but since I like staying in parks more than private campgrounds it makes sense to activate a few. I'll be taking along a Yaesu FT-891 and a couple antenna options but I might just operate out of my truck a little since I have HF in there.

Are you camping at the Hamcation location? We could start a Hamcation Grand RV rally!

-Mike, K8AN

Back to how to run the coax into the RV, I came up with a solution. Our XLS 23LDE has a port with an RG6 F-connector. We don't use a TV outside, so I replaced that with an 4" SO-239 bulkhead connector, and then ran a short length of RG-8X to another bulkhead connector on the face of the dinette seat.


73 Skip K4EAK

[shammer1]

WX4CCC here, planning on doing 3 radios in my rig, HF/VHF/UHF and a Lime full Xmint 4 port SDR. Also looking for antenna advice, especially for HF.

[jim_de_hunter]

Since I like camping in new places and I really don't know the setup of a new site, I was thinking about going this way for an HF antenna on the RV. https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-2104

I should be able to set this up wherever I go.

[dryfly]

WX4CCC here, planning on doing 3 radios in my rig, HF/VHF/UHF and a Lime full Xmint 4 port SDR. Also looking for antenna advice, especially for HF.

I don't know what your requirements for an antenna are, but I've recently put up an end fed half wave antenna and I feel I'm getting good results considering it's not up very high.

SWR readings are very acceptable on 40, 20, and 15m. I bought a few parts and made a 49:1 matching transformer, and then strung up about 67 ft of #14 stranded wire. Lots of info on YouTube and building this type of wire antenna.

[kb0zke]

Right now I have a pair of hamsticks for 15m and 20m. The attachment point is on a painter's pole, and I sit outside. Today I thought I'd try using the surplus 12V 105AH LiFePO4 batteries that I don't need with my new setup. One was under 4 volts and the other was just under 10. I've got that one on a charger now. I suspected that there was a problem with one of those batteries, but no one would believe me. The batteries have been disconnected for about a month now.

Eventually I'll run a pair of wires to where I can plug in a radio and then I'll be set.

[SkipRD]

WX4CCC here, planning on doing 3 radios in my rig, HF/VHF/UHF and a Lime full Xmint 4 port SDR. Also looking for antenna advice, especially for HF.

Since I like camping in new places and I really don't know the setup of a new site, I was thinking about going this way for an HF antenna on the RV. https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-2104

I should be able to set this up wherever I go.

I haven't used that MFJ "octopus" model, but I've used hamstick dipoles a lot and they work fine. Since the elements are base-loaded, they don't work as well, obviously, as a longer wire, but for temporary setups they'll do. I also have the dipole connector mounted on the top of a 12' extendable painter pole that I attach to the rear ladder via a Flag Pole Buddy.

However, when circumstances permit, I also prefer to go with an EFHW thrown up in a tree. It's resonant on the four bands I use most often (40, 20, 15, and 10) and is easy to deploy using an arborist weight/line, and very efficient. As noted above, there are gazillions of pre-made, kits, and DIY versions. They're all basically the same and work great. I've found that sometimes an EFHW will work better with a counterpoise, but the ordinary method of using the coax shield as the counterpoise works well enough in most cases. If trees aren't an option, for one reason or another, I sometimes use a collapsible pole in a Flag Pole Buddy as the attachment for the EFHW wire end, although the logistics of that setup can get cumbersome.

Where an EFHW won't work (because no trees or park restrictions on putting wires in trees), my next-best option is usually a Wolf River Coil, except that I use it with an MFJ-1979 (17') collapsible whip. That gives me all bands 40m and higher and works great.

And finally, you didn't ask, but I also have an FT-891 installed in the truck and an ATAS-120 mounted on the front of the bed. The 891 is a so-so radio, and the ATAS-120 is a so-so antenna, but who cares? If I'm just driving around and want to get on HF, or do a quick park activation, the combination works well enough. In fact, operating this way, sitting in the truck, is my go-to way to operate when all else just won't work.

Hope that helps,
73 Skip K4EAK

[shammer1]

I don't know what your requirements for an antenna are, but I've recently put up an end fed half wave antenna and I feel I'm getting good results considering it's not up very high.

SWR readings are very acceptable on 40, 20, and 15m. I bought a few parts and made a 49:1 matching transformer, and then strung up about 67 ft of #14 stranded wire. Lots of info on YouTube and building this type of wire antenna.

Here is what I am looking at for HF, have built several of them and they seem pretty solid. Setup would be fairly quick once you get the ground planes installed and the pole up. Not optimal but a good quick RV solution. https://mfjenterprises.com/products/...pr_seq=uniform . Process: I tune the antenna then number and mark the flyout radials and horizontal planes for quick assembly and setup using the same cable and tuner setup. I think this would be fairly quick setup and good solid DX'ing. Thought?