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Considerations for an Amateur Radio

Steven

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Howdy,

I will be getting my technician class licence next week, but I do not have a radio yet. The things that I consider 'must have' is a mobile transceiver, 70cm/2m bands, 50 watts PEP, and a fairly simple face plate. A radio that fits that bill is the Yaesu FT-7900R...
ysu-ft-7900r_xl.jpg



At the same time, I am not opposed to a 'bigger' radio that I could grow into as a ham, such as the Yaesu FT-857D.
ysu-ft-857d_xl.jpg


I am looking for opinions about these two radios and any others that I haven't looked at yet. Chime in with your preferences and why they are important to you. Also, I don't consider price as a limiting factor, just something to take into consideration. A quality rig is worth saving up for.

Much appreciated,


Steven
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mark203

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Hi Steven -
I am one step ahead of you in that I bought the radio (Yeasu FTM-400XDR) but haven't carved out the time to get it installed yet. *I* wanted dual band monitoring, to experiment with the built-in APRS, and was attracted to the pretty colors on the screen. LOL

Others with more experience will hopefully and helpfully chime in, but I'll share my perspecive -
The Wrangler, in general, isn't particularly antenna friendly. For HF and lower frequencies, mobile antennas get much larger and there are more compromises involved to mount them on vehicles in general, and Wranglers in particular.

All of that being said, expereimenting and figuring out those challenges is what ham radio is all about.

My suggestion would be to not only research your radio (and you have two great choices there), but to look at and learn about the various trade-offs you would be making in the course of the entire installation - especially the antenna implications. Then decide if the laws of physics are going to be friendly for what you ultimately want to do with the HF radio if you go that way.

As I said - don't look to me for expert, experienced advice with HF, because I haven't done any more than read tons of stuff about it. But that's half the fun. :)

73
K7TZK
 
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Steven

Steven

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@mark203 that is really sound advice, thank you. The antenna setup is certainly the most critical part of this ham radio thing, at least that is what my study materials said. I figure starting with a quality radio and then researching mobile antennas (buying or building) would make more sense.

I also like the idea of having not only APRS, but cross-band repeating, but all those pretty colors are intimidating.
 

mark203

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If you haven't found it already, http://k0bg.com/ is a wealth of knowledge about the ins and outs of mobile antennas - maybe too much info there LOL.

One of the things I did when looking at radios was download and read the manuals for anything I was considering. I ended up buying a Yeasu FT-2D handheld because, among other things, the basic functions, terminology, menu structures, etc. have the same corporate DNA as those in the FTM-400. That gave me something to play with and gain some more practical understanding of how everything works.

If you are interested in really digging into the depths of APRS, though, it is important to know that, unlike some other brands, the Yeasu implementations don't give you direct access to the terminal node controller interface, so you can't do things like splice in your own computer to directly communicate over APRS.
 
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Steven

Steven

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@mark203 I had not stumbled across that site yet, but I just spent the last two hours reading it. Thank you for that suggestion as well.

It seems that the seven P’s will serve me well as I try to figure out how to install a mobile rig.


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Steven

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Simple mount for 70cm/2m antenna. L section aluminum mounted to third brake light mount (drilled through two existing holes in mount). Grounded through the rear door, through the floor, to muffler (used machine screw between the muffler and muffler strap to keep the ground strap in place. Didn't screw it into muffler :). Very secure.
SWR almost 1:1
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prerunner1982

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I enjoy mobile HF, just something cool about talking all over the world from your Jeep.
Or sending a SMS text message to your wife's cell phone from the ham radio in your Jeep through the International Space Station... #radionerd
A 1/2 wave 2m antenna (typically a dual band) would be quite forgiving of where it is mounted as it is not ground dependent, but remember for VHF/UHF antenna height is king.

HF on a new Wrangler may be a bit of a challenge due to the relatively few antenna mounting locations.
I have used hamsticks in the past, they use a typically 3/8x24 CB antenna style mount. They will likely need a spring or to be removed if there is a chance they may hit tree limbs. I broke 3 in 2 years, luckily they are relatively cheap. A down side is you have to carry an antenna for each band you want to use.

A solid option though not all that efficient is a 102" whip with an antenna tuner. You can get up to about 40m with it and the whip is tough as nails.

The setup I am currently running is an adjustable loading coil (similar to Wolf River Coils, though I made my own) and a 102" whip. It works from 11m-40m, I could do 10m but would need a slightly shorter whip. Using a longer loading coil you could get upto 75/80m, Wolf River coils offers one of those as well.

There are larger screwdriver antennas with motorized loading coils and such that are said to be quite strong but I just couldn't justify hanging a $600 antenna of the side of my Jeep. Yaesu does have the ATAS screwdriver antenna that runs about $375.

If you decided to put an HF antenna on the back tailgate it would take some grounding straps to the body to likely get the SWR down, but as K0BG says, "If you've read the Antenna Efficiency article, you'd know why minimizing ground loss is so important. But if you're thinking a ground strap to the nearest hard point on your vehicle will negate this situation, you're wrong!"

A mount right to the rear fender is likely going to be the best of the possible mounting solutions, in addition to some RF bonding.

As far as radios go... I run a Yaesu FT-8800r dual band for voice, a Yaesu FTM-3100r for APRS, and a Kenwood TS-480sat for HF.
Yep, three radios. I know there isn't a lot of room in Wranglers to mount 3 radios (in addition to CB and/or GMRS if you run those as well).
I wanted an all band all mode HF radio in the beginning too but it was out of my price range at the time. I went with the dual band first and added the TS-480sat later, it does 6m-160m so no VHF/UHF which is fine for my situation. The APRS was added later as well and prefer it on a separate radio so it can do it's own thing and not tie up one side of my dual band so that I can still monitor two frequencies (typically simplex and a local repeater).
I do portable operations out of my Jeep as well with extension cables for the control head and mic set up on a table next to the Jeep under the awning. I still like to monitor VHF/UHF especially if set up at camp and have friends en route or out and about. I also like the TS-480 because it is not as menu driven as the mother mobile HF radios. The FT-857D is a good radio, it's be around quite awhile.

Have you looked at the Icom IC-7100? It isn't much more expensive than the 857 for the moment though I am not a fan of the control head design. It certainly seems more gear to desktop operation than mobile.
 
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Steven

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@prerunner1982 I have looked at the IC-7100. I am thinking that installing a radio overhead would be convenient which makes that control head design counterproductive. As of yet, I am still leaning towards the FT-857D, but the FT-7900R is still a strong contender. The antenna setup might end up being the deciding factor.

As of right now, I am about three hours from taking my technician licence. After the test, I'll be trying to study up on antennas a bit more before classes (college) start up. No worries though, I am okay with taking my time and building this getup right.
 

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Steven

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@prerunner1982 of course I did. Thank you for asking. Then after I passed, I attended the ARES meeting and met some real nice guys and gals.
 

prerunner1982

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of course I did.
:like::rock::clap:

Congrats and welcome to the hobby. I know it's a ways off, but if you are interested in HF communication put June 27-28th on your calendar. It's the ARRL Field Day. Hams and ham clubs around the country set up portable stations and operate for 24hrs trying to make as many contacts as possible. Most clubs set up in parks or fire stations and stuff to allow the public to visit, some hams like myself would rather go out in the woods and rough it. You could possibly get a "Worked All States" award in one weekend if you operated under your own call sign. Also there are State QSO parties almost every weekend.
I am not much of a rag chewer (sit and BS with strangers) so the quick exchange of the contests appeals to me.
 
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mark203

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@Steven - Congratulations!
The General exam is only incrementally more knowledge than Technical - I would second @prerunner1982. I took them a month apart, and missed one question between the two exams. As he said, that gives you access to a pretty broad swath of the HF frequencies if that is what you are interested in. That gives you the ability to experiment - which is a much faster learning curve.
 

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Checking in on a older thread...Im a technician, flirting with moving up.

If you plan any usage of the 2M or 70CM repeaters around your area, I HIGHLY recommend you get a cheap Baofeng to listen in and see if there's any activity. Where I am, it is EXTREMELY rare to hear anything, which was very disappointing.

The vast majority of users are going to the digital modes like Fusion and D Star. Had I known this I would have bought a digitally enabled radio.

HF is a different deal altogether, and if you're looking at mobile HF, then ignore the stuff above.

But if you are looking at local repeater usage, seriously consider a radio that supports digital.
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