Activity on HAM bands other than 2 meter

[w squared]

Okay, these are questions for Tinkerer, YYC_tbird_sc, Elsifer, and HiLoSilver (and any other HAM that would like to chime in)

I've already gotten some GREAT information about 2 meter repeaters and coverage in the foothills from the folks on this board. I'm hoping to mine you guys for a bit more information if I could.

I'll be challenging the exam on December 16th, and hopefully buying a radio on the 17th.

#1. I can get access to some of the other bands (10 meter, 6 meter, and 70cm) with a reasonably priced mobile transceiver (no $1500 HF units). How much activity is there on these other bands? I know that there is one six meter repeater in Calgary, and a few 70cm repeaters in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, and the Hat. Repeaters are nice, but duplex won't help if I'm only talking to myself. 

I know I don't NEED anything other than 2 meter...but I don't truly NEED a Jeep either. 

#2. Have any of you have found yourself in a situation where you couldn't get a signal out with 2 meter, and could with a different band?

#3. Will going from 50 watts on 2 meter to 75 watts on 2 meter give me a big increase in reach? The reason I ask is that while the price is certainly right on the 75 watt radio that I've looked at (Yaesu FT-2900R), I think I'll have a hard time mounting that thing in my JK...and it only does 2 meter. All of the radios with the removable faceplates and access to 10m, 6m, and 70cm end up putting out 50 watts on 2 meter. I'm not really interested in strapping a linear amp to the bottom of my passenger seat just yet.

[w squared]

This is great feedback!

How have you found the 8900 so far? It's one of the units that I'm considering.

I think that I might mount the body behind the plastic panel below the steering column, and then remote the faceplate onto the vertical section of the Daystar plastic thingy on top of my dash...but I'll have to dry-fit it all to see if that's viable.

What you're saying about antenna performance makes a lot of sense.

Originally I was thinking that I'd run a setup similar to what's on your TJ - both CB and 2 meter antennas on the rear. I was thinking that I'd put the 2 meter on the spare carrier, and the CB antenna on the top of the license plate holder (I already have a bracket for that). The reading I've been doing about antenna mounts lately has had me reconsider that though - I'm considering a hood seam type mount up front with a fairly flexible 2 meter antenna. No, I won't have any sheet metal that is actually underneath the mount, but apparently it still works far better than a carrier mount. Then again, the authors of what I'm reading are not Jeep guys. They also spend a lot of time figuring out the most efficent way to mount their 8 foot tall "screwdriver" HF antennas  

PS: What are you running for an Antenna on Michie's Jeep, and how do you find that it compares to what's on your TJ? Also, does it give you any coverage on the 10m and 6m bands that the 8900 can hit, or did you just focus on getting good performance on 2 meter?

[yyc_tbird_sc]

I have found that there are places that I cannot get a signal out, but then again I don't carry all the repeater frequencies for the area (I only have a few programmed into the radio). I have an FT-8800 connected to a comet SBB-7 that is mounted to the toolbox behind the cab of my truck. I went with the SBB-7 to allow better SWR compared to the shorter SBB-5 (which I have two of, lol).

As for the use of the bands, I have only dabbled in the 2m and 70cm stuff as I don't have radio's capable of lower bands (yet LOL). I have a FT-7900, the 8800, and a couple portables VX-150 and an FT-60R. Yaesu makes a great radio, and is still my choice for now.

The better the ground plane beneath your antenna, the better the antenna will work. If/when you install your radio, the cost of an SWR meter isn't much and will help setup the radio properly. I wish I could offer you one, but the one I had got broken (when a D44 fell off a jackstand).

Ham Antenna Mount:

CB Antenna Mount:

The Radio's Mounted:

[Hi Lo Silver]

About the mounting. I tried mounting mine at the same location as the CJ7 radio antennae has survived for 25 years on my jeep, but on the other side. 5- 2meter antennnas at 80 bucks a pop finally convinced me to give up on that location. I tried various models as well. Ham 2 meter antennaes are not meant for trails in that location.

I now have it mounted at the rear of the jeep along with the CB antennae and it's survived so far.
I've never tried the other frequencies to be honest, so I should have stuck with the one I went to buy instead of buying the Yaeseu 857. Very nice rig, but an over kill for my purposes. The 8900 I've sure is the better way to go, unless you really do want a new hobby out of Hams.

I run mine at 7 watts most of the time. One occasion I bumped it to 15 watts, and was able to hit the repeater from Waiparous Falls.

[Toy Jeep]

Have mostly dual band ham radio gear. I like the Kenwood d700. I run APRS in my tow rig and my trail rig. My work truck has APRS and a 2m mobile rig. As for antenna location as a commercial 2-way radio installer I like the tire rack mount but you will have to ground the mount to the frame and body. There is allot of 2m and 70cm activity in Edmonton. If you have a dual or quad band rig then you can take advantage of the cross band repeat feature to extend your  range if you are no a hand held. Go with the best antenna you can get you will get more bang for your buck that way you don't need a high power radio. You just need a high quality install.

Don VA6CJ

[Elsifer]

All very good points mentioned above. And since my name was mentioned, I'll chime in.

I've got a 2m rig in my heep, IC-v8000 (75w max), and no idea what antenna, but it's a 5/8 wave stainless steel whip, with the L-bracket drilled into the spare tire carrier on the tailgate, drivers side. No picture of that sadly. Set for as close to 0 swr as possible right smack dab in the middle of the 2m band (146.00 mhz). Decent quality coax from our friend at the Road King, and a mounting location (lets see if I can dig up a pic)...



As for the cb antenna, its one of them looong stainless ones from the Road King, same coax, and its mounted to the passenger side of the spare tire carrier. Eventually it'll be run thru better coax, a tuner, and to an IC-7000.

The antenna's serve me well, they are tree, garage door, and parkade resistant. Useful to hang laundry on. And if I can see the tip of the 2m in the rearview mirror, it's really, really windy. I check the NMO connections in the fall, use a dab of vaseline to keep the junk out, and the coax connectors I have siliconed. It's worked sofar, with minimal tweaks in swr.

As for the "can turning up the power reach someone?" Well, my radio, at full jam, can usually (usually) kerchunk the RYC repeater from nearly anywhere. As for getting a proper return, well, that might mean moving the jeep a couple of feet in some direction. Even when doing car rally's back in Powderface trail, there are some really bad shots to the RYC repeater, and full jam, and a bit of positioning finesse with the jeep will usually get a pretty darn good in & out signal.
When in the bush, and a signal needs to get out, get to the top of the nearest hill. Done. The Eastern Slopes are very, very well covered with 2m repeaters, many with autopatches. But in the event of a Pan-Pan, a lot of casual listeners will turn up the volume, and if need be, lend a helping hand getting a call out to Emergency Services. I haven't had to do that yet (knock on wood), and I don't look forward to the day when I do have to do that, but I feel quite confident that I can get a message out. If all else fails, the the SPOT gps thinger, or a sat fone will work. I'm getting me a SPOT thingy for xmas, so, I feel double secure in next years wheeling adventures.

I personally don't have much use for crossbanding, at least not in the heep, maybe in my upcoming Daily-Driven-Non-Jeep. But I'm an Icom guy, so *shrug*. I have a couple of handy's as well, of which, one always has a blown 2m final, I have a bad antenna, don't know which one as I have a few.

[Toy Jeep]

If you have a problem with the antenna on your HT get rid of the old ones and some replacements the repair of the hand helds will cost more than and antenna. I have tried the spot locator's a good idea it would be nice is it gave you some feed back that your distress call was received this is the only real complaint on the divice. You can get some of the same features using APRS on the ham bands. Check out www.aprs.if and try seching for ve6cj this is the call that is attached to my TJ.

[yyc_tbird_sc]

Now if we had access to the forestry radio network for emergencies, that would make sense, but alas, they play those cards *very* close to their chest.

HE HE HE....No comment!

[TJ54]

 Has anyone used the teraflex antenna mount ?, the on that gets mounted between the brake light and body on a tj, I always thought that would work well.
On my TJ i just bolted a standard "L" bracket to the body, close to the top above the brake light. It worked well, especially with the soft top down,   I mainly used it for CB, but played around with 2m on it as well. it was ok not great but got the job done.

On the pick up pic above, I see antenna mounted  on the toolbox right behind the cab.  It looks like a cb antenna,
3 watts from a cb shouldn't be too bad, but I definately wouldn't want more power than that radiating so close to my head.


edit:  link to a mount at quadratec     http://www.quadratec.com/products/96080_111.htm                                                                            you could drill out the hole for your 2m mount


poke around this site you may find frq's you are looking for
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?stid=101

[w squared]

This is the mount that I'm thinking of using on my JK.



It mounts to the gate instead of the body, but I think that the gate acts as a pretty good RF ground when it's closed...at least if my SWR results and the comments provided by the owner of the RoadKing CB shop (Dean??) are any indication. I think that I may start adding some ground straps once I install a VHF/UHF rig just to be on the safe side. I don't think that I can use an NMO on there, but the PL259 mount should be fine.


After all of the reading and speculating that I've done, I'm thinking that I'll keep it simple for my first foray into HAM. I'll probably get a dual-band like the FT8800 - the "two receivers in one box" concept really appeals to me in terms of  being able to monitor while scanning and cross-band repeat if I pick up an HT. I'm also liking what I'm reading about the front ends on the 8800 and 8900 - apparently they are very good in terms of rejecting intermodulation.

I like the idea of the 8900, but I don't know that FM (but no SSB) on 6 meter and 10 meter justifies the extra money for the radio - or the added expense of a duplexer and second antenna.

Oh...and TJ54? That's a GREAT link.

[TJ54]

that looks like a pretty good mount, it's hard to find a good place on a wrangler. and there's always going to be compromises.
I think the tailgate will gound out just fine open or closed, it will ground out through the hinges. I don't think ground straps will help. But they definatly won't hurt, so why not try.

[w squared]

I like that mount a lot more than the one I'm currently running for my CB antenna (same idea, just not as well constructed), and better than the license plate holder mount that I've got. I'm actually considering ordering two of them - one for CB, one for a 2m/70cm dual-band antenna.  The only issue is antenna separation. I'm not sure of the distance between the two sides of the spare carrier...it may be less than the eighteen inches that I'm aiming for.

[TJ54]

The ground is much more important on HF than VHF/UHF as I found out doing my measurements on a couple of different vehicles, though my measurements were on an antenna mounted on a horizontal metal surface, not a vertical one, so YMMV!   I couldn't count on grounding through the hinges on my Garvin Wilderness rack and when I added even small ground straps, what a difference on HF (which includes CB).

yup!  HF is entirely different and can be a major pain on a vehicle. imho the roof is the only place for a HF antenna, putting anywhere else, you can spend hours trying to match it,  then the wind blows in a different direction and you have to start over, lol

[w squared]

For HF, I'm actually thinking that the best performing "Jeep-able" solution is a great big ball mount just aft of a rear fender with a 1/4 wave CB whip (maybe trimmed a bit) and one of the antenna tuners meant for use with "random wire" mounted just inside the tub. Something like this thing:



The only other things that might work are Hamsticks (limited flexibility, and they're 7 feet long with a different antenna for each band) or something like the ATAS-120 (which I'm not completely sold on)

[w squared]

Roger on the voltage. I'm guessing somewhere in the 10KV range 

Those Breedlove mounts are pretty nice. Spendy though...$135 us for the mount, the plates, the QD stud, and the coax connector.

Then again, I get the impression that once it's installed, it'll outlast the rest of the Jeep.