I had been thinking of buying an Icom IC-910H as a 2m/70 base rig when they hit the market. Looks like a great radio, but the $1,500 pricing strikes me as market speculation on Icom's part. So, on to "plan B"; which is to get a good quality mobile unit and set it up as a base station. Anyone have any thoughts on which of the many dual banders available would work well configured as a base rig? I'm looking for one with sufficient front-end filtering to minimize intermod when operated through a high gain roof mounted antenna - I've heard some mobiles have problems when operated in this manner. Comments will be appreciated.


P.S.: I'm not interested in a "DC-to-light" rig to cover the requirement.

I have a similar frustration. As far as new stuff goes, there does not seem to be any all-mode VHF radios available for sale as of this morning. One interesting possibility is the Ten-Tec model 526, which is a 6m/2m FM, CW, USB, LSB rig. Unfortunately, Ten-Tec has an internal problem holding up production on this rig. Looks interesting, although it's a little short on power (20w, all bands). Projected price is < $800 bucks.

Icom also has an all-mode 2m/70cm/23cm rig in the works (910H), but nothing in 6m that isn't integrated with their HF equipment.

You might want to check out
http://www.tentec.com/TT526.htm

The W32A pulls 1.6A on tx, high power (5w). The charger is just that, a charger. Output = 200mA. Considering that I'm using the radio as NOT designed, it's working great with the roof-mounted unipole since I quit using the charger. Fortunately, I've also got a fast charger and several batteries. Mickey Mouse setup, but it'll do until I get a real radio. Thanks again.

OK, this is making sense, particularly if the charger (which was furnished by Icom) plug cuts the battery pack out of the equation. My original post was based on the assumption that the transmitter would draw current from the pack, not the charger. Could be a bad assumption - need to look at the schematic and see if I can tell what happens there. I have been running the radio this way with a fairly fresh pack installed, but if the pack goes by-by when the radio is hooked up to the charger it would seem likely that tx current requirement would grossly exceed the charger output. Which can't be much, since it's a slow-as-molasses trickle charger. Worse, this is an "unregulated power supply" situation. Another clue: I've received "scratchy" signal reports when operating with the charger, but not when running from the pack. I think y'all have this one nailed. Thanks for the help.

Anyone have any idea why tx output on an ht would appear to decrease when operating with it hooked up to the plug-in charger? Let me explain: until I can get the radio I want for a VHF/UHF base station, I'm running an Icom W32A hooked up to a roof-mounted folded unipole ground plane antenna. Had serious intermod problems running the external antenna, so I put a bandpass filter on the feedline; bingo, noise gone. Anyway, I have no problem waking up one distant repeater (~60 miles) on the battery pack, but get no response when running on the charger. Seems like the situation would be just the opposite.

The description at ARRL's site sounds more like a "how to build" book than anything else. I'm interested in playing around with 2m SSB and would like to understand the pros and cons of yagis vs. quads, as well as enough theory to understand how and why they work. Will this book help any with questions like these?

This is great stuff folks! Thanks for the tips - if this isn't enough info to fix or reduce the problem, I probably need to take up something challenging like needlepoint or golf :~)

On the other hand, perhaps I should just sit around and complain about it until Icom's Ic-910H is on the market. He-he.

Jim, thanks for the tip - a bandpass filter would certainly be worth a try. I just put my MFJ259 on the line again this morning and tuned from about 130-170 mhz and discovered that this is apparently a very broadbanded antenna (lots of places out of the 2 m band which show a good match). The radiating element is heavy aluminum configured in a vertical loop resembling a race track (not sure what the correct geometric term is). Anyway, the radiator is about 3/4" in diameter at the feedpoint and drops to about 3/8" at the top of the loop, maintaining this diameter to the connection point on the mounting plate. I guess that's why the critter shows matches over such a wide freq range?

A ham friend gave me a 2 meter antenna which I recently installed on the roof. It's a commercial monopole ground plane antenna designed for fixed station operation (poop sheet says it's unity gain). Anyway, I tried hooking my Icom W32A ht to this beast and am now getting 9 on the S-meter from distant repeaters that come in at 4-5 with the rubber ducky. Unfortunately, a side effect is intermittant band splatter and other RFI problems. Example: the local NOAA weather radio (162.400 mhz) periodically comes in on 146.88 (output freq for a repeater located about 50 miles distant). I dialed up the Icom web site and, lo and behold, found a warning to expect reception problems when using the radio with an external "high gain" antenna. Something to the effect that the detector circuits were optimized for the rubber duck and could not deal with external antennas (front-end overload?). My question is this: is there any sort of simple solution (such as a feedline filter, etc.) to this problem, or do I just need to get a life and buy a real radio? Thoughts?

P.S.: the antenna/feedline system gives SWRs in the 1.1 to 1.3 range across the 2m band.

I installed a 605TQ in a '93 Explorer a couple months ago. Used a Larson dual-band antenna (5/8 wave VHF/ colinear UHF) with NMO mount. I dropped the headliner on one side and drilled through the roof with a 3/4" metal hole saw (see your local hardward store). Remember to remove the paint where the antenna mount grounds to the sheet metal (I used my Dremel). Dropping the headliner (and sun visor on one side) is not particularly difficult, but is best done with a good dose of patience (if the idea sounds terrifying to you, take it to a local Motorola dealer and let them do the job). You'll need to remove the plastic side molding on the door post (easy) to string the cable through it and under the carpet. Once you have the headliner dropped and the door post and door sill molding removed, what needs doing is pretty obvious. I cut a very small slit in the carpet right under where the radio is mounted on the center console as a port for the coax and power feed to emerge from. There was no accessible cable port from the passenger compartment to the engine compartment on my '93, so I drilled a hole through the 45 degree section of the floor board where you rest your feet. Be sure to encase your power leads in silicone gasket cement or the like where they go through the floor or you'll end up with water in the vehicle and a shorted power lead sooner or later. Keep power leads tied down as far from ignition components as possible. I drilled holes in the battery terminals and screwed the leads directly to them. Cover the terminals with grease when you're finished. Best advice I can give is plan the installation when you aren't pressed for time. Get a mental picture of what the system should look like after installation and then think it through as you go along; i.e., don't do something until you've thought about the next step. It's really not hard to do - just take your time. This setup has worked great in my Explorer (no trouble hitting repeaters at 60-75 miles on 50w where I live). No doubt have missed some steps, but I've droned on long enough as it is - if you want more info, drop me an e-mail.

kd5maw
modigs@zianet.com

Think I've decided what I need to do. I've played with several of the programs mentioned but seem to do just as well or better playing downloaded *.au code files while viewing the associated text files on screen. What I found out is that I can copy about a third of the characters in a 5-group string of 3 characters per group after playing the file 3 or 4 times - using 18wpm speed AND 18wpm spacing. Granted this is much different than getting 90% copy on random groups of ALL characters at that speed/spacing, but I think I can do it with enough practice! If there is a lesson to learn here, maybe it's that everyone has to find the method that works best for them. Much thanks to all for the help!!

Echo WA2AEH.

Thanks for the links N6QTH - very useful information. This instrument does not appear to be exactly flawless but, for the bucks involved, looks like a winner. Think I'll buy one. 73

I need some instruments for setting up antennas and have been told by a ham friend that the MFJ 259B is great for that purpose. A couple other guys say the frequency counter "isn't worth the powder to blow it to h#ll with". Maybe I should just buy some good quality individual instruments. Any thoughts on this?

gadget
kd5maw

Thanks Bert. Just downloaded the beast and it looks something like what I had in mind. Will tinker with it tonight. Unfortunately, it appears as though the program has not been updated to the Win32 interface. Looks useful though.