Great tip. Yahoo filters most spam mail but some still gets thru.

-Jim

Andrew,

Yes, as posted above there are many ways to do this. You might be able to get started with $200 in used equipment to do what you want. With new equipment you could probably get going for $500 per end depending on terain and exactly where the 2 stations are.  If you don't mind learning morse code you could certainly accomplist what you want for <$1000 per end for new equipment and a lot less for used.

-Jim

The physically larger the vehicle, the better ground plane it provides. Mounting the antenna higher reduces ground losses, but too high and a big antenna hits things and breaks.

All things being equal I think a lower (usually 2wd) full sized pickup would be near ideal. Even better might be a metal flat bed on it with an antenna in the middle.  A very large sedan with trunk mounted antennae would also be good if you got all the metal parts well ground strapped together. An SUV with side ball mount would probably also do well.

There is no reason you could not work thru 40 or or even 80M with a setup like this. I think it gets problematic to get onto 160 with any kind of efficiency at all.

-Jim

I have one of the small ones and it seems to work pretty well though the stronger the mount the better. I would think a trunk mount on the hatch plus a guy or standoff to the hatch higher up would work well, but different strokes...

-Jim

I looks interesting but seems a little touchy in terms of wanting you to strap all the doors and such to ground, maybe slow down the motor with a resistor etc. I am only in each vehicle a short time so I am setting up the minimum number of boxes & wires and things, and looking for the simplest install that will work well. So far a single quality ground strap from the entenna mount to the body seems to work very well.

-Jim

I have used the MFJ heavy duty unit and it works but I world like something a bit beefier.

Any suggestions?

-Jim

Heh. It seems to run great with no real problems but not exactly as the manual seems to indicate. When dipping one knob and peaking the other I need to flip the USB/LSB switch to get enough meter deflection to do it.

I bought some spare tubes for the finals but have not changed anything yet. This rig was made around when I was born - I can work on surface mount 8 layer boards just fine, but these tubes are a little like black magic to me!

-Jim

Great ideas. That flagpole is less than I expected and removable as well.  The wire guys as radiators is an interesting idea as well, in fact they could even include the mast in the radiating system for a different band...

It occurs to me I can get 15 feet of wire up the side of the house as well as to a flag pole, and then run the ground of the tuner straight to some ground radials. I have a 1 inch copper water pipe the ground  is hooked to now that exits the house 3 feet away that I could hang a few radials from.

73,
-Jim

What kind of ground radials are you using?

-Jim

I am in a sub that allows "TV" antennas and sat dishes, but not other obvious antennas.

I am thinking about:
Flagpole for 40M. Maybe 10-40 if available/
Log Periodic for 6M-440MHz
Maybe a weathervane omni 2/440.
Possibly some wire antennas on the roof (to trees yet).

I have just a little discone in the attic and a random wire up the side of the house hooked to a tuner so far.

Any other ideas or sources for any of these?

73,
-Jim

Remember any operating tips or symptom when various tubes blow...etc?

-Jim

A trunk lip mount (you'll need a heavy duty one) can often be put onto a hatch. Depending on the antenna, a good ground is essential and the hatch is not always well grounded to the chassis, nor do trunk mounts always create a good ground path to the hatch. A couple of well placed quality straps will fix this.

-Jim

Seems like in a situation where the wire is hard to support this might be a good option. No holes.

-Jim

I am the second owner of a Swan 400 Mobil capable rig with sweep tube finals and a mobile VFO and power supply as well as the normal shack VFO and power supply.

It is a 400W PEP rig. I just got it running at the new QTH. I have only played with it a few minutes here and there but will be using it as my primary HF rig at the house (I sold my old Century 21 to a new ham who needed to get one the air and put the 706 in the car).

Anyone have any experience with this unit?

73,
Jim (AA8RF@yahoo.com)

Exactly, or just add a LED or a light to drop the voltage slightly.

-Jim