ten tec does well, and on the lower bands a magnetic loop is great for rx.  (Like the pixel technologies loop) also see if you can locate and fix the noise.

I have had the ma5b and currently own a 3 ele steppir. I have had other beams as well.  That ma5b is an amazing antenna and works much better than I would have thought.  stick it up at leas 25 or 30 feet in the air and go for it. I did not ass the cap hats till I had the antenna on the mast.

I have 2 radios in the car and 5 in the truck.  in both cases I ran a heavy pair of of wires ( 8 or 10 gauge) from the battery to the radios. Well fussed and protected where it passes through the firewall.

  in the truck I actually have an 800 watt 110 volt inverter and I use the terminals on the back of it as my power take off point. from there i feed a power pole  gizmo that has several contacts on it to feed the radios.

I have a dedicated 900 mhz rig , a 2m dedicated rig, a 220 mhz radio, an ft 857 for all hf and some other bands too. and on the top of the stack is a kenwood 742 with 2m, 440, and 1.2 ghz. so I can monitor several 2 m frequencies, and most any band I want.  I have 8 antennas on the truck, 4 on NMO mounts through the roof and 4 on the bed rails, including 2 screwdrivers.

Any how do it right the first time. run a nice pair of heavy wire to feed the radios, ( you could even cannibalize a set of jumper cables), well fused and all radios and antennas with a good ground where appropriate

. I even added a separate 12 volt ciggy lighter plug for charging the cell phone and such. I also like the 110v on the truck as if you need to run the laptop or a coffee pot or a soldering gun, you have 110 volts and don't need a special 12 volt converter for each device.

Figure it out, allow for expansion in the future and do it right.  I really enjoy operating mobile.

on the 3 element steppir you can ad a 6 meter stinger as a second director ( made from aluminuminumunim) and on the big steppirs they can add 2  sis meter stingers that help only on 6 m and you have to turn them on in the control box so the box knows they are there.  It works quite well on 6 m also but the revers on 6 m is not so good. but they tell you that also.

just use what you can get.  Most of the time you will be working a repeater and usually a couple of watts to the antenna will be enough for full quieting.  If you were doing moon bounce or long distance ssb or cw 2 m stuff I would reccommend  better cable but it will work just fine for a first time setup and save a bit of cash for your next toys.  I have several 50 foot runs of rg8x for 2m/440 stuff and never think twice about it.Its like your car. a caddy will do 100 mph and a VW will do 85 mph, but most of the time you only drive 65 so either will work just fine.

I have a 3 ele steppir up now for better part of 10 years and am very happy. the nice thing is you are resonant on any where in the band.  you can set it up to follow your transceiver around the bands automatically.  If you are working CW you can tune it for say 14.050 and work CW then go tune it to 14.250 and go play on a ssb net. all automatically.  if you have it on a tower, you can use  the steppir to run in or out and "tune " a sloper attached to the tower by acting as a variable capacity hat, or pull in the  elements when not in use to make  the chance of a lightning strike less. and so on.  if you work mars, yo can adjust the antenna for that frequency too.  mine goes from  the short end of 6 meters to beyond  the top end of 20 meters and ANYWHERE in between.  you can not do that with aluminum.

I see several other options are an MFJ 310, which rolls up in the window and you mount your antenna off the window and it sticks up over the roof line.  another is to install a trailer hitch and use that, or weld a plate of steel under the back and have it stick out on the rear as a mount. Stay away from the mag mounts. can you mount a small mount on one of the doors   just figure out what you want, and remember if you have a garage clearance problem, they make a electric tilt over mount too.

the computer messed up that should have read "probably should have contacted him directly"

Folks. I believe Ron and probably contacted him directly, but again, thanks for the info.

Thanks Ron, I appreciate the information. I was asking an honest wurstion, looking for this exact answer. I too had contact with Don many times, have several of his books and on DK 3 on the truck and a spare in the garage. I really enjoyed Both Don and his wife, and miss them a lot. And by the way, you build a very solid, and most effective antenna.

and Alan, I was not self-aggrandizing to say the least, and reeks of ravings from your antenna-building neighbor down the street, I was trying to find out the real truth. I don't understand the remark of a friend down the street.  I live on a court, there are only m8 folks on  the court and none of them were hams.

My apologies if this was construed as a troll It was meant as an inquiry. and thanks for the answers.

tom

ask Wayne Green...

I have been just that same thing for years.. no problems

I have heard Don say that he actually got the idea from an old ham buddy who did a different tuneable antenna way back when.  I have several of his books including a signed copy of hf mobilering.  I sure miss him, and his wife was a funny lady. nice folks, Its been a couple of tough years with Don and Larry both gone.  Gods Speed my friends.

I recently heard a rumor that just before his passing Mr. Don Johnston , innovator and inventor of the DK-3 antenna, gave written permission to the Ron, guy who runs scorpion antennas, to build his version of the screwdriver. As most hams know, almost all screwdriver antennas are build on the patented DK-3 screwdriver.

Now I hear that this gentleman is suing all of the other screwdriver antenna builders with a cease and desist order as the only one with written permission to build the.  I do not know if its true and am curios to find out if this is just a rumor, or if in fact it is the truth.

 Don was a super ham and he and his wife were both a kick in the pants when I met them at W6OMF's yearly get together. He is sorely missed.  This is not trying to instigate trouble, I am just trying to find out one way  or the other.

tom N6AJR

to make PP's semi permenant, I use a very small zip tie to hold 2 sets together. pulled snug and they will stay for ever,  cut the tie and pull apart. also works on a PP to a rig runner. In a pinch you can use a twistie tie off a bread wrapper.