I've never done it with a mobile rig, but I have used a relay connected to the switched power lead for the stereo to turn power straight from the battery on and off. That way,you still get power from the battery through adequate wiring, but the stereo power - switched on and off through the ignition's accessory position - turns that power on and off automatically. I chose the stereo wiring as the trigger because it's fairly easy to get to in most cases - especially for me, since I almost never keep the stock stereo in my cars, so I know the wiring well since I made it myself.

My car, having been originally built for police use, came from the factory with two ground straps connecting the trunk lid to the body. However, I'll be replacing these anyway, plus adding another ground from the antenna base directly to the body, as was suggested. I'll also re-recheck for any loose connections at this time.

Failing that, a local ham offered his help and his antenna analyzer, which would be quite helpful if this is something more than a grounding issue. As for the tuner, still no help from GRE. I may have to carve out some time to try and get a live human on the phone. I'm not going to try to use it in the car at this point, but I would like to get it working again. It's new and under warranty, after all.

Thanks to all for the tips!

Thanks for the advice. I've already tried 3 different runs of coax - the original, the one that came with the EDX-2, and an entirely different one, which I'm using now. The mount is new, the antennas are new, the rig is new - everything but the car, really!

But I know grounding is key, so I'll replace the existing ground straps, and add one to the antenna mount itself. I'd like to get my hands on an analyzer. It would be much easier than essentially guessing at a starting point like I'm doing now(and haven't managed to do for 17 meters). And you're right, I have issues beyond what the tuner can fix, or else I'd already be making contacts. The tuner's not working anyway so I'm working without it for now.

So here's the scoop.

Rig: Alinco DX-70 with a new EDX-2 tuner
Antenna: Shark Mini FMs for 10, 15, 17, 20, and 40 meters
Mount: "puck" mount through trunk lid
Car: 2003 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor

I've been having a heck of a time getting anywhere with this. I seem to be battling multiple issues here. I know I've got an Extra license and should arguably know this stuff, but I can't seem to figure out a pattern and am at wit's end, so I'm calling out for help.

I got this car in February, and tried to run 10 meters with a Radio Shack HTX-10 (which I had success with in my last car) and a Shark Mini FM for 10 meters.  I haven't been able to make a single contact.  A couple of months ago I picked up the DX-70, and bought additional Shark Mini FMs for the other bands. I still haven't been able to make any contacts.  I know the bands have been variable, but I should at least be able to talk to someone.

With an SWR meter, I've been able to tune all but the 17 meter antenna fairly well for the band. (17 is such a narrow band that I've had trouble finding a starting point to begin tuning it either shorter or longer.) Except it seems that just when I get the SWR reasonable, it suddenly starts pinning the meter again. After retuning it, it changes again. This may indicate a bad connection somewhere.

I picked up a new EDX-2 tuner to try and reign in my issues a little bit. I figured that if I could at least get the SWR close, the tuner could handle the rest of the job, and effectively widen the usable bandwidth available through these antennas. (I'm tuning them for the voice portion of the band, but I'd like to be able to park and play CW as well.) I mounted the tuner in the trunk, and have a short coax run to the bottom of the antenna mount.  I made sure to ground the tuner as well, and used a bolt in the seatback that appears to have been put there by the police department for that very purpose.  Yet I was still unable to make any contacts.  So I checked the coax, and all the components, and it turned out that my original antenna mount was shorting out somewhat - not zero resistance, but not infinite, either. So I just replaced it with a Breedlove mount, which appears to be a far superior design. At this point, my shiny new tuner stopped working. It powers on and off with the rig, but it won't tune, and it doesn't connect the antenna to the radio. I receive no signals when the tuner's hooked up, but with a bypass coax connecting the rig directly to the antenna mount, I can receive just fine. Other than powering up the tuner, the rig acts like it isn't even there.  I've already gotten in touch with GRE America (Alinco support in the U.S.) about that.

So I installed the bypass coax semi-permanently and tried to get the antennas retuned with the Breedlove mount. I'm back to the same problem of highly variable SWR. I get it tuned close, and then it all changes suddenly. If I do my initial tuning at low power, get a decent match, and then switch to high power, the SWR skyrockets, even though the only thing I changed was the power level.

My grounds appear to be good, though I'll be improving them anyway.  I scraped away some paint on the underside of the trunk lid so that part of the antenna mount could touch bare metal and get a good ground.  The car already has a couple of ground straps between the trunk lid and the body for the police radio antenna it had in its past life, but I plan to replace those anyway just to make sure I have a really good connection.  I've been using the quick releases on the antennas, but I've removed them from the mount and my 20 meter antenna for now, and will focus my troubleshooting efforts on that band because I should always be able to talk to someone there. And the radio really is transmitting according to my SWR/power meter - 10 watts on low power, 100 on high.

I just want to get on HF in the car. I can't believe it's been this hard to do it. Lots of time and money spent and I have no contacts to show for it. I'm about ready to give up on the mobile HF idea completely. Please talk me down from the edge of that cliff.   Any suggestions?  What have I missed here?  Because clearly I've missed something. Please go easy on me.

Not quite enough room between the front bucket seats for the TS-130, which I sold earlier this year anyway.

I ended up picking up an Alinco DX-70, plus the EDX-2 tuner to go with it. Unfortunately, I'm having issues, which I may post about in another thread. But that was the end result. I'm liking the way the rig operates - all the features I want, yet still easy to use without a lot of bells and whistles.

Thanks for the input! I'll take the original IC-706 off my list. No need for a paperweight. And I'm open to the random oddball deal that may fall into my lap, like an FT-857 with a couple of dead pixels and such.

I enjoyed mobile HF last fall with my HTX-10. It gave me a good taste of the fun. Then 10 faded away, which is my incentive to upgrade the rig and expand my band options!

I have a bit of room in my Crown Vic ex-police car for radios, but not enough for anything too big. That's why I sold my TS-130 to finance a newer, smaller rig for the car - the TS-130 would've been too big for my needs. But hopefully someday I'll have a home where I can set up decent HF antennas. Not being able to now is why i tried HF mobile in the first place. The question then will be whether to pull the HF rig out of the car or buy an additional rig...

It's time. Boxboro is this weekend, and I'm going there to hopefully find an inexpensive HF rig for the car.  Inexpensive meaning not new, since I can't afford an FT-857 and the like.  I'm thinking more like an IC-706, FT-100D, TS-50, DX-70 - older radios like those.  They're still newer than the TS-130 I've used on HF for my entire ham career, and will still feel like a major upgrade.

Are there any other similar models I should consider and keep an eye out for?  Though some of these have a detachable head, that's not really an issue for me, since my car has plenty of room for radios.  I also don't need 144/440 capability, since I already have a TM-621A for 144/220 that I like very much, and I never seem to use 440.  (I know some of the radios I listed have one or both of these features anyway.)

I recently got a TinyTrak3+ working with my HTX-202 and a 1/2 wave whip on my motorcycle. (I had some issues getting it working at first, and Byon was a great help with the troubleshooting, which turned out to be a bad cable that he replaced promptly). As I've started cruising around beaconing my position every 2 minutes, I've noticed that even though I live in a rather populated area (the suburbs of Boston and Worcester), very few of my packets are being received and making their way to where they can be viewed on the internet.  For instance, this morning I just did a 30 mile commute up I-495, yet only one position is visible from the entire trip.  KJ1H-9 if you care to look for yourself.

I understand that the single most effective way to get my signal out a bit better at this point is to increase the power from the HTX-202's 5 watts.  The 1/2 wave is about as good an antenna as I can do on the bike, and it doesn't require a groundplane, which I don't have.  I don't have a spare 2 meter mobile rig to dedicate to the bike.  My question is whether there might be some settings within the TinyTrak3+ configuration I might change to maximize the chance that I'll be heard, and/or make existing signal as readable as possible. Thanks!

I've used a couple of TM-271As over the past few years, and people often compliment me on the quality of my audio.  I've been on the receiving end of a few TM-271As, and agree that their audio is quite good.  All this with the original mic.  You have nothing to worry about.

Quite possibly. I know from your web site that a good ball mount is hard to find these days. Feel free to drop me a line privately to make arrangements, if you have one available. Thanks!

I've moved my mobile station to my new mobile ham shack. A Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor has a lot more room for this stuff than a Miata.

For the moment I'm still using my magmount antennas from the Miata, but that will change. There's an NMO mount through the trunk lid, though for some insane reason somebody cut the coax off. I've got a new NMO mount on the way to replace the "disabled" one, and will move my 144/220 MHz antenna there to eliminate one magmount.

I'm wondering about my 10 meter antenna.  Right now I'm using a Radio Shack HTX-10 and a trimmed down CB magmount.  10m is opening up but I haven't managed to make a single contact lately, so I'm thinking about improving my HF antenna setup.  The Shark FM mini looks appealing - a good compromise of size, performance, and price for my situation.  I'll start with just one for 10m, but in the future I plan to buy a more capable HF radio with more bands, and can add more antennas at that time.

I don't mind drilling holes in this car (which should make K0BG happy ) - after all, I've already got one hole for the NMO mount.  In fact, I've been reading Alan's web site extensively for inspiration.  It seems my best options are either a ball mount on the side of the car, or a mount through a hole in the trunk itself.  The trunk mount actually appeals to me more, but I haven't seen much in the way of 3/8 x 24 mounts that just go through a hole in the metal.  I'm also concerned about damaging the trunk lid itself with the force of the wind on even the Shark FM going down the highway for extended periods of time.  I know there are some trunk lip mounts available as well, but I don't mind putting another hole in the car for my HF antenna.

Any suggestions and/or parts sources?

Jim, you know my feelings on the matter since you posted in my earlier thread about it. I agree with the concept that the entry level ham license should more accurately reflect what you need to know to get on the air, as well as the offerings available to hams.  CW is no longer a stepping stone to higher license classes, so why restrict Techs to those HF subbands as a relic of "the good ol' days?"

One point to consider is that many of the newest VHF/UHF radios put out more than 50w on high power.  This Kenwood TM-271A sitting next to me puts out 60w, and its replacement, the TM-281A, does 65.  To make the "Basic" license reflect what's really happening in the world of ham radio these days, perhaps a limit of 75w or 100w would be more reasonable.  That could also effectively end the "horsepower wars" of the manufacturers trying to one-up each other with high power settings we don't really need.  Personally, I'd like to turn down my TM-271A's "low" power setting from 25w to more like 10w, which is perfectly adequate for most of my needs.

I like the idea of giving Basics the WARC bands, particularly if we're going to keep them off 20m.  They're kinder, gentler bands with similar performance characteristics to 20m, which lets them get a feel for it before being thrown to the lions on 20m.

To reiterate, this is NOT a proposal to make it easier to get a license, the way eliminating the code requirement was.  This is a proposal to make the material would-be hams are tested on a lot more relevant to what they actually need to know to be a ham radio operator.  What good is knowing the Tech 80m CW band limits when you don't know CW, don't have an HF rig, and only operate on 2m and up?  The proposal to expand the HF bands available to the entry level license (Basic, Tech, call it what you like) simply reflects the modern reality that CW fluency is not necessary for access to any amateur band.  What we have today is, in part, a chicken/egg situation.  Many Techs never bother to get on HF, partly because it's a big investment in equipment and time for not a whole lot of privileges.  If we give them a sample of what's out there, I'll bet a lot of Techs would upgrade to gain access to more of the HF bands.  

I'm surprised the manufacturers haven't gotten behind this idea, because they'd be able to sell more HF radios...

Jim, while I don't agree with all your points, I think you really get what I'm driving at here, and I completely agree with your "Novice for the 21st Century" concept.  In fact, I think you stated my case better than I did.

My motorcycle mobile vid was popular, so I just made another one about my four wheeled ham shack.  The car is a Mazda Miata, and probably one of the most space limited setups you can have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajCx6zBVKvU

My radios are all old enough to NOT have remote heads, so I had to get a little creative.  Maybe this can help some of you who are also struggling with space limitations.

Ah, but in Mass. we at least get a nifty lightning bolt through the middle of our callsigns, a symbol no other type of plate has.  It does cost more than a standard plate (which is why I don't have one at this point), but it costs less than a vanity plate, which is considered a separate category here.