I had a 20ft 1.5" diameter ally pole bend just above the top bracket with just a Cobweb on. Same Cobweb is now on a 20ft 2" pole and just fine.

I have another 15ft pole with a 10m Moxon and Yaesu rotator on it and when it gets really windy it sways quite badly.

Don't think Kenwood have anything to worry about with the TS590 yet.

Someone stole the antenna off my car this weekend - a Little Tarheel II mounted to the tailgate via a Diamond K400.

I've managed to get it back. Although the Diamond is bent a little on the bottom flat bit the antenna is still attached. The damage to the tailgate where they've ripped it off is quite significant and the antenna doesn't quite look straight showing the mount gave quite a fight before it came off.

Based on how well the K400 has come out of it I would have no hesitation buying or recommending that mount to anyone else.

Thankfully its a small neighbourhood where everyone knows everyone else so I not only got it back but know who did it and he's confessed as he knows me and didn't realise it was mine as well as offering to pay for a new antenna, mount and the body repair.

G3TPW Cobwebb or the easier to build G3TXQ variant.

5 full size dipoles covering 20-17-15-12-10m in a compact 8.5ft x 8.5ft antenna. Very easy to homebrew the G3TXQ variant.

http://www.karinya.net/g3txq/cobweb/

Best part is that unlike a conventional dipole the radiation pattern is almost omnidirectional with just a 3dB difference between the sides.

The guys doing SDR with the Kenwood TS590 are using an ELAD switch box.

http://ecom.eladit.com/epages/990298944.sf/it_IT/?ObjectPath=/Shops/990298944/Products/%22ELAD%20ASW-1%22

My Icom 7000 goes into RTTY mode when using an external tuner.

Repurposing the existing FM antenna hole is pretty much the only option on that car. You're not going to be really using any other kind of mount. Beware that the roof is thin though so you're not going to be wanting to put anything large on there but it should take something like a Larsen NMO dual band antenna quite happily.

I doubt you'd be able to give it away. People are coming to the realisation that making a contact on 75/80/160m mobile merely proves QRP works. 100W in for less than 1W ERP...

My Little Tarheel does 80m. I rapidly came to the conclusion I might as well be TXing into a 50 ohm resistor.

The OP had. The K400 is a lip mount.

It is that really thin stuff barely 2mm in diameter and nigh on impossible to crush with a rubber door or trunk/hatch seal.

Nothing to add to the above really. They're cheap and will get you on the air. Depending on how serious you decide to go with /M ops then you can start moving on to more efficient and larger antennas.

Hi Chas. I've just measured my K400 mount and it protrudes 3mm. I reckon you wouldn't want any less than a 4mm gap. 0.165" is just a hair breadth wider than 4mm so although it'll be close it should be OK.

No he didn't.

Its made in the UAE, one of the richest countries in the world per capita and you're saying hold on to your wallet as if it was some cheap chinese junk?

At least they made a video which shows you all about it and them doing abuse tests on the casing. I don't seen Scorpion, Tarheel or any other mobile antenna manufacturer doing that.

All it does is power the bulb but positive is center pin.

No idea what the size is but any electronics component shop should have one that'll fit.