Hi- I have a Yaesu ATAS 100 that's currently attached to a Diamond trunk lip mount on my '99 Honda Accord.  However, the trunk flexes a bit from the bulk of the antenna, and i'd like to find a better place for it on the car.  Does anybody make a mount that attaches to the frame of the car and comes out from under the back bumper?  The car has plastic-covered bumpers.

thanks, chris aa9hd ccieslak@chriscieslak.com

what i did was use packing tape to tape the couplers to the inside and outside of the glass.  then i keyed up my club repeater, about 20 mi. away, with my ht running through the antenna and asked for a signal report.  i received a favorable report and went ahead and installed it.  no problems until the assembly outside became a disassembly while on the highway

a battery charger is usually of a low amperage, much lower than the radio requires. for example, most ht's require 2A or so to drive them to their highest output level.  A lot of chargers only supply 300 to 500 ma of output.  when you are charging a battery while using the rig, you are "floating the battery" between the charger and the rig.  since the battery is pretty dead, the charger has to try to supply the rig with the higher amount of power needed to transmit.  it can't, and you end up with no signal and a potentially fried charger.  i would go and buy a little 5a supply (radio shack sells them) and use that.  as a side benefit, many rigs will charge the battery while it's plugged in as well.  it's definitely the way to go for home use of an HT.

73!

Chris, aa9hd

I know that Icom rigs have an alc jack (for an amp) that you can apply voltage to.  The circuit is simply a 9v battery and a potentiometer.  More details are in a QST from '92 that had RF POWER as the cover story. (yeah, i know, real specific, right?)

Elecraft K2 with ATU and internal battery, and a wire or portable whip antenna.

Great OS, VERY compatible for a Unix variant (BSD in this case, i believe, same as the upcoming Mac OS X), free (free.be.com), but NO apps.  If we can get people writing ham apps for this OS, like PSK31, RTTY, and logging programs, this could be the next big thing in ham radio.

I had a 50R-  I got rid of it because I thought it was too hard to use (tiny buttons and arcane menus) and it was too thick to hold comfortably.)  I use an Icom T7H and a Yaesu VX 150.

In my personal experience, BNCs have tended to become more spotty than the SMAs on my radios, but you definitely are correct about the stability of the adapter and the potential for crossthreading.  My point of view is that if you are planning to use the HT for multiple purposes (home/car/HT) or need a super-long whip, a BNC is best.  If you mainly use rubber ducks or those thin wire HT antennas, and you're not connecting and disconnecting the antenna a lot, an SMA is the better choice.  However, I wouldn't let the connector factor in too much on what radio I buy.  That being said, one of the reasons I really like my T7H is that it has a BNC

The question in reply is-- what antenna and mode are you
using?  6W and a rubber duck antenna on a handheld won't get
you very far, maybe a few miles on FM.  6 watts on a decent
mobile antenna is probably just fine for local FM repeater
work.  6w on a beam on your roof can probably get you to the
repeater in the next town over.  Running SSB you'll get
farther than with FM, too, although of course that's only
simplex

At Field Day this year I noticed that 5 or 6 people had an
Icom T7A.  Everybody was pretty happy with it.  

An SMA connector seems to be more durable than a BNC.
however, it's a pain in the butt to hook up a radio with an
SMA connector to a mobile or home antenna, since you
normally won't find mobile antennas or coax with SMAs
installed.  You need an adapter, which cost about 10 bucks.  
It is frustrating, though, to keep screwing and unscrewing
the adapt