Is it in "split" mode or is the RIT/XIT/Clarifier engaged?

Well, there's always CB.

All I can tell you is my experience. My R-7 mounted at 14 ft. soundly outperformed every 1/4 wave vertical with radials, both the elevated and ground mounted versions, that I ever bought or built. I like DX so my rule is for 14 mHz and higher, a dipole at a decent height works better but lower frequency dipoles are too hard to get high enough so a 1/2 or 1/4 wave vertical works better than a dipole that's too low.

Got mine for $39 from Amazon. Seems to work the same as any other HT, but for 20% of the cost. Needs a better antenna like all of them do. You should spend the extra $8 for a programming cable (same as the one for Kenwood) and make sure you have the right driver. Personally, I can't tell the difference between the 'feng and my Yeawoods that died on me. This whole feature packed xcvr costs less than a battery for the Kenwood, so............

Hams who have such restrictions have agreed to abide by those restrictions. Still, most can't wait to sneak around and circumvent the rules. Sorry, those are just the facts. I think it makes hams look pretty sleazy and dishonest.

<<The calibre of men in the hobby has something to do with it.>>

This.

Humans seem to have a built-in need to attach a label to everything and everyone. Things aren't so black and white.

A ten dollar watch tells the correct time, but a Rolex says you have too much money but still need to know what time it is. I worked more stuff on Drake and Heathkit than I have on the new gear. Sometimes the fun is in owning the newest and most expensive toy, and that's a fine hobby too.

My first station at this house was exactly the same thing, with the exception that the G5RV Jr. was at about 35 ft. I worked the world without too much effort. The small beam that replaced the wire is a bit better, but I have no complaints about the original setup. RG8X is fine, and the TS-570 had no problem matching the antenna on all bands after changing the coax length. My best DX bands were 20, 40, and oddly enough 12 meters (the antenna shouldn't even match that freq). Good luck.

Enjoy your free speech before Obama takes it away and starts killing old people and kittens.

As I looked at this post, an ad popped up in the margin for selling CB Linears.

Now, that's funny!

" I'm keeping the Shark, it DOES work, but this little construction project is an attempt to get a little more efficiency in a mobile antenna, always with an eye to my very limited vertical space and my very poor mounting options."


It can be a fun project, but remember, a short antenna is always a short antenna no matter how the loading is configured. The only way to get significant improvement in efficiency is to go much bigger than you are able to with your height restriction. It's doubtful that you will see much difference between such extremely short antennas. They can't work nearly as well as a large and complex installation, but they may work well enough to satisfy the desire to have a few QSOs behind the wheel (and still fit the car into a garage).

Should your situation change, and you no longer need to use garages, or care about expense and the appearance of your vehicle, you can go all out and vastly improve your antenna efficiency. Still, you can only talk to one person at a time :-)

Jeez, Alan. We know that.

The purpose of putting a station on the air for 99% of the hams is to have QSOs. Making contacts is the primary goal. Very few are solely interested in theoretical numbers. We do the best we can under our circumstances.

In real life, most of us have to make compromises for a variety of reasons. For mobile antennas that usually means cost, aesthetics, clearing obstructions, and possibly ease of removal when necessary. To say that an antenna is no good when it enables plenty of contacts (even DX!) is just absurd. Obtaining the ultimate theoretical efficiency is simply not of interest to most hams as long as their station makes contacts, even though we know what COULD be done to get a better signal report.

Personally, I won't go to the extra expense, trouble, and ugliness to maximize my mobile signal as long as I can consistently work stations around the world with a modest setup. Most operators feel that way. I could do a little better, and I know exactly how to do that, but I concentrate on maximizing efficiency at the home station where it really can count when chasing rare DX. The best mobile station can't compete with that anyway.

The short antennas brought up here DO work. They work Europe, South America, and even once Japan. Doesn't matter in the least if the efficiency of the antenna was 2% or 20%, because the Q was made. It fulfilled its purpose. Making plenty of contacts is enough to satisfy most mobile ops. You simply don't need 15 feet of antenna, 20 hours of labor, a hole in your car, and 100 feet of ground strap to stay busy talking on the radio in your car. Nor do you need an amplifier. A hundred watts (or less) and a simple antenna is obviously not the ultimate setup, but it works just fine for those who don't want to drive an eyesore and just want to talk rather than endlessly tinker and take measurements.

Preaching overkill for the mobile installation and making it unnecessarily complex scares a lot of newbies who might like to try it (I know this from personal experience). The impression is that unless they go to extremes in their mobile station they will never have any contacts. That simply isn't true.

Very creative, but why not just get a couple of these:

http://www.universal-radio.com/CATALOG/hamantm/2083.html

These mini hamstick type antennas seem to work okay for what they are - very short antennas! You won't bust any pileups with these either, but they look pretty good and fit most garages. I consistently work 20 and 17, including some DX.

Of course, a serious mobile effort requires a lot more antenna and fiddling about, but it is possible to get on the air this way. Read the reviews on this website.

If you can go to a Mac store, ask someone there. I've never had to do it but I think you can also chat or telephone a live expert.

Try this:

http://www.justanswer.com/computer/mac?r=ppc|ga|1|Computer|Mac&JCRN=Mac+Geniuses&JPKW=mac%20help%20line&JPDC=S&JPST=&JPAD=2251689753&JPAF=txt&JPCD=20090515&JPRC=1&JPOP=Jesse_ComputerExperts_New&gclid=CI6TwqzC25oCFQZlswod-QZx3Q