18 Wheels and an HF rig.....

[N4DFP]

Ok, I am curious, how many of you guys are drivers and operate HF from your truck? I am a driver (doing local haul) and in anticipation of my upgrade (hopefully this Saturday) I have installed a Swan 100MX in my tractor with a HamStick for 40m mounted on the grab bar on the passengers side fairing of my Freightliner cab over. I love the rig. It is a dream to operate .... simple, no annoying extra buttons to get in the way and take your eyes off the road; in short, I love the rig. And no, I haven't made any unauthorized contacts. However I feel I am missing the boat on my antenna end. Money IS an object, so a screwdriver is out at this particular time, but I don't want to nickel and dime myself to death with a dozen HamSticks and THEN invest in a screwdriver. Is a screwdriver even the best option? Where is the best best place to mount an antenna, and how? Come on drivers, help me out. For you non-drivers, working with a cab over is sort of like working with a van, but it is much bigger.

[AF4AR]

I drive for a Local Bakery. Do yourself a favor and buy a Screwdriver Antenna from "NU4W".
David Frasier builds these antennas in Paducah Kentucky and its the best Antenna I"ve ever had. I"ve run Hustlers, Hamsticks, & even other Screwdriver Antennas but, his is the best. I run a Yaesu Ft-100 for my Primary radio but, also own a Icom-706 and have had good luck with it.
I have pictures of mine on my Homepage and a link to "Nu4W" Homepage should you want further info on his antenna. I paid $220 for mine complete.
Heres my homepage-http://home.att.net/~af4ar
Click on Hamradio and you"ll find the info you need as well as other interesting things.
73 Mike/Af4ar

[AC5WA]

I had a Swan 100MX I used in a company truck for a while and the only trouble I had with it was a little drift when I first powered it up, no good noise blanker and a tendency to pop the fuse if the SWR got too high.  With that ham stick you will be stuck to a single narrow frequency range.  If you can swing a remotely tunable antenna, you will probably enjoy it more.

Have FUN!
AC5WA

[N4DFP]

Hi!
Just to update a bit... I have now changed antennas. I bought a ProAm AB5 Spider at the Sumter (SC) Hamfest this past weekend and changed over to it. You were right it was very frustrating being limited to only one band at a time. I realize the Spider isn't a perfect solution, particularly on 75m (it it VERY narrow there), but it is the best the wallet would allow at this time. I have been impressed with it's performance on 20m, and 40m is acceptable. The best thing about the Spider is that the resonators are now above the level of the cab. With the Hamstick, the the resonator coil was about 10" below the roof of the cab between the tractor and the trailer. If you are interested in seeing my installation I now have pics up on my website: http://www.qsl.net/n4dfp. The rig is really surprising. The adjacent channel rejection is phenomnal. As with you, I would like more filtering. I am going to try adding in a 7 band graphic EQ on the output to see if I can notch out some of the noise.

73
David Hammack
N4DFP

[VE0NWP]

I have been running on the west coast as VE7QRZ/W7 for a few years. I use an Alinco mobile, Wilson 2000 antenna a 300 watts mobile amp and MFJ antennna tuner.

With this set up I can run 10, 12 and 15.

Changing the wipe only(longer) the set up can run on 20m with good results. I have talked to a few fellows operating a similar setup.

Swaping the wipe is not a big deal after premarking the position. A rig with a built in antenna tuner would greatly simplify the tuning part when necessary.

I have been running like this for a few years and run mainly on 10m and 12m. At this time of the sun cycle during the summer months QSOs continental wide for hours are normal.  

[VE0NWP]

opps---wipe = whip