[Elecraft] Could this operate on a motorcycle?

[Lynn W. Taylor, WB6UUT]

Don't forget an antenna, try a better antenna first.

The Motorcycle Amateur Radio Club has several pages on antennas. You 
might start here: http://www.marc-hq.org/40.technotes/40-10.htm

They seem to think Comet has the most durable antennas.  I don't ride a 
motorcycle nor have I used their antennas, so I can't say.

Start with the antenna.  You'll need coax with the appropriate connector 
for your FT-60R (BNC??) and whatever connects to the mount you use on 
your bike.

Mount the antenna as high as practical.  Getting the antenna up moves 
the radio horizon farther away.

I don't know the ground plane requirements (if any) for Comet, and it 
may vary from model to model (and from the models MARC used to recommend 
to the ones that Comet makes now).

If your antenna does not work well, adding an amplifier will be far less 
effective.

I've used Mirage amplifiers, but that was a few decades ago.

This is an example of their product: 
http://www.mirageamp.com/Product.php?productid=B-310-G

This will give you 100 watts out.  More than that won't help, and I 
could not find anything that said how much power they draw, or a fuse 
rating, so I don't know how your bike would cope.  I would connect it 
directly to the battery.

There are some details to work out, but just getting better antennas, up 
higher, on all of the bikes in the group could be enough to solve your 
problems.

73 -- Lynn

On 5/4/2014 4:09 PM, rgconner wrote:
> Using the Ft-60 with an amp would be awesome. How do I do that?