[Elecraft] Going Mobile?

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Those were the days when a mobile operator would make his engine stall by pressing the PTT when the engine was idling at a stop light. 

One guy I knew tore out the whole back seat of his sedan and filled it with a KW AM rig (bachelor of course). His mobile antenna featured a copper toilet tank float on top to avoid corona discharge on transmit. 

Back then RF radiation levels were consider harmless at any level or frequency. There is the well-documented story of the Microwave engineer at Raytheon who discovered a chocolate bar in his shirt pocket suddenly melted. He figured out that he was standing in front of the open port of a magnetron. And the "Microwave Oven" (back then a "Radar Range") was born. 

Working at Lockheed Aircraft Service one night on the F-86 flight line I thought I was coming down with the flu because I was suddenly sweaty on a cold, winter night. Then I noticed that the fire control radar on one of the F-86's nearby with the radome off was "looking" right at me. I moved several meters to one side and the dish followed me. I was being irradiated by the RF, raising my body temperature. I just moved further away. No one thought that was remarkable. 

We have become much more sensitive to such things. But it was not always so, even for the current generation of Hams. 

73, Ron AC7AC

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Wilhelm
Sent: Monday, October 9, 2017 4:34 PM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Going Mobile?

I recall a construction article a long time ago (mid 1960's) in GE Ham News where W8DLD constructed a 1KW mobile linear using a pair of Grounded Grid 814 tubes and developed the HV from a modified alternator to bring the 3 phase AC out and run it to 3 transformers.

Of course, in those days, there were no computers in vehicles to be concerned about, and there was plenty of room in the vehicle to mount the exciter, usually under the center of the dashboard.  Remember that the Collins KM1 and KM2 were designed as mobile transceivers, and they were much larger than the K3.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 10/9/2017 7:14 PM, Bob Nielsen wrote:
> In the late 1980s WB6FDR showed me his mobile station that had a Kenwood 
> rig with a small control head which he had mounted on the dash of his 
> Mercedes.  The rest of the rig plus a KW amp all fit in the trunk.
> 
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