[Kenwood] TS-570SG in a Dodge Caravan

[Jerry Kincade]

I'd make that #8, or at least #10, instead of #14, which is very light wire
for DC. Every tenth of an ohm will count when you start with only 13.8 volts
and are drawing a bunch of amps. My 100W mobile is wired with #8, which is
about as big as I could go and still have the flexibility I wanted. I have
some #6 but decided it's too stiff to use. I run a High Sierra screwdriver
mounted on a homebrew welded mount off one side of the hitch. I like the HS
very much but it's pretty narrow-banded. Even on 20M I have to do some
antenna tweaking if I move around the band much. My truck is diesel powered
(GM Duramax), and although it is blessedly free of ignition noise, I still
have some problems to work out on 20 and 15 with pulsed RFI from the
engine's computer and some of its sensors. Good built-in DSP and a
ClearSpeech speaker also make a big difference. My previous mobile (a TS-50)
was nearly unusable without the ClearSpeech unit, and just bearable with it.
My current FT-100D is lightyears ahead of it in noise suppression
capability, and much more comfortable to listen to while moving. The tip of
the HS whip is 13 feet high, so whip removal (a simple twist/liftoff
operation) is unfortunately required on numerous occasions. I can generally
get in and out of anywhere a normal sized RV can go, although forgetting the
antenna when entering a parking garage can be an exciting experience which
you will only let happen once.
73, Jerry W5KP


>   I'm thinking of using a trailer hitch as the mounting point for
something
> like the Hamstick type of antenna using the available "quick change" type
> of mount. I'd rather not use a magnetic mount on the roof since I don't
> want to have to try to remove the antenna for parking garages and such. I
> may have to do that anyway even with the lower mount point of a hitch
> mounted antenna.
>
>   I'll use heavy (14 ga or better) wire to take power directly from the
> battery and use a blade type fuse within a few inches of the battery to
> prevent problems if I have a wiring failure.
>
> Anything else I need to take into account?
>
> Bob Arnold N2JEU