[Mobile-Portable] Newbie to mobile ops

[Mark Schoonover]

Ed Gilliland <mailto:w5tm at earthlink.net> tapped at Friday, March 24, 2006
8:06 PM:

> After doing the Oklahoma QSO Party with K5PX as NN5Z I'm interested in
> getting a mobile setup.  I would appreciate any suggestions on my
> planned setup.
> 
> 2003 Dodge diesel (noise problems?)
> High Sierra 1800 antenna (how does it compare to the Tar Heel
> antenna?) 
> OMNI VI Plus
> NO5W CQ/x software for QSO Parties
> WriteLog for everything else
> Earthmate GPS
> Dell Inspiron Laptop
> 
> Thanks, Ed/W5TM
> 


Ed,

	I have a 2003 Dodge diesel, and yes you'll have some injector noise
to deal with, but it's pretty easy. I put 3 clamp on 3/4" R/F chokes on the
cable that leads to/from the injector pump. Plus, I had to ground the
tailpipe. You'll get most of your noise around 20M, depending on the length
of your truck - mine is the quad cab, long bed version, and the overall
length ends up being close to quarter wave on 20.

	Do you have a shell?? I modified a HiQ 3/80 RT antenna to fit
vertically under my shell. I then installed a good quality ballmount right
above the antenna, on the side of the shell. Then I attached a 1 foot
extension, a 32" caphat, then enough topwhip to reach 13 feet tall.

	If you'd like, I could post some photos somewhere for you to see my
setup. I have made a custom radio cabinet for the cab that houses an
IC-2710H, IC-706, RS Scanner and an IC-38A 220 rig. I have plans to install
a mostly homebrew 500 watt amp as well. That's going in over the next couple
of weeks.

HTH & 73,

Mark
KA6WKE