Did you know that Hams have been going mobile since the early 1920's! Today more than ever, there is great satisfaction in facing the challenge of installing a transceiver in our cars and pick-ups, using somewhat inefficient antennas, and still being able to make contacts with hams thousands of kilometers away while mobile. Another need for mobile operation is for those facing antenna restrictions in the places they live. For those of you with these antenna restrictions, ham radio is not a total loss since a mobile station will allow you access to choice locations from which you can pursue your hobby. This page and the related photos on my galleries will show you how I enjoy this "real fun" part of the hobby.

Antenna Werks

           Over the years I have built various antennas for my mobile. The photos on this page show my 10/80 meter HF multi-band antenna, that I designed and built in my shop in 2010. This multi-band antenna is proving to be the best mobile HF antenna that I have had mounted on my mobile to date.

                                                                Bonding

    Of course, it goes without saying that the antenna that resides on your vehicle is only half of a successfully designed antenna system. In my case, my F150 pick-up has a body that sits on a frame that required bonding to eliminate noise and increase the ground-plane beneath my antenna. This in turn increased the performance of my overall antenna system. This also took a fair amount of time, and to accomplish this I used 1” wide tinned copper flat braided ground straps with eyelets at either end to bond the various components of my F150 together. It is important that you use flat braided strapping and not round wire for bonding, as RF travels on the surface rather than through the wire, therefore flat braid has more current carrying capacity due to its larger flat surface.

     One of the problems that I initially experienced was ignition noise on my HF radio. The engine of my F150 had a existing ground strap that was at the most a ¼” in width, and was not capable of eliminating the ignition noise that I was experiencing. By adding a additional 1” inch wide strap from the engine to the frame, I got rid of 2 S units of noise. I also bonded the exhaust system near the engine to the frame and again at the rear of the exhaust system to the frame. Other areas that I bonded together, included the hood to the body, and all of the doors to the body.

          Another source of noise as well, proved to be the gap that exists between the rear of the cab and the truck box. I eliminated another S unit of noise by adding 2 ground straps across this gap. Ground straps were also added from the front and rear of the truck box to the frame, as well as the tailgate to the box, as it was not grounded properly either.
It is important that you keep these ground straps as short as possible, and do take care when drilling holes in the body, so that you do not drill in-to any existing electrical harnesses that may not be visible. I used quality stainless steel fasteners along with stainless steel serrated washers for attaching the ground straps throughout my F150.
So, don’t forget that your antenna is only one half of a dipole, and in the case of a mobile antenna, the missing half is the vehicle and its capacitance to the ground under the vehicle. The single biggest factor with respect to efficiency for any mobile and especially on 80 meters is ground loss, so maximizing this half of the antenna system is essential, and this is accomplished through bonding.

When I aquired my Kenwood TS-480HX, I had to re-structure my radio stack, so that the TS-480HX could be installed in the stack. Mounted above the TS-480HX is my TM-D710A. The two radios are connected together via a mini DIN cable, allowing for seamless crossband repeat. Primary operating batteries for my radio stack are a pair of SBS40 valve regulated cells, that are fully sealed, multi-cell, rechargeable monoblock batteries using Hawker energy products patented, gas recombination technology for High Output and Long Life while proving to be great performing batteries. These batteries have M6 male terminals, and flame retardant cases. Use AGM auxillary batteries for your next install and you will never use the vehicle battery to power your radios again.

For a lot more info as to what I'm up to, follow this link.

                                                         VE6AB Galleries http://www.jerryclement.ca/Electronics/Ham-Radio/10282516_i3Q8b#940860322_WWDdK