I also came to the conclusion that I do not want to use the radio on the move. This simplifies everything. Firstly, there is no need to mount the radio in the car and give to someone the opportunity to simply steal it. Secondly, you do not need to limit yourself to antenna surrogates and their attachment to the car. I use the car to drive me to a beautiful place without noise and my shack is in the back seat. All my field HF equipment is ICOM IC-706MK2G ICOM AH-4 Delta Loop 80m (80-10 with AH-4) inv.V 40m 2 el. 20m Asus Eee PC 1025c Bencher by-1 RG-8 & RG-174 For VHF/UHF I have mast and little yagi
Very cool setup US7IGN! After test driving with the radio on the mount I easily removed the radio and stored it in the house. Like my classic 71 Oldsmobile I don't intend to leave the radio unattended. There are just too many dishonest people these days. Eventually I may have to upgrade from my hamsticks and go to a Scorpion screwdriver antenna.
My initial idea of buying an ICOM AH-4 tuner was to use it with an ICOM AH-2b antenna permanently installed on the car with the ability to use any long wire at stops in the future. But then I realized that any antenna on the car (except for 1/4 for VHF/UHF repeaters) is ineffective and inconvenient, and the tuner came in handy. I also bought a set of MFJ 16xx, but it still lays under back seat for many years without use.
Thanks to everyone that commented. I got the 991a installed and it seems to work. I do have a FNG question though. At first I was on 40m and my SWR was over 3:1! I shortened the antenna and was able to bring it down to 1.8:1. After listening for awhile on 40m I decided to switch to 20m. I swapped the antenna and I was able to get 1.2:1 on 40m with the 20m antenna. How does that work? Surely I am doing something wrong. I never did transmit but I did pick up WB4HRL contesting in Spartanburg, SC in addition to many other folks. I had watched a YouTube video and it said that novices might be dismayed and think the HF bands are dead. I'm glad to say that I heard plenty of people out there.
This is what I was talking about. Mouse tails are not antennas, so I ditched them in favor of normal ones. All the same, on air only in the parking lot.
I like it and like your attitude. Had a ham buddy who went star trek with is mobile setup. Spent more time fiddling with the radios then paying attention to the road. He clipped a tree to his right then bounced into oncoming traffic hitting a family in a minivan near head on. He survived but one of the children in the other car didn't. All for making a contact on the fly. He was lucky he wasn't charged but he barley drives anymore and never put a rig into his vehicle again. I have been super cautious since then myself. I can access everything from the drivers seat but never make any changes on the fly and pretty much only operate cruising down the highway when traffic is light and stay on one freq. I pull over if I have to make any change . Same with cell phones. Won't use them on the move and won't answer calls. Being hams were defenders so putting others at risk for a hobby should not fit in the playbook.
I tried again yesterday and was able to contact HH2AA in Haiti on 40m. Of course, I had high SWR. That's pretty good for my first HF contact though. There was alot of traffic on 40 and 20 meters. Thanks for the advice!
