Marnie, KE7POH took and passed her Technician's license test on 2007 Nov. 2 ☺
Warning: Our address on QRZ is our mailing address so you should not use it if you contact me during a contest. For our current location refer to our Weblog or the main Index page at wwww.FulltimeRV.us
A little bit about 'why ham?'
We live in our RV and I (Steve) had to give up a lot of hobbies, not the least of which was my antique tractor collection! To make up for some of my loss I took up a new hobby with Ham radio. It made sense to me to have a way to keep in touch with friends no matter where we were and my primary motivation was some very close friends that live on a sail boat. That meant HF and so that was why I took all three exams and taught myself CW despite it not being required.
We were camped out at Lee's Ferry (in the canyon [the Grand one]) and there is a sign that says something like "In case of emergency dial ###-###-####" There is, of course, no phone and no cell phone coverage so I was wondering what I would do if the fool next to us lit himself on fire lighting his grill. He didn't light himself on fire but it got me to thinking. While we were on vacation my friend AC7HA and I agreed to stay in touch and had a Ham itinerary. He was in Flagstaff so we were a little too close for most HF frequencies. I did manage to reach someone in Yuma and he was nice enough to relay between my friend and I. It was comforting to know that in an emergency the radio does indeed provide an alternate form of communication and another ham would be thrilled to help.
Kenwood TS-2000, SGC-237 Tuner to Long Wire (Current Setup)
Here is my Base rig:
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| Kenwood TS-2000 | RC2000 Mobile | Functional Diagram | Kenwood TH-D7A(G) |
| External Tuner The new SGC antenna tuner, SGC-237 SmartTuner arrived in July 2008. It was set up temprorarily on the roof by the ladder with a 60-70 foot long wire. For some reason I couldn't tune to 40 meters with it but my friend Michael and I had a nice QSO on 80 meters and determined that it works much better than the mobile antenna. SGC recommends to put it in a box and after much searching I found a cashbox at Target that fit perfectly. The last time I moved I snapped the wire so it is much shorter. Now I could tune to 20M & 40M but not 80M. |
With Kenwood's tone control the TH-D7A(G) handheld can operate the TS-2000.
I have a cheap MFJ multi-band antenna hooked with a duplexer for VHF and UHF.
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| Ham On the Grill, groundplane anyone? | The Knight-shack, pardon the mess! You might be able to see the mobile unit up by the cockpit. | We bought some nice desks since this is our mobile office so my "shack" doubles as my "trading desk" and triples as my office as CEO of our investment companies. |
My first ham-shack TS-2000 & RC2000 installation in F350:
Kenwood TS-2000, Internal Tuner to Astatic AST 6BTV HF Portable Antenna 4 band (10, 15, 20 & 40 or 80 meter)
I had an Astatic AST 6BTV HF Portable Antenna 4 band (10, 15, 20 & 40 or 80 meter). It took me awhile to get this put on the new motorhome but here is a picture:
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| Antennas On Knight |
For performance check out a map I made of the AST antenna on each band. I used the MFJ-259 to get the data. I definately found a sweet spot on 80M (shown) and ideal frequency windows on all the bands. You will need Excel to view the file.
Here is the one page manual:
| The Tower I came up with this brilliant idea since I cannot be climbing the ladder to change bands. The top aluminum plate is covered with galvanized steel so our magnetic mount antennas (cell phone, air card, etc.) can be put on it. To access it without climbing I just have to loosen the top post and though it is a little heavy I can manage it. It was a temprory solution while I came up with something better. |
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I wound up giving the Astatic away to a wannabe HAM.
iCom IC-706MKIIG, AH-4 Automatic Antenna Tuner to a 102" Radio Shack CB Antenna
Here is my Mobile rig:
I have an iCom IC-706MKIIG installed under the driver's seat of my 2006 Jeep Wrangler. The front face is mounted as shown. I had to make an intermediate bracket to clear the shifter and passenger seat.
The VHF/UHF is connected to a Diamond SG7900 Super Gainer.
If you think you see me on or off the road, I am usually tuned to 146.52Mhz or one of the local repeaters.
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| 2006 Jeep | Radio Shack CB Whip & Diamond Dual Band | Diamond Dual Band on new roof rack | iCom IC706MKIIG |
The HF is through an AH-4 Automatic Antenna Tuner to a 102" Radio Shack CB antenna. I can tune all the way down through 80m with this setup. Some people cannot tune this range with this same setup. Originally I couldn't either but changing the antenna feed to a single 16 AWG wire fixed the problem. Just don't use coax.
I have talked all the way to Ducie Island (Pit Cairns) on 15M with this rig! (Spring 2008, I am in their log.)
Both antennas are mounted using the Radio Shack mirror mount. These are thick brackets and seem to hold up really well.
If you see us on the road in the RV, I often have my radio set up to scan the following frequencies:
Citizen’s Band (CB) Channel 13 27.115 Mhz (11 meter) (RV'rs)
Citizen’s Band (CB) Channel 19 27.185 Mhz (11 meter) (Traffic [Truckers], road conditions, etc.)
Amateur Radio (HAM) VHF 146.520 Mhz (2 Meter) (National Primary Simplex Freq.)
I have a CB on which I can answer 11 M frequencies. (It is illegal to transmit CB frequencies with Ham equipment.)
CB Channel 13 "seems to be an RV favorite" per Good Sam. You will find a lot of arguments on this but it can't hurt to have it on scan, just in case.
WBCCI Caravans use Channel 14 for initial contact and switch to channels above 20 for conversation.
(from Airstream owners club WBCCI [Wally Byam Caravan Club International Amateur Radio Club], http://www.wbccicaravans.org/handbook/Chapter_12.pdf)
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| Temporary CB setup for travel. |
APRS (Auto Position Reporting System)
I lucked out in that my Kenwood radios are already equiped with APRS capability.
If you are interested in my setup with APRS
I use a Garmin eTrex Summit connected to the TH-D7(G) with a cable from
GPSgeek
. The TS-2000 is set up to recieve and this is connected to the
laptop. I tried several software packages but the only one I could
get to work so far was
UI-View.
I had to create a map of my area but it was pretty easy using Google Earth.
I saved the map and converted it to a .GIF, then create a .INF file indicating
the top left and bottom right in dd.mm.0 (be sure to use double digits!)
APRS Setup:
TH-D7G
Setup
Use 144.800 “APRS”
1200 baud output (input from GPS is always 4800 NMEA)
Beacon to Auto, when BCON is pressed (twice?) the POS will tx every 5 min. by default
To use APRS:
1. Turn on the GPS and allow time for finding satellites.
2. Turn on radio and tune to 144.8 “APRS”
3. Press TNC if not already on.
4. Press POSition to ensure connection (should beep)
5. Press BCON until BCN icon appears.
TS2000
Use 144.800 on Sub receiver (Sub is TNC by default)
Menu 55 TNC On
Connect to PC
PC
Start UI-View
Verify communication setup
This set up works and I have been able to repeatedly track myself. I think a fun game would be to get a couple of my Ham friends using this system and then see if we could find each other. A huge advantage of being familiar with this system is that the beacon could be used to save a life someday. Maybe my own!
Nearest Clubs:
We are new to the Bay Area and have not figured out the locals yet.
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| Williams Hamfest 2007 July |
Next Local Hamfest:
We are new to the Bay Area and have not figured out the locals yet.
73
Jeep/Ham Enthusiasts
KC7GHT
...more KC7GHT
NASA - International Space Station (ISS)
The ARISS program was set up for school children to talk to the astronauts on mission aboard the International Space Station. If I tune in I LISTEN ONLY! Voice downlink is 145.80Mhz (2 Meter).
ISS Sightings for Flagstaff AZ
ISS USA callsign: NA1SS (go to the website above to see who is on mission and their call signs)
The following frequencies are currently used for ARISS general QSO's
Voice and Packet Downlink: 145.80 (Worldwide)
Voice Uplink: 144.49 for Regions 2 and 3 (The Americas, and the Pacific)
Voice Uplink: 145.20 for Region 1 (Europe, Central Asia and Africa)
Packet Uplink: 145.99 (Worldwide)
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