btw, i swear yotatech is more addicting than facebook

 

corey- who makes that asat 120a antenna, do you have a link. Ive searched high and low and cant find it

 

Nope, that doesnt work. At least from what I have read.
Kenwood makes a decent filter on the DC end. This filter I made cut everything out. I was amazed!

 

sounds great

 

Yaesu makes it.
You can find it at www.universalradio.com
That is my next antenna, then I will retire the one I have now.

 

I am not sure if you fellow hams are aware of Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) http://www.aesham.com/
Universal radio and AES go back and fourth with great deals. I have found killer deals at both places.
The AES catalog comes 3 or 4 times a year and is loaded with all kinds of pictures and goodies. It is a must have catalog if you are in to Ham radio.

 

I will have to get a catalog from them too.
I have the universal one, it is HUGE.

Gave a spare to a guy at work who gave me a cool printout that has been encased in plastic.
I will have to grab a pic of that.

It is more for sitting in a HAM shack than carrying in a rig, but it is pretty cool.

 

another great one i found is gigaparts.com they have the ft 857d for $630 ish and it comes with the remote kit free

 

About the blue or red top battery...

The battery doesn't matter unless you plan to do a LOT of talking with the motor turned off. A standard 24 series battery that comes standard in my 87-88 models has enough capacity to run any radio under casual use with the motor turned off.

The real issue is your alternator. You need the charging capacity to keep up with the electrical loads while off roading or even highway driving. Lots off aux lights, high power radios, spotlights, air conditioner, etc etc.. drives the demand for juice up in a hurry. Use the P=EI formula to calculate your amp draw under load where P equals your total load in watts and E equals you source voltage (typically 13.8 on an automobile) and I will be your amp draw. For example, lets say that under normal driving the automobile draws 13 amps from the alternator to run the computer, gauges, signal lighting and fuel injection, etc. (bogus number, you will have to do an amp draw test on your vehicle to know for sure) and then you add (2 headlights at 65 watts each, 4 offroad lights at 100 watts each, a radio and ampdrawing 200 watts at 30% duty cycle (duty cycle is important because the battery will make up for temporary use over the alternator capacity and then recharge, 200 watts at 30% duty cycle is like 60 watts 100% duty cycle) 20 amps to run your rockford fosgate and kicker accesories, and 5 amps to run the heater motor for the sake of example.

628 watts total average load divided by 13.8 volts = 45.5 amps. You should normally not run more than 80% alternator load for longevity and overheating (my opinion, 90% is the limit for aircraft) so you are still within the reach of a 65 amp alternator in this example. Shift the figures to match your own real world equipment and you can properly size your alternator.

Cheers!

Kris

 

To keep up with all the extras I have in my rig I installed one of these http://www.toyotacatalog.net/M1WebGe...aspx?Class=180
a while back.
With the home made filter I made and this new Diamond antenna my system has never performed better.

 

Nice, a good upgrade for the electrical system.

I pullled out my Cushcraft 11 element yagi beam antenna and my horizontal loop antenna out tonight and am summing them up for repair. They are both for 2 meters but they are tuned to operated with the lowest VSWR around 144.2 mhz which is the single sideband calling frequency. They are not as good up in the FM band but the beam is still useful there. I have talked about 200miles on the beam antenna with a 170 watt amp and a recieve preamp. The great thing about new radios with a built in preamp is that when you buy an amp with a preamp built in you get two stages of amplification before the receiver. Sometimes necessary to pull out those really weak signals. You should see a 4 runner with a 16 foot antenna hanging over it.... I have done it with a Suburban so we will see how the runner does during the January VHF QSO party (contest.)

 

Kris, did you see the link to that weird hidden antenna i posted
I think i will look into a new alternator especially with my truck being about 10 yrs and throwing all this extra stuff into it..

 

I run a Kenwood TM-G707a in my 4Runner and XJ. I also own a couple of old Kenwood HTs, but they are only 2 meters and only 1 has a tone board. The HT I carry in the Camry is a Yaesu VX-1r. Nice, but no keypad. I have looked at that new VX as well. Might pick it up here fairly soon. I've had my license for over 10 years. Got into it for 4wheeling, but I use it for a lot more than that. Joined A.R.E.S almost right away when I got my license, and then joined the ARRL a while back. It is an adicting hobby.

 

Hah you are catching on now...

I looked at the antennas the guy did a nice job. The ones you bought look good too. Just remember that those dual and quad antennas cannot flex like single band antennas so be careful in the woods... I course all my horizontally polarized antennas are tree snaggers...

 

yah ive heard the diamond antenna has decent flex, but ill still probabally take it off if anything gets to close or "challenging" haha But that tarheel antenna the motorized whip has crazy flex soo ill probabally mount that to the right side of my brush guard, and put the diamond on the left in the lip of the hood (drivers perspective) Do any of yall know if my radio antenna would interfere with either my HF or my VHF/UHF?

Toy runner- thats great to hear, im looking into getting into ARES as soon as i get my gear and call sign, but i already work with SKYWARN through my fire dept. as i am involved in search and rescue and disaster recovery

 

Looks like we may have some good weather this weekend.
I will not have time to mount the radio under the seat, but I am going to try and see if I can mount the faceplate near the dash to see if an idea of mine works or not.

Will post a pic here if I get time to tackle that.

 

Portable Radio Mount

For those of you that are interested in purchasing a portable radio I found a decent place to mount your radio while in the vehicle. I attached some pictures below of one of my Yaesu Portables in my vehicle. I am sure this would work with any brand of radio and various types of clips, although I only know of this trick for 2nd gen 4Runners and Pickups.

 

Wow, a multitasking cupholder...

To bad 1st gens don't have cupholders...

I am amazed at how little dash space there is in most new vehicles to mount radios even though the dashboards are huge.

 

Anyone have this book for repeaters?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0872591271/...73420_pe_ar_d5

 

OK, I got the faceplate of the radio installed in the rig, and I am very happy with the results.
I need to update my buildup thread too with the antenna pics and these new ones also.

I used an existing mount in the rig which was for an iPod, cell phone, or GPS.
https://www.yotatech.com/50362018-post78.html

I took off the grip pod part of it, and much to my delight, the Yaesu faceplate kits holes line up perfectly with the holes in the Panavice mount.
I can even move it around for different configurations, and the holes still align up.

Picture one here shows the Panavice mount only with the grip pod off of it.



Picture two shows the Yaesu remote faceplate mount bolted to the Panavice mount.



Picture three shows the Yaesu 857D faceplate mounted to the remote mount.
It is a perfect reach for me to reach out to adjust the radio.



Not sure when I will get the time to take out the passenger seat and install the radio and wire it all up.
I am taking my time on this install since I do not even have my license yet.
The next phase to get all the wiring done and radio installed is going to be a long one.