My Amateur Radio Life

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HF antenna work on VA3QV/m (Part 1)

Posted: 16 Mar 2020 02:59 PM PDT
https://va3qv.wordpress.com/2020/03/...a3qv-m-part-1/


Today I started working on the mobile installation on my pickup.Â*



Its going to take a few days to get everything done but the first step was
getting the mount installed on the truck and that was accomplished today.



The mount itself fits in one of the stake holes in the box of my pickup.Â*
Once you figure out the little trick of getting it to attach its fairly
easy.Â* The hardest part was getting a good ground with the body of the
truck as I have a spray on box liner on my truck and so it took a few tries
before a good ground was found



The next step was fairly easy which was just attaching the Wolf River Coil
to the mount..Â* After screwing it to the mount a few minute drive around
the neighborhood and its bumpy road proved that the mount was securely
attached.

I ran the coax from the mount and to the inside of the truck leaving the
power cable and mount for the FT 450 for another day.Â* I also have to move
some stuff in the garage to get the 102 inch whip from its hiding place so
I can get it screwed into the coil.Â*

After thats done I will have to do a quick measure to make sure that I do
not exceed 13 feet in height as the maximum vehicle height allowed in
Ontario is 13 feet 6 inches.Â* I might have to trim a few inches off the top
of the whip as I cant lower the mount.Â*Â*

After that is done it will be a bit of a drive around town to ensure that
the mount and coil/whip combo are still mounted properly then its time to
set the swr on the different bands ( 10-40m) then finally take the time to
play some radio.

All this work is anticipation of a trip down to VE1LandÂ* (with Erika)
sometime before the summer and after that some camping if Liz and I can
finish the number crunching on the trailer we were talking about earlier

More to follow in Part 2

73bob