Ham Radio - My portable RV antenna farm.
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- Опубліковано 24 жов 2020
- In answer to many recent questions about what I use for antennas while roving around. Links to the various antenna build videos below.
Slim Jim for 2 meters:
• Ham Radio - A 2 meter ...
Doublet:
• Ham Radio - The Double...
• Ham Radio - The Double...
End fed half wave 160M:
• Ham Radio - A 160 mete...
The Chameleon whip and 9:1 combo doesn't have a specific video, but I have several videos on both. Search my channel for chameleon or 9:1 to find them.
If you like my videos, please subscribe here:
ua-cam.com/users/loughkb?s...
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I like your antenna farm. Your low noise will make all of us with fixed stations envious.
Kevin you are living my dream, I'm from the Netherlands and here in Europe they think people are crazy If you are living in an RV. But it's my dream the freedom you have etc etc. Thanks for this video and I wish you all the best.
Things aren't much different here. City dwellers generally look upon someone living in an RV as a failure. A bum, vagabond, homeless.
I see them as 'trapped'. :-)
I like your ugly antennas. I built my first 2-meter dipole out of #12 solid copper and was using some 75-ohm RG6 for the feeder. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the shield to solder until my teenaged son said, "You can't solder aluminum." I really needed something other than the rubber duck that came with my HT when I'm home, so I went into my old electrician's tool belt and pulled out a couple of wire nuts. Voila' it worked, and it works well! Keep 'em ugly until they don't work. :-) 73 KJ7RDY
Hi Kevin, thanks for all your knowledge and time, look forward to your next one.
kevin i'm moving in with you i don't take up alot of room just me and my radio. I get S9 noise all day and night cheers mate from Australia
This is an amazing antenna farm! And portable! Wow, props on your creativity and hard work! Thanks for the inspiration !
Thank you, Kevin. That was an interesting display of antennas. Enjoy the desert. N0QFT, Glen
You look happy and healthy Kevin....a man in his element....enjoy
That 49:1 isn't ugly; it's fugly. And beautiful, at the same time.
Great setup! I only do RVing for vacation, and mainly go to RV parks. I've noticed significant noise from RV battery chargers, but still enjoy the setup and operating. 73!
Thanks for the tour, Kevin! Lately here the noise floor has been quite low - even on 40M. Sent me on a witch hunt checking feed lines, antenna connections etc. Hope to hear you on the Breakfast Net tuesday mornings.
I watched this tonight May 23rd 2021. Still relevant and I"m also an RV owner. Nicely done.
Another great video Kevin, thanks. I'm pretty envious of your lack of noise floor! I live out of town, so mine is better than most but nothing near zero.
👍 Thanks for the antenna tour Kevin. Regarding noise floor, I have found that I usually need go only a few hundered meters from the nearest houses for noise to drop to S0. At my home QTH local QRM noise floor is usually S3-S7. It's only when I escape into the countryside with S0 noise that I realise with sadness there are hosts of stations that I cannot hear at home.
Great stuff Kevin, THANK YOU!!
That 160 EFHW looks like a fun build.
If you want another build to play with check out the ZS6BKW dipole. No baluns or ununs. I built one over the winter (including the twin lead) and trimmed into resonence on 40, 20, 17, 12 and 2/3 of 10 without a tuner. With a tuner I worked 80,15 and part of 6.
73 de K1NKX
Kevin, great idea using the pvc to provide flex on the wire antenna.
I have a 30 foot class A rig and have a tilt over mount with a 24 foot telescopic vertical covers 10 thru 20 with two hustler coils 40 and 80 meters. no latter needed. pull and talk. yeasu ft-900 with remote head mounted on galley table wall with rig under the bench. very simple clean install. n1hcw
Hi Kevin,
Thanks. Another interesting video. Food for thought.
Regards,
William
Very nice Kevin, im in a comprised situation so no such luck.. that noise floor is something i would love....73's
That blob of silicone has excellent deser camoflage properties! It's nearly invisible against the background.
Rock and roll man.
That is resourcefulness and creativity.
73 de N2NLQ
Great video! Thanks for sharing your setup
I love antenna experimenting. Just picked up a nano VNA for that purpose
Me too, I love it.
I love my Nano VNA
Have you thought about uncapping that PVC on your ladder and use it as a fiberglass telescope support? You could attach an end fed wire to the tip and run it down the pole and make yourself a nice vertical. I use a 36 foot spiderpole stabilized with a PCV pipe and it works great. All you need would be to drop the telescope pole down into the PVC and you would be in business, no need for guy wires or dig holes.
I can already do something like that with my MFJ mast. (I mentioned that in the video)
I drop the mast into the pvc and I can pull up the center of a dipole, or the end of an end fed wire.
Super stuff Kevin! As a fellow Ham-V’er it is always interesting to see what other folks get up to. Similar methods to what I use. 73, Nick M1DDD (some RV ham stuff on my channel but not quite as ‘polished’ as your vids! )
A Slim-Jim antenna for 432MHZ(70CMS) is compact but it might be possible to make a Slim-Jim antenna for 1296MHZ(23CMS) using a piece of Low-Loss Copper Clad board.
Hey Hoosier 😊
You have pretty much the best of it all, airwaves, solitude, an occasional visitor to chat with to verify which side of the soil you're on and only one cook to tip on the good desert meals, and that maybe better than the race I run here in the mitt.
As always, thumbs up on that long drive from Oregon, bet that was near white knuckles !
Rations was my interest, water, calorie intake and exercise (jerky and beef sticks) out there are amazing and if you get a chance, smoked cheese, you will never appreciate a diner grilled cheese again. HIHI
How is the air conditioning.. never heard news on repairs or replaced??
til retirement or the alternative
73,
kb8qlz Gary
The A/C is still broken. I only had one hot week to deal with when I came down here to Qsite. I got through it with a desert personal air conditioner. A damp towel draped over my head created a cool bubble of air and kept me quite comfortable.
And I don't think I could ever live in a city again. The peace and quite out here, both RF and acoustic, is just wonderful. Cities are balls of chaos to me now. :-)
@@loughkb Just got your response on a c, my question is while you and your neighbor were looking at it prior to departing your homestead, can you remember if the compressor had a muffler/filter looking type thing inline right off to the side?
I am thinking rotary compressor and they have a tendency to fail mechanically and bind up. I remember you saying it took more current that you had to start it, which hinted it was having trouble then.
Ill come up with a way to make ice in the desert heat..lol..thermal dynamics..
73 Kevin
kb8qlz Gary
@@Barracuda48082 Yes, it's a rotary compressor. And just before it stalls, the pitch of the compressor sound deepens as if it's mechanically dragging.
The compressor is failing.
I was going to use a arrow 2 m 440 antenna that you don't have to use a ground because it's we both know finding a ground point on a motorhome is a challenge and I was planning on using a k40 mirror mount antenna with antenna tuner for HF and use a antenna switch so that I could use it on 11 m yeah I know a lot of amateur radio operators talk down about the CB operators but they don't realize a lot of amateur radio operators got their start as CB operators I am n0spw 73rd for now hope to talk to you down the log book and maybe in person one of these years
Man, I’m S7 in FL. Can definitely tell when my antenna isn’t connected!
Nice video. I have a constant S5 noise level at home. I'm officially jealous! 73 de K3CXG.
Those telescopic masts are very handy. 72 de KB8AMZ
I was wondering what is good starting radio to get into HF, VLF and LF?
Thank you Ken for being my remote "Elmer" for info on Ham radio stuff.
just a head's up, lose that spinning globe - we live on a stationary level plane Earth w/contours/
KI7IJS Edit: are you parked in Bouse or Quartzsite by chance?
Enjoyed the video Kevin. I’ve been trying to decide what antennas I want to try. I’m studying for my General. The video was helpful. 73 - KM4OCJ
Go as far as you can. If you pass the tech, take the general, if you pass that, go for the extra. Once you have the ticket, you can renew easily every ten years and keep it for life.
Great video, I always prefer to see a custom built antennas. And gear in general. I would like to know more about your solar system. Your power needs are a bit higher than an average Boondockers would be.
Actually, my power consumption is much smaller than the average RVer. I don't use a TV or appliances. I only have 200W of panels on the roof and a 140Ah AGM battery for the desk. One additional 80W panel feeds the house battery which powers the lights, fridge electronics, and water pump.
Most of the time on the radio, I'm only running 10 to 30 watts. With good antennas, you don't need much power.
Awesome stuff.
I live in the city. I have noise like mad here. If I could just get past some of it I'd really be set.
ive heard it a lot and read it a lot.. what antenna works best.. my answer... all of them.. there is no one purfect antenna.. have a choice is good thing.
That is so cool!!!!!
On my way to the AZ desert. Would be nice to see ya. 73's N4ZDX
If you do the LTVA areas, I'll be at the one down near the Yuma proving grounds, senators wash, in December and January. Lots of hams there, we always like to have new members in the Rat Pack.
Would like to see you should try a Hermes-Lite 2 rig in the desert and see what the noise floor looks like. Works with Linux or Windows only 5 watts out. Will work as a VNA too. I've been impressed I've been running SDR type radios for a while now started with HPSDR in 2008-2009.
I'm very happy with my Airspy HF+ discovery.
You could try salting the ground rod, ordinary table salt, more than a pound then water.
Thanks
I have seen that done in the military.
Hi Kevin, We will be out at the location of the Quartzfest around the 2nd week of Jan. for some boondocking and hamming. Hope to have an eyeball with you. I think I met you last year at the Quartzfest either around the campfire or walking around. Don't recall exactly.
And BTW, the best antenna you can have is the one that works and it looks like all of yours work FB!
73 Mike
N5AQM
Hi Mike. I'll be down near Yuma around that time, but will be coming back up this way for the un-official quartzfest this year.
Great Kevin, we will look for you at the Quartz-Pause. Planning on a 2 to 3 week stay in the area. 73 Mike
Wish I had a noise floor like that..I have a s5 without an antenna lol..s8+ with one here..Cant even run hf here and 2m is pointless with a better then you group here so only time I do anything is portable at the local parks..no fun this time of year in 30-40s and snow coming :(
Thanks yet again for another interesting & informative video
Excuse my Scottish ignorance but what’s the white covers over your RV wheels for?
With RV's, you spend long periods of time parked. The sun will erode tires over time, especially when they are static and not being driven daily. The covers protect them from the sun.
Here is a stupid suggestion......Why don't you try to use an efhw antenna that terminates to the top of your mask instead of putting up a dipole?? You could use a tuner in place of the 49:1 transformer and you would have essentially the same antenna in a simpler form.
Good information, thanks Kevin. I'm a ham and an RVer and I am curious about where you get fresh water while out in the desert. When I go camping I seem to use several gallons a day. Also what do you about emptying your black and grey tanks? John, VA3KOT.
The LTVA area I winter at has a dump station, trash dumpster and water point up near the entrance. You have to adjust your usage to conserve resources. My 40 gallon tank lasts me just over two weeks.
Nice one
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting. Was wondering how long you would spend at a time in that place without water, septic or electrical hookup?
73 de Arnie W8DU
Two to three weeks at a time. In the LTVA areas, there is a dump station, trash dumpster and water point up near the entrance. I only have to go to town for groceries.
Running from the fcc?
Does anything in your RV generate noise? I bring my portable sw receiver with when we camp out and I have to turn off the led lighting inside the RV or else I get a sweeping frequency noise.
LED lighting, Inverters, the RV's power converter if you're plugged in, appliances, TV's, and solar charge controllers, they're all noise sources on HF.
I will get noise on 2 meters from my LED lights, but I reduced it by putting small capacitors on the incoming 12V on the LED lights driver board. My PWM charge controller for solar does generate a few birdies on 40 meters, but otherwise isn't too bad.
I don't use a TV and rarely power on my inverter. I converted as much stuff as possible to run directly off the 12V solar battery and it's kept the noise way down.
@@loughkb Thanx Kevin
Do you guy the mfj mast when its in the 3" pvc at the top of the ladder?
I didn't used to, but I would now if I was still using it that way. Here in the desert we get pretty serious winds from time to time.
These days I pound in a T-post to anchor my masts.
The 9:1 Un-Un in your interface box adjacent to your Chameleon feed point: is it the Chameleon hybrid or something else? What's the chance of you showing how you ran your cables inside of your RV?
I wound the 9:1 myself. The whip works better with it than with their hybrid, although you need a tuner to match it.
I used the existing cable route along the base of the wall to bring the coaxes forward to my desk.
Nice video. Have to ask: just how many antennas do you stashed away in that RV? By the way, we're finally getting a 60 degree day in Rockport.
A few. Mostly wire dipoles, end feds and such.
What are the lengths of your feed line and legs on the doublet?
The wire elements are presently a half wave at 3.8 MHz. I haven't precisely measured the feed line though.
2 questions...
1-does the fiberglass mast build static like the hanging wire and how do you deal with it if it does? (okay, 3 questions)
2-what ever became of the 60ft Spiderbeam mast?
Thanks for the videos!
p.s.: I think the experimental antennae and parts are beautiful! That's what this hobby is all about.
If the mast builds a static charge, it most certainly bleeds into ground through the fence post it's mounted to.
The spiderbeams mast is inside, against my couch. I trip over it once a month or so. Storage space is limited in an RV.
It's much more work to put up, so I might not use it again until I end up at a permanent QTH sometime in the future.
but, have you considered using a directional antenna, or a repeater?
Of course. I've also built a yagi last year.
ua-cam.com/video/hh9beU335s4/v-deo.html
Great video ! Looks like you are on the moon LOL
Do you have internet in a desert? How do you upload to UA-cam? :)
Cellular. A verizon mifi for my personal internet use and my cell phone for business and video uploads.
Is there much lightning in the desert?
Most of the year it's very rare to have an electrical storm. When there is one, you can see it coming for hours so you have plenty of time to unhook the antennas.
The exception is monsoon season in mid to late summer where rain storms can happen multiple times a week during active parts of the season.
nice antenna farm for a nomad thanks for all the videos 73 wa0afb
Hi, Kevin,
Very happy to find your channel.
FT Canadian RVer (boondocks variety) starting ham studies.
Have both hand- held and mobile units in mail. Discovered neither HF so will have to supplement down the road.
What would you suggest as first antenna for rig for VHF/UHF coverage? Happy to put holes in the wall(s) to run wire.
Thanks.
There's a lot of factors to consider, such as mounting options.
I made a slim jim and mounted it to a length of PVC that I clip on the side of the rig after I get parked. One could just as easily lash it to the ladder if your rig has a ladder.
@@loughkb thanks for getting back to me. I like the clip-on - as you showed in your video. Very practical. Will pursue that.
Looking forward to border reopening for next winter and getting back to the desert!
I`ve been to the desert with a horse of no name.
Hi Kevin
Looks like you're more or less permanently parked. How do you get supplies in the middle of the desert?
Not permanently at all. When I need supplies, I just unhook the antennas and drive the rig into town to stock up. Drive back and plug things back in. It only takes me about 10-15 minutes to unhook the antennas.
Cool!
why has the box turned brown? Heat?
Arizona sunshine is brutal. Ultra-violet is the culprit.
Hi pal ! 👋
Is the 450 ohms feeder á part of the antenna or just á feeder on your doublet antenna? /OZ7STM
In the doublet, it's just the feeder. Nearly no radiation or loss on it. Check out my video on it, linked in the description. In that videos description I link two technical documents about it.
@@loughkb Thank's Kevin. I will. :-)
Have you considered a DX Commander?
I actually have a spiderbeams 60 foot mast, similar to what Callum uses on his vertical fan dipole DX commander. The problem with portability is the radials. It needs a good few radials and that would be a huge amount of work putting it up and taking it down.
If I were in a permanent QTH, it would be a far more attractive option.
Nice.........
Kevin, the real challenge.....what does the xyl of the house say about all your antennas?
I've been divorced for over 20 years. Once was enough for me. It's my mobile man-cave.
@@loughkb - "...mobile man-cave." Bwaaa-ha-ha-ha! That calls for a custom lettering paint job on the RV :-) !
Why are your wheels wrapped in plastic?
Sun rots tires
Excellent video !! de WD8NVN
I don't know how you can live full time in your camper. I think I would go nuts if I tried to live in a small space like you do.
It's not for everyone. You also have to be comfortable with being alone often.
Do you operate mobile on VHF or only when you are parked?
Driving this old RV is serious busywork. I need to keep both hands on the wheel, so I never set up anything for while in motion. (Maybe the HT when I'm in a convoy.)
Bet that old kenwood mobile became a parts donor or toxic waste. ha.
@@Barracuda48082 No, it's still up in the cabinet, waiting for me to get brave enough to try the repair. It's getting very hard to work on small details with my eyes and unsteady hands. The last kit build I was soldering more with muscle memory and tactile feedback than visual input.
I think l might beat you to Antenna farm, my ducato motorhome has a thirty foot pump up mast on the back of the unit, and on that is a yaesu g5500 rotator system, and on the mast is a 11 element cross yagi for two meters, a 19 element cross yagi for 70 cms, a half wave vertical for six meters, and two 23 element beams for 23 cms, further along the roof, are a dual band vertical mobile whip, and a hf vertical loaded for 20, 40, and 80 meters, along with a qfh antenna for weather sats, long wire antennas are also supplied, so, what do you think of that, hi hi, de g1egz/m
FB OM. 73 from Lake Havasu City, AZ de K7LA.
Hello fellow ham and nomad full-timer. I'm building a 40ft skoolie i need some ideas for antenna farm. I'm thinking a 25 or 30 ft mast. For a radio I'm going with the Yaesu FT-991A Any help would be great I'm really new to ham radio and don't have anyone to guide me ive had my license since Jan of 19. It looks like your near Quartzsite will you be in the area all season lets hope they do a quartzfest 73 KI5CXU
That MGS mast I use is great. I can have it up with antenna in 30-45 minutes usually.
🤜🏻👍🤛🏻♡♡♡
i just don't think 4 little antennas qualify as an antenna farm. i would just say "here are my 4 antennas"
It's all relative. For a full time RVer, anything more than two would be a farm. :-)
@@loughkb Ok, I'll accept that. I have one of those Baofeng $30 radios, it is the most amazing and powerful piece of ham radio equipment (relatively speaking).
:P