Well, my new rover system is just about complete. I posted some pics on QRZ if
you're interested: http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=163565
I've run into a problem though. I decided to spend the money and get a pure
sine wave inverter. Based on opinions here and elsewhere, I figured this
caused the least amount of noise. I also mounted it in the steel toolbox and
attached a couple of ferrite beads on the electric cord. The battery is also
in the tool box.
Sounds like a good plan, right? Well... not so much. It turns out that all
pure sine wave inverters are not always as quite as you would think. On 50
MHz, I have an S4 noise floor and a buzz on the calling frequency. When
turning the antenna, its an S8 noise. Its seem fine on 144 and 432, but on 50,
its just a nightmare. When I turned the inverter off, the noise dropped to S1
or less. This is an AIMS inverter that I bought off e-bay from a company
called Energy Igloo.
I'm about tapped out for this contest. I think I'm going to get a DC adapter
for the laptop and just use the truck as a rotator. Maybe I'll use my
"stimulus" check for another inverter. Any suggestions on which one to get
would be greatly appreciated. Any other thoughts or suggestions would be great
as well.
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