In September of 2003 Tim, WB9NJS and I joined the fun of roving. This was my
second time out and the first time operating as a rover team. I will never
try it solo again if at all possible. You asked about vehicles, well there
are a lot of people with more experience but I will share my thoughts from
our trip.
My vehicle is a 2001 Chevy diesel extended cab pickup. This is not the
larger size crew cab but it does have a smaller rear seat and four doors.
The two radios that stay in the truck full time are a DM-700 and a IC-706.
Both radios are mounted with the RF deck under the rear seat and the control
heads are mounted up front one the dash. Since we had decided we were going
to use a computer for logging I installed a computer mount made by Jotto
Desk. I used this one which is a no holes mount for the new style Chevy's.
Even though it does not listed it does fit the HD2500 truck.
http://www.jottodesk.com/detail.asp?id=56
12 volt DC Power! This is a big topic of discussion. IMHO do not plan to use
the factory vehicle battery or batteries for anything except occasional
radio operating. Imagine this for a minute. You have found the neatest spot,
up and out of the way, no one around for miles, no man made noise to bother
you, the band is open and you are working stations like crazy. Well every
thing must end, either the bands closed down or it's late Sunday night, the
contest is over and time to go. You put everything away and it time to start
the engine except you don't have enough starting battery left. What do you
do now? Don't bother telling me that the second starting battery in the
diesel will help. I can assure you, vehicle makers do not add the second
battery on diesel powered vehicles because they are being nice. Most of the
time you will NOT be able to start a diesel automotive engine without both
batteries. What I did in my vehicle is I found a location to mount two extra
batteries that supply power to my radios and other added stuff. They are
automatically isolated from the main factory batteries (Diesel truck) 15
minutes after I shut the engine down. Current production Diesel engines for
vans and pickup do produce RF noise. This is because the newer diesel use
electronics to control and fire the ejectors. Ever try operating HF mobile
in a newer Ford, GM or Dodge diesel powered van or pickup? If anyone has a
fix for the noise please pass it on. Some rovers even go as far as running
an DC to DC converter that hold the output voltage at 13.8 or 14 volts so
that the radio equipment operate can operate at a constant voltage as the
vehicle radio battery(ies) voltage drops.
Antennas, dope I don't have any better antennas to tell you about, use what
you want however I will make a couple of suggestions for mounting them.
Everyone might think of using a trailer hitch on the rear of their vehicle
but a lot of folks don't know that there are front trailer mounts available
also. If you want a strong mount for use while you are parked, use the
trailer hitch mount. I'm talking about the standard 2" by 2" receiver type
of hitch. While the 2" size may not be available for the smaller vehicles I
know they are available for full size vans and pickup trucks. My mounts
slide into the front and the rear 2" receiver hitch. I welded a piece of 2"
angle iron so that it points up. The second piece of the same size angle is
attached to the first piece of angle using welded on strap hinges. The two
pieces of angle are held closed by two bolts mounted to the opposite side
from the hinges, the bolts are mounted so they can swing in and out in order
to open up the two pieces of angles. This might sound familiar to anyone who
has used a Rohn Gin Pole. I used that as the ides for the angle iron mounts.
I sized the angle so it would fit the surplus military antenna mast known as
GRA-4 but make it fit what ever size mast you want.
I mounted my power amps on a piece of plywood and set them in the rear seat.
I brought large power cables onto the board and distributed my DC power
using a Rigrunner power block from West Mountain Radio
http://www.westmountainradio.com/RIGrunner.htm There are other methods to
supply power to your equipment but remember that fuses in the right place
can prevent a fire in which you could loss not only your radio toys, your
vehicle and in the worst case your life! Please no not forget to fuse
everything that you can.
This tread started out about VHF Contesting and Choice of Rover Vehicles. I
know that I wandered off the topic but I have very strong feeling concerning
safety while enjoying our hobby. Do NOT try to log and drive, you might be
lucky for a while, maybe not. I know that a few contests ago I was all set
up but due to a death in the family, I had to cancel my contest plans.
Everything was setup in the truck for the contest. Since my wife flew out to
help set thing up, it was her mom who passed, I had to drive across wide
open Nevada and part of Utah by myself. To Contest or not, that was the
question. If wanted to contest, I needed to log each contact. I was advised
by local contest friends to just drive, make contacts but do not try to log
them. I finely decided that the traffic was not bad, the road were open and
in most places straight. It only took one or two tries to decide that it was
not safe thing to do. IMHO, one rover means stop and operate, it takes two
people to operate and drive safely.
Now my question, has anyone used a small camping trailer while roving? It
appears that unless you have the equipment to operate some band while you
are driving you could only operate while parked. Talk about room, a small
pull or 5th wheel trailer would have a lot more room that a van or pickup.
Any comments or thoughts?
George
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Evans" <n9rla@yahoo.com>
To: <rover@mailman.qth.net>; <VHFcontesting@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 4:00 PM
Subject: [VHFcontesting] Choice of Rover Vehicles
> I would like to suggest a discussion topic:
>
> Choice of Rover Vehicles.
>
> In the last couple of years my old reliable truck has become just my old
> truck. And it looks like I may well be in the market for another Rover
> vehicle.
>
> Here are a few of the things I think are important in a Rover vehicle:
>
> 1. ROOM. My current setup is a 1992 Ford Ranger pickup. With just the
> bottom 4 bands, there is just barely room enough in the truck for me and
the
> rigs. A second op is out of the question, unless I strap them to the
mast!
>
> 2. Antenna mounting options. Right now with my pickup, I set up the
> antennas on a push up mast mounted in the bed of the truck, and braced by
> the truck racks. This way I can leave the antennas in place, and just
> extend the mast when I reach a new grid. As a solo Rover, ease of setup
is
> a must for me.
>
> 3. Comfortable. My first few Rover trips I borrowed my Dad's old van. It
> had LOTS of room, but man it was hot in July, August, and September.
Maybe
> I'm just getting 'soft', but it seems like Air Conditioning is almost a
> necessity.
>
>
> What are your requirements?
>
> What am I missing? I'm thinking about going with a van or mini-van. But
I
> haven't came up with a good way to mount the yagi's on a van. I could go
> with a trailer hitch setup, but I use 12'+ yagi's and I don't like the
idea
> of 6 or 7' of antenna trailing behind the van. I could build a
'roof-rack',
> but I hate to loose the extra height and rotation of the pushup mast....
> It's a tough decision. I may end up getting another pickup. A full size
> pickup may give me enough room for the rigs and leave room for a future
> second op...
>
> What do you use? How do you mount your antennas? If you were going to
> choose a "better" vehicle, what would you choose?
>
> Hey, it beats discussing CW regulations.......
>
> 73
> Dan
> Dan Evans K9ZF
> Scottsburg, IN 47170
> {EM78}
> K9ZF /R no budget Rover
> ex-N9RLA
> Check out the Rover Resource Page at:
> http://www.qsl.net/n9rla
> QRP-l #1269
> Central States VHF Society
> IN-Ham list administrator
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> VHFcontesting mailing list
> VHFcontesting@contesting.com
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