Transcript MOBILE STATION - Texas Army MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio

MOBILE STATION
AAM6TX
EQUIPMENT
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Kenwood TS-B2000 with RC-2000 Remote head
SGC SG-500 SS amplifier
Hi-Q 5/160RT SS Antenna
Turbo Tuner antenna controller
CLR-ClearSpeech DSP Noise Reduction
Speaker
Tarheel Perfect Match Shunt coil
SCS PTC-IIex Pactor Modem
Dell B130 Laptop with RAM Laptop Mount
Diamond 144/440 VHF/UHF Antenna
GETTING STARTED
• First and foremost, I must credit Alan Applegate
K0BG for a lot of what I have learned about
proper mobile installations. His web site can be
found at http://www.k0bg.com/ It is the best
resource I have found and frankly I go to it often
for free advice! Alan is always willing to help with
a question. I recommend his site to anyone
contemplating going mobile. Over the years I
have found the mobile installations are always a
work-in progress!
• The first thing I did was to determine the best
position for the radio and determine the wire size
based on the run from the battery.
WIRING AND FUSING
Here are the fuses at the battery.
These are connected to 4 gauge wire
via 175 Anderson power poles. The
fuses are 80 Amp fuses (opened to
illustrate). In this picture you can see
the 1/0 gauge red power cable that
runs to the high power alternator (250
amps).
The 4 gauge wire from the battery runs
to the back seat to another set of fuses
to the radio. I used marine power cable
which is very flexible and easier to
Work with.
WIRING AND FUSING
• The SGC SG-500
amplifier draws
anywhere from 60 –
90 amps on transmit
so I installed an
auxiliary battery in the
back seat. The fuses
are on the side of the
battery box (gold)
NOISE ABATEMENT
• My Ford F-150 uses
COP (coil over plug)
technology and these
can be big noise
makers. I used
copper tape on each
plug and grounded
each one. (You can
see a ferrite bead on
one of the fuel
injectors too)
NOISE ABATEMENT
• Some of the biggest
noise makers are the
electronic ignition
components. “Sniff”
around using an AM radio
and you can pinpoint the
noisiest and go to work.
• I used shield from RG213 to solder to each
component and ran this
to ground to create the
most effective shield. I
still have more noise to
conquer!!
NOISE ABATEMENT
• Ferrite beads are
placed on each wire
going to the COP and
the fuel injectors.
Most mobile radios
use remote control
heads. I also do not
spare any expense in
using ferrite close to
the rig and the control
head.
SAFETY
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Safety while mobile is of primary
importance and the operating
position and radio placement must
not interfere with vehicle controls.
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Here you can see my operating
position. The laptop mount
allows me to swing the laptop
closer to me if I need to use the
keyboard and is firmly attached to
the vehicle should I need to move.
The radio control head is clear of
all controls and is easily
accessible. The microphone is
placed in a safe position (on side
of console).
OPERATING CONVENIENCES
• External noise while
mobile can make
operating most
difficult. Here you can
see I have installed a
digital speaker just
below eye level. This
helps hearing
everything in spite of
all the road noise.
OPERATING CONVENIENCES
• It’s important that you can
change frequencies on the fly
but you need to keep your
eyes on the road. I use an
automatic antenna tuner that
uses circuitry in the radio to
stop the coil movement when
resonance is reached.
• I also created a switch box to
enable me to change from
soundcard to TNC without
having to undo cabling at the
rear of the radio
ANTENNA PLACEMENT
• Last but certainly not
least is antenna
placement. I have
placed the antenna as
close to the center of
the truck as possible.
It’s important to
remember the second
half of a vertical
antenna is the ground
or a radial system.
ANTENNA PLACEMENT
• We are already using
a compromised
antenna so we need
to provide as much
conductive area as
we can. In this picture
you can see the coil is
above the roof line of
the truck.
ANTENNA PLACEMENT
• I mentioned bonding of
the vehicle before.
Proper bonding of the
entire vehicle provides
the coupling we are
looking for to increase
antenna efficiency.
• Here are examples of
door bonds – doors,
truck bed, tail gate are
all bonded.
ANTENNA PLACEMENT
• Due to the larger size
of mobile antennas
today, solid mounts
are important. This
mount allows you to
angle the antenna to
operate NVIS or lay
back fully. The smaller
unit is a remotely
adjustable shunt coil.
ANTENNA PLACEMENT
• To provide better
antenna efficiency
especially at the lower
frequencies we use, a
cap hat helps. This
sits just above the coil
about 1 – 2 feet. You
get plenty of doubletakes by other drivers
with this attached!