40m mobile question

[nfsus]

I’m really wanting to ditch 11 meter. I’ve got a alinco hf and a tarheel. But I dunno that’s a whole thing. I had it set up before but didn’t use it much. Not enough to really see before the car broke down.

In central Arkansas what would my local coverage look like in a mobile on 40 if I was using a ham stick for 40? And instead of the alinco all band I saw a hambuilder 40 mobile.

And of course I’d have to get a few others on a vertical instead of those dipoles.

Edit: thank y’all for the replies on the bandwidth of the antennas. But I’m more interested in the area coverage using the above setup. We use 2.10.11 for mobile but we are looking for more land coverage. Distance. Reliable mobile coverage.

 

[Nick Gans]

Results from years ago, indicate those "ham stick" antennas for low band HF are nothing more than dummy loads.. Your best bet for an HF mobile antenna is motorized screwdriver type antenna.. The best one I have seen is the one made by Henry Allen who is now SK.. Perhaps a strategically placed ad will put one in your hands.

From my days of HF mobile, the most popular radios were Kenwood TS-450, TS-430, TS-870, and a few TS-440s. Most of the guys I knew also ran 350- 450 watt mobile amplifiers.

 

[SuperLid]

Results from years ago, indicate those "ham stick" antennas for low band HF are nothing more than dummy loads.. Your best bet for an HF mobile antenna is motorized screwdriver type antenna.. The best one I have seen is the one made by Henry Allen who is now SK.. Perhaps a strategically placed ad will put one in your hands.

From my days of HF mobile, the most popular radios were Kenwood TS-450, TS-430, TS-870, and a few TS-440s. Most of the guys I knew also ran 350- 450 watt mobile amplifiers.

Bollocks!

 

[w9cll]

Results from years ago, indicate those "ham stick" antennas for low band HF are nothing more than dummy loads.. Your best bet for an HF mobile antenna is motorized screwdriver type antenna.. The best one I have seen is the one made by Henry Allen who is now SK.. Perhaps a strategically placed ad will put one in your hands.

From my days of HF mobile, the most popular radios were Kenwood TS-450, TS-430, TS-870, and a few TS-440s. Most of the guys I knew also ran 350- 450 watt mobile amplifiers.

Ham sticks, while not the best they are clearly not "dummy loads", I ran them for years before going to a High Serria Side Kick screw driver.

To nfsus, the type of mount will be just as important as the antenna itself. The down side of running ham sticks is bandwidth, a ham stick will not cover the whole band. You could add a tuner to assist. The screw driver will provide full band coverage.

 

[doffo]

Results from years ago, indicate those "ham stick" antennas for low band HF are nothing more than dummy loads.. Your best bet for an HF mobile antenna is motorized screwdriver type antenna.. The best one I have seen is the one made by Henry Allen who is now SK.. Perhaps a strategically placed ad will put one in your hands.

From my days of HF mobile, the most popular radios were Kenwood TS-450, TS-430, TS-870, and a few TS-440s. Most of the guys I knew also ran 350- 450 watt mobile amplifiers.

My elmer who is SK since 2022 would be proud of you for mentioning that motorized screwdriver antenna. That is what he ran on his mobile setup in his truck and got great results. He ran a Kenwood TS-480HX.

I miss talking to him on 2 meters... :/

 

[AudioShockwav]

Results from years ago, indicate those "ham stick" antennas for low band HF are nothing more than dummy loads..

I had decent service from several ham stick antennas, and a couple old hustlers as well over the years.
Loaded antennas are just that, loaded antennas.

73
Jeff

 

[SuperLid]

Results from years ago, indicate those "ham stick" antennas for low band HF are nothing more than dummy loads.. Your best bet for an HF mobile antenna is motorized screwdriver type antenna.. The best one I have seen is the one made by Henry Allen who is now SK.. Perhaps a strategically placed ad will put one in your hands.

From my days of HF mobile, the most popular radios were Kenwood TS-450, TS-430, TS-870, and a few TS-440s. Most of the guys I knew also ran 350- 450 watt mobile amplifiers.

I have run hamsticks, with great success.

The worst antenna I have tried, is a Chinese ripoff of the outbacker from Opek.

Also, as far as I can recall, that antenna made by Henry Allen, was not a motorized screwdriver. He made the Texas Bugcatcher antennas.

The best screwdriver I have owned, was made by Hi-Q. I have a few High Sierra's as well, but the Hi-Q was much better.

 

[fourstringburn]

Screwdrivers are better mainly because the remote tuning and also one antenna can easily run multiple bands.

Whether a screwdriver, Hamstick, or Hustler RM 40, on 40m you are lucky to get more than +/- 20 kHz before the SWR get's too high. With loaded antennas, this means you have to tune it for the sweet spot you like to operate on or use a tuner or re-tune the antenna to compensate across the band. This is where screwdriver antennas excel due to the ease of re-tuning across the whole band.

I used to run both a screwdriver and a tri-mast Hustler with resonators for 80, 60, and 6m.

 

[BJ radionut]

 

[BJ radionut]

 

[BJ radionut]

That's the kind of Screwdriver it takes to run 40m and have more than 20kc of bandwidth plus 40 meter Hamsticks are about 3% efficient...100w IN 3 watts to antenna... Even the antenna above is only 20% at best, I ran 400 watts mobile and could work Coast to Coast.

Larry's Antennas LLC

Discover the best ham radio antennas for every frequency!

kj7u.com

Tarheel Antennas - Home

motorized antenna,screwdriver antenna, mobile HF Antenna

www.tarheelantennas.com

 

[SuperLid]

That's the kind of Screwdriver it takes to run 40m and have more than 20kc of bandwidth plus Hamsticks are about 3% efficient...100w IN 3 watts to antenna... Even the antenna above is only 20% at best, I ran 400 watts mobile and could work Coast to Coast.

Larry's Antennas LLC

Discover the best ham radio antennas for every frequency!

kj7u.com

Tarheel Antennas - Home

motorized antenna,screwdriver antenna, mobile HF Antenna

www.tarheelantennas.com

I think your efficiency numbers are exaggerated. A roof mounted hamstick is about 10% at 3.5 MHz. The numbers change dramatically, with height above ground, vs. frequency.

SL

 

[2RT307]

I've had pretty good luck on 40 with my Yaesu FT-891 and ATAS 120A combo. Running "barefoot" when daytime conditions are normal, I have been able to hit about 300 miles, with most people receiving me at S5-S7 for the most part.

73,
Brett

 

[BJ radionut]

Brett: I ran a Yaesu ATAS-120 mobile for couple years they do work...Best config using the ATAS-120 for me was when the entire antenna was above the cab , plus I lengthen the steel whip to abt twice the original length. I found the antenna on 40 meters struggled to reach a real Omni type pattern when mounted at bed height or less, otherwise they were highly directional off the corners of the vehicle when Center mounted.
I did enjoy running the antenna on 20m and above, it preformed very nicely in above configuration.
All the Best
Gary/W9FNB

PS: I change to my pics above because the ATAS-120 barely handles a 100 w radio...seen several ops burn them up using the KWD 200w HX radios...
I smoked a couple of OPEK models at the 100w level also.

 

[2RT307]

Brett: I ran a Yaesu ATAS-120 mobile for couple years they do work...Best config using the ATAS-120 for me was when the entire antenna was above the cab , plus I lengthen the steel whip to abt twice the original length. I found the antenna on 40 meters struggled to reach a real Omni type pattern when mounted at bed height or less, otherwise they were highly directional off the corners of the vehicle when Center mounted.
I did enjoy running the antenna on 20m and above, it preformed very nicely in above configuration.
All the Best
Gary/W9FNB

PS: I change to my pics above because the ATAS-120 barely handles a 100 w radio...seen several ops burn them up using the KWD 200w HX radios...
I smoked a couple of OPEK models at the 100w level also.

I ran mine in a Camry hybrid for a couple of years (it was my work car), and have also had the same setup in my F-150 Supercrew. My mount is in the front corner of the bed. Probably not the best mount for any antenna. The ease of tuning different bands offsets the inefficiency of the antenna for me... I can't see driving around with a Scorpion or Texas Bug Catcher, so I took the compromise. I'd be hard pressed to mount mine up high over the cab, since I go through drive-thru's pretty regularly. I even put the antenna on the right corner as to avoid hitting the awnings at Sonic. A friend of mine ran the Wolf River coil with 300 watts and burned two of them up.

73,
Brett