gotta radio what about antennas?

[aggie sig]

Alright thanks to a good deal on the forum swapshop I'm going to be getting a yeasu 857D in the mail soon.

How what kind of antennas will I need for this bad boy? I will be running this out of the jeep, so I will need something that is vertical, mobile, and weatherproof.

I've seen something that has an adjustable whip for HF where you either replace the actual whip with a different length, Is that the best type? or does someone make an automatic one that adjusts to your frequency?

I'm currently running a TRAM 1140 antenna with my cobra 29 and I am pretty satisfied with it's performance. should I stick with a similar setup for HF?

then I will need a second rubber duck antenna for 2M/ 70cm correct?

does anyone have recommendations for me on either or both of these antennas?

Thank you!

 

[Robb]

A separate 2m/440 antenna would be one thing to have. But to access all of the freqs available on your 897; a 'screwdriver' type antenna is the ticket. Hamsticks can be used too; but you will need to carry the different band/hamsticks around and interchange them out with the same mount. It is cheaper to go the hamstick method; the screwdriver can be a pain to mount and cost more.

 

[KJ6KQE]

Man, do I want to follow this thread!

 

[Moleculo]

What type of Jeep?

There are a couple of different ways you can go with the antenna configuration. One way is to buy Yaesu's ATAS 120A, but that only goes down to 40 meters. That's not good enough for me - I want to be able to get on 75 meters, especially if I'm camping at night.

The other way to go is to buy a seperate HF and VHF/UHF antenna. This is what most people do. For the VHF/UHF, it's probably more a matter of whatever floats your boat and where you're going to install it. I have my Comet CA-2x4SR mounted on the right rear of the Jeep. The VHF/UHF antenna is the easy one.

The difficult one is the HF antenna. Unless you go with either Hamsticks, you're looking at something that can be fairly big and bulky which poses structural problems that you have to figure out. Unfortunately, bigger and bulkier means it also works better for HF. Most hams would opt for some type of screwdriver style HF antenna to cover 6m-80 meters. There are several brands and sizes available. Perhaps the first question you have to answer is where you are thinking about mounting it. That could limit the size of the antenna you can use.

 

[TonyV225]

You dont need to worry about SWR on all bands unless your a licensed amateur operator you can recieve with any apropriate antenna . Its when transmitting where the SWR comes into play. You are licensed yes / no??

 

[aggie sig]

Let me try to answer all the questions:

My Jeep is a 2009 4dr softtop, heres what is on it right now for my CB:

I am not currently licensed, but I have the ARRL technicians book, and I'm making about 85-90% on the tests so I'll probably be card carrying before the first of the year.

could I get some brands and models of the antennas you are talking about? or even pictures on your vehicles, I am mainly looking at 10-40 meters. I don't want anything massive hanging off my vehicle if I can help it, but the idea of being able to pack and install an 80 or 160M "Hamstick" antenna is pretty cool.

keep the ideas coming and please give details!

 

[W1MSG]

I run a Yaesu FT-857D in my explorer with the Yaesu ATAS-120 antenna, it tunes up great and covers UHF VHF and 10-40m with no issues, I think it does 6m as well.

It does a great job although a bit expensive, I have made quite a few DX contacts in Europe with it on my way home from work, of course those stations are probably running some big beams.

 

[Moleculo]

Here's one idea for you:

This Hi-Q 2.5/80 antenna: Hi-Q-Antennas for HF Ham Radio Mobile Operation KEYWORDS: W6HIQ, HA5CMG, VE7BOC, HF mobile antennas, mobile antenna, screwdriver antenna, coils

on this Teraflex Jeep mount (installs behind a tail light): http://www.worldwidedx.com/amateur-...r-radio-jk-jeep-antenna-mount.html#post131507

Here is a pic of a different antenna shown on a Jeep above is about the same size as the Hi-Q I posted above. The antenna in this pic is a Little Tarheel II antenna.
http://www.worldwidedx.com/general-ham-radio-discussion/26164-2007-jk-jeep-antenna-mount.html.

Those two I posted are about the smallest you can get in 3.5-50Mhz antennas. You can also get a controller that interfaces between the antenna and that 857D that controls the antenna automatically like this Turbo Tuner. You just bury the controller under your seat: N2VZ Enterprises Automatic Screwdriver Antenna Controller

There are other options, as well...

 

[aggie sig]

tailgate mounts

when I was installing my CB I used a similar position mount on my tire carrier with a horizontal mount and about 3 different lengths of firestick style antennas. After many tuning attempts I took it to my local HAM shop and they couldn't get it to tune either. Feeback loop with the soft top bow.

They hooked me up with the baseload antenna/tailgate mount combo i have on now. The same shop has the HAM bug in me now...

I will probably eventually replace my rear bumper which will be the permanent spot for a big antenna. My question is if you have the coils on those screwdriver antennas about even with the body of your vehicle, does it use the vehicle as a reflective plane/ or is there a possibility of feedback issues like I've had before?

300 or so bucks is a little more to be out than a $20 firestick if it doesn't work

 

[TonyV225]

You need to make sure the load coil is above the body or it will not work very well if at all if its trapped behind metal. Just think antenna coil should be CLEAR from body.

 

[Happy_Hamer]

The JK you have is a REAL pain in the ass to run HF, with as little as 20 watts on 20 meter, all the lights and alarms on my dash were going off. The gauges would cut off, the third brake light would blink,,,,,,,,,,

I followed all kinds of strapping and grounding recommendations. HF is not worth it in my opinion with the JK.

That said,

The Atas 120A is a piece of shit in my opinion!

Sure it will cover 40 meter to 70 centimeter, so you only need one antenna, I have had 3 fail for me. Yaesu replaced them under warranty, finally after the third one was replaced by Yaesu, I sold it on eBay and never looked back.

Get the Little Tarheel II if you really want to try HF in the JK.

Save yourself the hassle of tuning and buy the N2VZ Enterprises Automatic Screwdriver Antenna Controller

In closing, before you spend all the money on the antennas, mounts, controllers, hook that radio up and run it with your antenna you have on 10 meter.

Do it whilst driving and key up, be in a safe area as your dash goes crazy.

If you do go further and decide to buy all the stuff and run just one radio, check this page out,

http://www.worldwidedx.com/yaesu/28...857-897-frequency-modification-expansion.html

 

[TonyV225]

LMAO! @ Bill you wouldnt believe the articles Ive read about how these Yaesu ATS120 antennas fail on people or stop working all together and tunning fails. Ive seen people say that these antennas are good for stationary but as far as travel at highway speeds forget it they will self destruct the cant handle it.

 

[aggie sig]

The JK you have is a REAL pain in the ass to run HF, with as little as 20 watts on 20 meter, all the lights and alarms on my dash were going off. The gauges would cut off, the third brake light would blink,,,,,,,,,,

I followed all kinds of strapping and grounding recommendations. HF is not worth it in my opinion with the JK.

what bands did it do that on, I realize that mobile HF is an effort in futility at higher frequencies, but will I be able to do 10-20 maybe even 40 meters without all the "excitement"?

(I still need to take my tech and general before I can even really mess with frequencies above 10)

 

[Moleculo]

what bands did it do that on, I realize that mobile HF is an effort in futility at higher frequencies, but will I be able to do 10-20 maybe even 40 meters without all the "excitement"?

(I still need to take my tech and general before I can even really mess with frequencies above 10)

You mean frequencies lower than 10 meters and also it's more difficult to do HF mobile the lower you go.

That's why the antennas get so large at lower frequencies. As you'll find out, propagation characteristics tend to act differently at different times of the day. For example, 10 and 20 meters won't be very useful at trying to contact someone in the evening. You'll need 40 and 80 meters for that. Those two antennas I listed previously are about as small as you can get and still get some coverage on 40 & 80, although the performance on those bands won't be great. You need big and ugly to really make it work.

You can definitely go the hamstick route, but they're not very good on the low frequencies. You also have to go through the hassle of manually adjusting them every time you switch one. If you add up the price for all the various bands, you'll find out you're already 1/2 way to the price of a decent antenna also.

As far as the difficulties of running HF on the JK Jeep, you'll have to experiment like Happy Hamer did. There are ways to deal with the troubles he was talking about but it could be some work. You won't know until you try it. Fortunately in my TJ I don't have those problems.