Little Tarheel II

[K9GAS]

Well I finally after having it a month got it installed on my vehicle.
I have to say after using it a few days, that it's definitely better than
the ATAS120A. (note) The 120A is doing a fine job on the box truck.
I do notice it's not as smooth on the motor drive when going up or down.

This Flex was perfect. No bonding necessary as the unibody
on this car was nice. I didn't realize it till we put it up on my sons lift and had
it in the air. No interference noise from anything on this car.
Gaylen at Tarheel antenna's made sure I took a 56" whip as well as the 32" that comes with it. The 56" makes quite a difference on 40m and 80m.

With the 32" whip Frequency is 3.5-54 MHz.
It was easy to hear the gain on 40 and especially on 75m.

This comes from their site.
Note:

When using the Little Tarheel II with a 56" whip.
Frequency Coverage Continuous -- 3.4 to 30 MHz

You will see about:
1 dB increase on 20 meters
3 dB increase on 40 meters
5 dB increase on 75 meters

Next I'll get the 100A HP installed on the box truck.

 

[W5LZ]

Amazing what 2 feet of whip difference will do, isn't it? Now... how about an 8 foot whip?

- 'Doc

 

[Happy_Hamer]

When sitting talking some DX, I installed a 102 inch stainless antenna and it made a heck of a difference.

Now Buddistick sells a 12 foot 7 section (148 inch) military shock cord type antenna that will be nice for use while sitting, it breaks down and would most likely fit in your glove box. ABSOLUTELY NOT TO BE USED WHILE DRIVING

Military Style Shock-Corded Whip Antenna

And while we are discussing it,

MFJ now sells a 16 foot telescoping antenna that would also help on the lower bands. AGAIN ABSOLUTELY NOT TO BE USED WHILE DRIVING

MFJ Enterprises Inc.

Just remember, as you go taller, you may lose the higher bands so the longer whips should be used for low band, 80-40 meter.

 

[K9GAS]

wow 8' that would be great for 75m.
I have the whip adapter for non threaded whips
that will hold pretty thick stock. May give that a shot.
Yeah, everything over 40m, possibly 20m would be gone.
Hmmm, I wonder if that would resonate 160m?
The 56" really bends in the wind going highway speed compared
to the 32".
I'm trying to figure out if the 56" has much influence in the high bands,
like the 10-17m where I work a lot during the day while traveling.
Doc or Hamer, have you experience much of a difference with longer whips
on the high bands? It would be nice to have a qso that would allow me to change
whips and see. Maybe that will happen here soon.

 

[K9GAS]

great pointers Hamer, I'm going to order one of those.
that would be nice on vacations. We go to upper Michigan on the lake.
I could find a spot and pull up to the water and put that on the coil
and see what shakes. Thanks

 

[Happy_Hamer]

Get on 24.951 KL7GS in Alaska, you can test on 12 meter he is strong right now

 

[W5LZ]

What's the length of that thing with the coil fully retracted? Add that to the length of the whip and you've got the 'shortest' 1/4 wave length you can have. Is it too long for 10 meters? Probably. How about 15 and 20 meters? I think it'd be usable there, just not as much 'coil' used as with the shorter whip. So for HF, you'd only loose 10 meters. Okay, take that shorty whip too. How about 160 meters? Nope, I really doubt it, need lots more whip for that... or a long'ish piece of wire into a tree? It'd load, but don't expect much on 160 meters with that sort of thing.
- 'Doc

 

[trucker]

Congratulations on getting the Little Tarheel II. I have one mounted on the driver's side mirror on an 18 wheeler(2007 Kenworth Day Cab). I have both the 32" and the 54" whips.
With the 54" whip, I can only get it to tune to 12 meters. SWR too high on 10 meters.
(well, my Kenwood TS-480SAT's auto tuner will fix it, but, that's a bandaid not a cure).
Overall, I like the Little Tarheel II on the rig. I have a Tarheel 100a HP on my pickup and the difference between the two antennas is obvious. I have been sitting in our truck yard listening to a qso in the big truck with a 5&7 signal and got in my pickup and the same qso signal strength was 5 & 9 or better! Of course, the 100a HP is a much larger antenna! But, I cannot think of a replacement for the Little Tarheel II that would be better on the big rig. (and not cause problems with hitting overhead objects)
Have fun!!!
trucker

 

[northern35s]

A much better improvement would be to add length below the coil, if you can fit an extension tube to the antenna, and move the coil higher, you'll get closer to a genuine centre load and move the loading coil further from ground and the car body, less loss, more efficient and greater current distribution than adding whip length

 

[K9GAS]

Northern, I'll try that along with an 8' whip I've picked up for when I'm stationary
on vacation, good idea.

 

[K9GAS]

Hey Trucker, I had issues with trying to run the 100A up high on my box truck.
I had it mounted where the decoupler was about 3" above the roof. Made it about 15'
in height. It wasn't getting enough earth ground so I couldn't get it tuned right in the
80 and 40m. I was going to try to get it better, but the guys when they took the truck
out hit some overpasses under the interstate that was 14' and took off the corona ball.
They said they thought is sounded like they took off the top of the box. Scared them pretty good. Also they were telling me the wind noise was echoing from it inside the cab more. I'll have to post some pics of it the way it was. At that height it sure had nice receive. Soooo, I'm going to mount it on the front corner of the front bumper. That will
keep it from hitting things, it should, with a 6' whip on it. I've always wondered how easy it was to get a screwdriver tuned on a big truck since the frame is much higher above the ground.
Hey Doc, if you read this, does the Scorpion use an inductance coil for tuning, like the Tarheel? Just curious.

 

[Moleculo]

Hey Doc, if you read this, does the Scorpion use an inductance coil for tuning, like the Tarheel?

You can do it with either a coil or capacitors. Most antennas ship with a coil inductor for matching on 40/80.

 

[W5LZ]

I use a small inductance/coil from the feed point to ground for matching on 80 and 40 meters. It isn't necessary for the higher bands, but is required for 80/40 meters. That particular inductance has no affect on the higher bands, it appears as an open circuit, or really high resistance, might as well not be there.
The one I use is just a small coil hanging there. It can be enclosed, I just haven't seen a need for it yet.
- 'Doc

 

[K9GAS]

Ok, I wasn't sure if all the screwdrivers required it. I realized on the high bands you can do without it. Lowering my 100AHP on the front bumper did the trick for my install.
That low to the ground, with a inductance coil that I wound, I've got 47ohm x=7 swr 1.1 on 80m and 46ohm x=6 1.1 on 40m. The high bands are around 47-55ohm x=3-7 at 1.1 swr.
I'm pretty happy with that. I used the 6' whip so lowered all the way down, 10m is 51ohm x=2 at 1.1. What's nice is all the way down I can pretty much use from 26.800-29.800 and be pretty good. Not that I use those frequencies much, but nice for local chat once in awhile. Thanks

 

[K9GAS]

Got the Tarheel 100AHP installed on the box truck. Here's a pic.
Looks about 12-15" above the roof of the box and that's 10'
It'll make a nice early warning so nobody hopefully will take off the roof
under a low overhead.
Not sure how it works yet. Bumper is steel, looks plastic from pic.
I just used my phone, so not the best.
Thanks for looking.