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Tuner or coil mobile?

74IN

Well-Known Member
Feb 17, 2003
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Does it make any perceptible difference?

Is a screwdriver or multiple tap coil antenna better than using a long whip with a tuner?

I've installed a 102 whip with spring on my Jeep. Will adding an LDG tuner do as well as a coil antenna for down to 20M?
 

I guess it depends on what you mean by "do as well". For just 20m and above, either will work fine, although the screwdiver should be more efficient. Once you start going to 40m & 80m though you're going to have some work to do to get that tuner working well with the whip. Both a radio buddy & I have jeeps. He went the 102"/tuner route and I went the full size screwdriver route. He spent a ton of time trying to get it to load up on 40/80m, but the actuall mechanical aspects of the install are easy. I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out how make the screwdriver be structurally sound but once I did that, getting it to work properly on all bands was easy.

BTW, the LDG tuner is probably the wrong one for that job. I think you need to look at SGC's offerings. Anyway, to get the 102" whip to work with a tuner on the lower bands, you're going to need to use quite a bit of wire to get a suitable match. You can't use coax. SGC has a chart that shows approximate lengths of wire at: Selecting Wire Length. You'll see that you may need as much as 50' of wire. Another problem to seriously consider is that you will have a lot of voltage on that wire. If you're thinking about putting a 500watt amp in there at some point, you could have 10,000 volts at the output of that tuner! Also, because of that voltage, you can't use the cheap ball mount for you whip anymore...they won't handle it!

I didn't want to deal with all that, so I just got a Hi-Q. Now, there are all kinds of automatic screwdriver controllers, which makes it almost pain free. You have to figure out how to mount those heavy antennas, though.
 
I use a homebrew antenna that is about 111" long and is self resonant on 15m. I use a Yaesu FC-40 auto tuner and have great luck with it on 20m and up. I have only worked a couple stations on 40m with it and the results were less than great.It will not load up at all on 80m.For what little HF mobiling I do it is fine and as I said it works GREAT on 20m and up.Like Mole said,the screwdrivers are hard to beat for efficiency but mounting and maintaining them can be a pain.
 
Go Screwdriver

Like Mole stated there are many views/opinions on what to run mobile...I tried the whip method...nope to much trouble and had RF all over the truck...trashed the AM/FM tuner and the CD player...removed it.
I have also over the years run various mono-band antennas...mostly Hustler "beer can" loads for 80/40m I think they preformed the best, most notably on 80m.

These take a extra H/D mounting set-up to hold them up but preform very well I thought. They can handle medium power levels and hold up to weather...but forget ever using any kind of drive-up window unless you lower the mast.
Thing to remember is 80m most notable is pretty much a late afternoon and evening band and 40m is good most of the day in the 50 to 300 mile range and longer at night and not good close in after dark...these are very general terms but really pretty common experience for most mobiles in the 100 watt to 500 watt output type set-up.

I changed my mobile set-up about 4 years ago and went with the FT-100D and the ATS-120A screwdriver antenna...auto tuning/easy to mount/ and works from 40m through 10m with the push of a button on the radio.
Yes I am pleased!...with 100 watts from the rig...I have worked the world!!! If I hear them I can work them!
Good performance on 40m but 20m through 10m Excellent.

The antenna on 10m's out does ANY antenna I have ever used HANDS DOWN!

I mounted the entire antenna above the cab of the truck mounted on the tool box in the front of the bed...it's 11 ft to the top of the whip. To pull in the home garage or parking garage I simply open the lid on the tool box...lay the antenna over the cab...very nice, no need to remove or change anything.
This antenna will only handle 150 watts but I have never needed more than what the rig puts out (100w)...
There are other Mfg's. that have copied the Yaesu version and have heard they preform well also...with the smaller size footprint than the Full size screwdriver.
I also had the same antenna on my S-10 Blazer mounted on the spare tire frame...it was more directional off the front than the truck but still worked well I thought.
I guess I am going on here a little...but where this was headed as stated SO many times!!! Spend the bucks on the antenna set-up forget the WATT METER and you will find many hours of radiofun mobile.

Final notes for 10m's... I often work stations ground wave from the mobile consistently 75 to 100 miles away with about 80 watts output...if you can do that the antenna set-up is right and the DX will say...WOW your mobile?
All the Best
BJ
 
Seems like more than just me have decided that the "one size fit's all" kind'a antenna isn't exactly the best idea in the world. It'll certainly work to some extent, if you have to do it that way, but it also raises other issues or problems that 'they' don't mention in the ads.
I can't speak for anyone else, but considering the price of a few of the 'new' mobile antennas, I think I can do a lot of operating/changing taps, etc, with a 'chunky/clunky' looking old BugCatcher!
Mole' also brought up something that I think deserves a bit more attention, what to use as a mount. The old reliable 'ball-mount' isn't as reliable as it used to be, sort of. Depends a lot on who makes it, how heavy the thing is. I've managed to 'snap' two of the things with that BugCatcher. One with a sort of 'flexible' guying thingy, the other when using a very stiff guying method (lexan brace). They sure were nice and shinny, but didn't handle the strain of holding up a pole very well. Been looking for one of the older '10 pound', ugly ball-mounts for a couple of years. No luck yet... Oh well.
- 'Doc
 
Doc, I had a source for the big military style ball mounts that I'll see if I can find. They're big and ugly (and not cheap) but they work!
 
Mole',
You wouldn't happen to have a picture of one of them? All kinds of 'ball' mounts, and while I'm not too particular, I do still want to keep it kind'a reasonable, sort of.
- 'Doc
 

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