Amateur radio antennas and their mounting.

[G3WRT]

I have a new 6.1 coast. I am wondering if any have any experience or advice on mounting mobile amateur radio antennas? I suspect my best bet is via the tow bar ( I have the preparation but not the tow bar yet - thats quite expensive).

 

[G3WRT]

I have a new 6.1 coast. I am wondering if any have any experience or advice on mounting mobile amateur radio antennas? I suspect my best bet is via the tow bar ( I have the preparation but not the tow bar yet - thats quite expensive).

While I am asking I intend to run a 22amp HF transceiver. Has anyone worked out the best way to do that in the Cali coast?

 

[WelshGas]

While I am asking I intend to run a 22amp HF transceiver. Has anyone worked out the best way to do that in the Cali coast?

Some reading.

Roof Mounting Point - Mounting an antenna

I am not looking for roof bars but I am looking for something that can be installed without full roof bars create a mounting point via the roof rail tracks to install a small radio antenna. I've had a good search around but having a set of VW roof bars the rail system seems relatively simple...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[briwy]

I decided to bolt a flat metal plate to the centre of one of the roof bars . Should be OK for a mag mount and provide a reasonable ground plane

 

[zub]

Hi I saw you started another thread on this which I replied to, hope that helps.

It was your thread:
HAM RADIO ANTENNAS AND MOUNTING THEM

Regards
Zub
G7WCI

 

[zub]

>>While I am asking I intend to run a 22amp HF transceiver. Has anyone worked out the best way to do that in the Cali coast?

On my Ocean I have wired in some v heavy duty cable directly from the rear leisure battery, with a fuse on it. The other thing to ensure is you properly ground both the antenna base to the earth on the van, and ground the radio. On my old van, it worked very well when on the move, but when the engine was switched off, 100W would have interior lights switching on and off on their own accord. Getting a good ground will help massively.

Best wishes

Zub
G7WCI

 

[G3WRT]

>>While I am asking I intend to run a 22amp HF transceiver. Has anyone worked out the best way to do that in the Cali coast?

On my Ocean I have wired in some v heavy duty cable directly from the rear leisure battery, with a fuse on it. The other thing to ensure is you properly ground both the antenna base to the earth on the van, and ground the radio. On my old van, it worked very well when on the move, but when the engine was switched off, 100W would have interior lights switching on and off on their own accord. Getting a good ground will help massively.

Best wishes

Zub
G7WCI

Thanks for that. I really want to see the circuit diagram that VW employ - have you seen one? Where are you finding a good ground convenient point? 30A through 0.1 ohms is a 3V drop! so even with that current its got be a substantial and short cable.... and I am thinking of fitting a microwave 1kW (thats say 100A for the duration of the cooking) and an uprated 120A alternator (500 quid) but again a substantially thick cable and short as possible is required. My thinking is to run the engine while microwaving, which will only be for a short time (same with a kettle) and save on gas. Plus I think I want a TV and the cheapest are 240V so an inverter is the way I am thinking at present. It is the wire diameter and the routing (plus I agree a fuse!) that I am trying to puzzle out. If anyone knows how to obtain the details of the wiring (coast or ocean) and the specifications of the batteries used etc. I would dearly love to know plus all the above. Rather than have a routed ground via a wire it would be sensible to use the whole chassis = somehow. 73

 

[zub]

I’m not sure about the Beach, but my Ocean has two leisure batteries. One is at the back, I just connected it directly, via a fuse, to that leisure battery. That way I can run things with the engine off, and I know that the current handling capability is determined by the fuse, connectors and cable I used. Therefore it is independent of the VW system. I actually have run the cable from the battery to
(A) a socket next to the battery, which I will use for my radio when I wire it into this van (I had two radios in the old van for HF and VHF/UHF)
(B) an additional fly lead leading to a socket in the kitchen, which I use for any high current uses (charging LiPos etc).
The sockets I used are ones hanging around, I use XT60s which will handle 60 amps.

Writing all this makes me want to put my radios back in the van. I had an IC706 and FT8800 in my old van, both with the radios in the back, with the remote head units at the front. The IC706 head unit was mounted where the roof/fridge controller goes in the California, and the FT8800 head was mounted on a mobile phone hands free adaptor which clips into the ventilation vent to the right of the driver. Last time I both wired into a speaker by my right side, just above the seatbelt mounting, this time I will use a 3.5mm Bluetooth adapters on the radios, which I can then use the California radio system.

Hope that helps.

zub
G7WCI