Hi-Q HF Antenna & FT-891 Install on a 2 Door Bronco

[Kilgore]

Ah! Hustler resonators!! We all seem to start there or with ham sticks!!

I still have a full set of hustlers from 80 - 10, and still use them on occasion. They never seem to quit. Mine were all cast-off units or hamfest finds.

What bracket did you use for mounting the control heads to the dash?

Also what's been your experience with ignition noise on HF in the bronco?

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[Mammal]

Not enough of a compromise to matter if your working repeaters or simplex in every day situations.

We went from roof mounted to fender mount uhf antenna company trucks years ago just based on installation cost savings and resale value. No decernable coverage differences were noted in everyday use.

Regardless, not mounting in the center of the roof will have some negative impacts on coverage. Larsen antennas has a good article on this in their catalog. It's on page 16 & 17 of the attached.

Go with a 5/8 wave to get ~3db gain which will offset a bunch of the loss from a fender mount. My goto is the Larsen NMO150/450 in black.

73

Awesome, you just saved me a lot of research time!

cheers!

 

[mike8675309]

There are quite a few Amateur (HAM) Radios which can also be used on GMRS.

When you say can, are you talking about physically possible or within regulations?
Current regulations require you to use a GRMS radio to transmit on GRMS unless it is an emergency. HAM radios are not type-accepted for GRMS by the FCC. There are also GRMS radios that have the ability to transmit on HAM radio frequencies. But doing so is violates FCC regulations in any circumstance but for an emergency.

 

[Kilgore]

When you say can, are you talking about physically possible or within regulations?
Current regulations require you to use a GRMS radio to transmit on GRMS unless it is an emergency. HAM radios are not type-accepted for GRMS by the FCC. There are also GRMS radios that have the ability to transmit on HAM radio frequencies. But doing so is violates FCC regulations in any circumstance but for an emergency.

You nailed it!
One of our technicians, who was also a ham, used an "opened up" vhf transceiver to access our company radio system. Obviously the ham gear is not typed accepted for commercial service. He ended up writing the FCC a check, and as his employer, we were also named in the violation. None of it was pretty, and he found employment elswhere.

Like the old saying says, its all fun and games until someone goes to the hospital

 

[Kilgore]

The antenna mount is complete. The coax and common mode choke is installed within the support tube and the tube, mount and tailgate are bonded to the steel tailgate door post discovered earlier.

Bonding was by tinned braid strap cut to length and protected by shrink tube. All connections were doped with NO-OX-ID Type A. If your not familiar with this stuff, here is some info. It's been used forever in industry when assembling busbars, cable connections and the like. It's my goto for all mobile connections and antenna assembly for the past 35 years. A little goes a long way, and its never let me down. Here are some links to more info

https://www.sanchem.com/electrical-contact-lubricant.html

NO-OX-ID A-Special- Electrical Contact Grease- Keeps Metals Free of Rust and Corrosion- Part# 10203 https://a.co/d/fIaFXyx

Moving on to the interior build next.

 

[Sparkherd]

Ah! Hustler resonators!! We all seem to start there or with ham sticks!!

I still have a full set of hustlers from 80 - 10, and still use them on occasion. They never seem to quit. Mine were all cast-off units or hamfest finds.

What bracket did you use for mounting the control heads to the dash?

Also what's been your experience with ignition noise on HF in the bronco?

Ah! Hustler resonators!! We all seem to start there or with ham sticks!!

I still have a full set of hustlers from 80 - 10, and still use them on occasion. They never seem to quit. Mine were all cast-off units or hamfest finds.

What bracket did you use for mounting the control heads to the dash?

Also what's been your experience with ignition noise on HF in the bronco?

I bought all the high power Hustler resonators back when I had the Ameritron ALS-500 in My Olde F-250. After ruining three early screwdrivers; the early stuff didn't stand up well to off-road use.
The only disadvantage I can find with Hustler stuff is changing bands.

I originally mounted an Yaazoo FTM-400 in there, and currently am using an Icom IC-5100.
I mounted the magnetic Icom mount to the Yaesu mount with the idea that I could swap them out with ease...not too sure of the efficacy of that, but I had to take the interior apart three times to run all the cables.

I used one of the Lido mounts for the 891. If you can't mount a radio with Lido's stuff, you should give up and use velcro.

I don't notice any noise I can attribute to the ignition, I get some weird noise when certain relays click, and there about a jillion of them in this truck!!!
And I still haven't bonded anything!!!

 

[K8GTH]

Very nice setup, I was looking to do a similar style mount for POTA. 73

 

[Kilgore]

Think about bringing along a push up fiberglass pole if you are going to be camped or stopped for awhile. It's easy to extend the whip with a wire supported by the pole.

With my previous diamond screwdriver setup, I would be able to work the entire 160m band plus really enhance 80 and 40 with the extension. The screwdriver becomes a wire tuner with this setup.

My interest was performance on 160m, so I used a bunch of wire which resulted in the inability to tune above 30m. The screwdriver coil provided too much inductance.

Photo below is of my van using the trick while camped at the gulf.

 

[Kilgore]

Started planning for where to mount the radios. The install will include a FT-891 for HF, an Alinco DR-735 for V/Uhf, a TargetTuner to manage the HF antenna, remote reading power/swr meter and a Signalink for digital.

Only the control heads will be mounted up front. The bulk of the equipment will live in an equipment tray in the back. The cardboard mock-up in the photo is close to the final design. Ford blessed us with good mounting points on the backside of the roll bar and at the belt line.

The second photo shows a possible arrangement inside the tray.

Ended the day by making drawings and ordering materials. Hope to begin fabrication next week.

 

[Mammal]

Sweet! Love the 160m setup above.
What is the silver box on your layout for the mounting? Are you going to use something like the west mountain radio isopwr for that battery?

Loving this thread.

 

[Kilgore]

The silver box is the remote unit for the west mountain target tuner. The control box up front connects via a length of CAT5.

The small battery is a work in progress. So far when powering my portable HF gear, I get low voltage alarms on the rig when the engine Start/Stop kicks in. That's not easy on equipment programming and equipment health in general.

The idea is a small battery that will allow the radios to ride through the low voltage event. The battery will be isolated from the Bronco by a diode. Another option is a large capacitor instead of the battery.

 

[Gnomad]

When you say can, are you talking about physically possible or within regulations?
Current regulations require you to use a GRMS radio to transmit on GRMS unless it is an emergency. HAM radios are not type-accepted for GRMS by the FCC. There are also GRMS radios that have the ability to transmit on HAM radio frequencies. But doing so is violates FCC regulations in any circumstance but for an emergency.

I have TIDRadio H8 that is type accepted on ham and GMRS, but, one or the other depending on the keys you hold at startup. It won't do both at the same time. I can program 2 meter and 440 ham frequencies for RX in GMRS mode but won't transmit which I how it keeps its type acceptance I would guess. Or vice versa. I usually use it on the ham side with GMRS monitoring, and find sometimes that there is more activity on GMRS than ham.

 

[Kilgore]

Materials needed to fabricate the tray arrived this morning. Spent some fun time with the shear and metal brake to make the sides. Need to clean up the pieces and clamp together in prep for welding. But not today.

Once all together, the next step will be to punch the holes for the various cables and coax to enter/exit

 

[mike8675309]

I have TIDRadio H8 that is type accepted on ham and GMRS, but, one or the other depending on the keys you hold at startup. It won't do both at the same time. I can program 2 meter and 440 ham frequencies for RX in GMRS mode but won't transmit which I how it keeps its type acceptance I would guess. Or vice versa. I usually use it on the ham side with GMRS monitoring, and find sometimes that there is more activity on GMRS than ham.

That's fine, but in general, a Ham radio cannot be used on GRMS legally. It doesn't matter that you can make a Ham radio act like a GRMS radio in power and frequency. the FCC doesn't want people doing that. There may be exceptions out there, but a quick digging into the TiDRadio H8 shows me that I wouldn't use the HAM version of that for GRMS. But that's me.

 

[Gnomad]

That's fine, but in general, a Ham radio cannot be used on GRMS legally. It doesn't matter that you can make a Ham radio act like a GRMS radio in power and frequency. the FCC doesn't want people doing that. There may be exceptions out there, but a quick digging into the TiDRadio H8 shows me that I wouldn't use the HAM version of that for GRMS. But that's me.

I bought the GMRS version of the H8, basically the same radio but type accepted as a GMRS so if by some remote chance the FCC was to question it I can say "this is a GMRS"
It won't operate in both services at the same time. It is a valid option to cover both services with one radio, and I can't think of another that does that. "The FCC, hams and GMRS users H8 this one simple trick"

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