Ham Radio in the Caravan

[VK4ADC]

....
Over to you fellow nomadic silver-backs...

Cheers!

John VK4BZ

John,


I am not in the above category (nomadic) so was not going to reply BUT we do go away in the van periodically so I have set up a few options to allow me to operate portable when we do. 

I have pipe mounting points on both the drawbar plus the rear bumper that will allow the use of the squid pole or a pipe with one (of a set of) helical whip atop. (I can also mount those same antennas via a removable L-mount at the back of the D-Max Crew Cab ute - with an Anderson socket nearby for power.)  There are adjacent leads with BNC connectors on the end of permanently installed cables that end up inside the van on the top of the microwave cabinet so that the gear can sit atop that cabinet simply by connecting a BNC plug plus power (either 12VDC from the 105AH deep cycle van battery via an Anderson socket or via the quiet SMPS if on a mains power site). Really quick too !  There is still the option of mounting a 2M or 70CM whip on the opposite end of the van too and using the second coax lead to cover that.

There is also a second Anderson socket mounted just behind the dual axles on the passenger side so that I can use the radio on DC on the swing-out table & under the awning.  The Anderson cabling is heavy gauge so that there will be minimal voltage drop even with a HF transceiver operating at 100W. A long BNC-BNC lead along the ground connects to the antenna options at either end. A couple of Anderson<-->Anderson leads made from car jumper leads provide a great deal of positioning flexibility away from the side of the van. 

I have a heavy duty "portable" bag that goes for the ride too and it has other AC and DC leads, coaxes in a few lengths (BNC-BNC), coax adapters, 4:1 UN-UN, headset, transceiver interface, morse key, foot pedal PTT switch, 2 position coax switch, spiral notebook, pencils & pens, 3.5mm audio leads, etc...  That means that I have possibly covered all operations setup options, eg just in case I want to use a longwire or other antenna, operate CW, contest or FD operate..... The "tower" of radio gear is basically an LDG auto ATU on top, IC7000 under it and a SMPS at the bottom, all fixed together with double-side Velcro™ straps - and it travels ready to use in a similar heavy duty travel bag. Pop it out of the bag, connect power and coax to the antenna (BNC) and it is ready to go. This stuff all travels in the vehicle & not the van.

I also have a set of trapped dipole/V antenna parts that will cover all bands from 6M-160M (including 10, 18 & 24 Mhz) plus a 1:1 balun and there is extra coax that will allow me to erect these either as dipoles or as an inverted V using trees or via a vertical pole (made from 6 x trampoline side poles : > 6M long, fits in basic sections in the tub of the D-Max and just quickly fits back together) that can mount via either the front or back van mounts. I also have a lighter duty one fit-together pole made from some straight sections of old tent pole, again with flared joint arrangements. This latter one was used on the van's front tube mount during the 2016 Spring VHF/UHF Field Day to support my 3-band 6/2/70 turnstile array.

Some other extras include a slingshot / shanghai (from a camping shop) plus a selection of old car wheel nuts and a spool of fishing line from a defunct spinning reel.  A bit of shooting practice gets the fishing line over the correct branch of a tree to pull a 3mm rope over it (use at least 20m lengths) and then use the rope to attach to the end of the dipole. Tie off one end to the tree trunk and tension from the other end !!

Hope the verbal description gives you some ideas.

73 Doug