Ham Radio in the Caravan

[VK4BZ]

That time of life is fast approaching and, yes, I've put the deposit on a caravan...and I'm more than reasonably grey on the noggin as well. So, as I prepare to work out how to keep SWMBO happy and still enjoy the hobby when we finally get on the road, I wonder how other caravaning hams set up their station.

Perhaps a photo or two of your set-up and some description would be helpful for us all. 

As for me, I'm at the antenna stage and have my squid pole off the bull bar of the Nissan pretty much fine-tuned (see my post on the antenna topic), but apart from sitting in the truck trying to work CW or getting a fold-up table out under the retractable annex, I'm curious what others do.

Over to you fellow nomadic silver-backs...

Cheers!

John VK4BZ

[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

[VK4WDM]

Caravan Sando! I thought caravans were only for us whimpy RAAF types and you army blokes would go on the road with a Hoochie and back pack, but I am interested in your question because I already have an RV (at least that's what the XYL thinks it is. To me its a mobile radio shack in the making).

I have a FT-817 and an end fed wire that can either be used as is or would around a squid pole to make a vertical and it works quite well, but given the likelihood that poor HF conditions are going to persist for a long time, I think that I am going to need more output power. The options I am considering are:

1.  Getting a MX-P50M amplifier or similar for the FT-817. 2. Trading the FT-817 in on a Yaesu FT-857 or similar. 3. Using my FT-847 but it is heavy and consumes a lot of power.

I am interested to hear what others think about these options.

73  Wayne VK4WDM

[VK4ADC]

Well I have finally done what I said I would do back in June : take some photos of my caravan/portable HF options. 

I have placed a new article on my web site at VK4ADC.COM appropriately titled Portable HF Antenna Options rather than face the limitations of putting quite a few images and explanatory text on this Forum posting.

Note that this article is based on my 'portable while caravanning' requirements and not my normal Field Day arrangements, details of which can be found elsewhere on that same website in a variety of other articles.

I continue to come up with different ideas - ways to implement things in a better / simpler / faster way - so that article is not all-encompassing and is just how it was done this time around. Next week it could be different.

73 Doug

[VK4BZ]

Well I have finally done what I said I would do back in June : take some photos of my caravan/portable HF options. 

I have placed a new article on my web site at VK4ADC.COM appropriately titled Portable HF Antenna Options rather than face the limitations of putting quite a few images and explanatory text on this Forum posting.

Note that this article is based on my 'portable while caravanning' requirements and not my normal Field Day arrangements, details of which can be found elsewhere on that same website in a variety of other articles.

I continue to come up with different ideas - ways to implement things in a better / simpler / faster way - so that article is not all-encompassing and is just how it was done this time around. Next week it could be different.

73 Doug

Hi, Doug. Finally got some time to get back on the forum. Your set-up in the van sounds awesome. That's what I want to do is to plan where I need power points, antenna points, etc for my radio inside and outside the van. Just have to convince SWMBO that they won't look "ugly". I'll have a look at your website for some of your pics as well. 

As for me I've put the antenna arrangement on the front of my tow tug (D22 Navara) - there's two videos I have put up on YouTube that show what I've done.

By the way - being Army doesn't mean you have to do it hard! I've had enough hootchie life to last me, but still have a few more years of it in front of me. I began my decent into pogishness when I bought my swag, but fortunately, working here at the School of Inf I haven't had to spend the night out field with my boys and girls in training...I just visit them, give them coffee and Milo, say a few prayers, dig a few pits, then p!ss off back to the barracks!

Cheers!

John

[VK4ADC]

John

We have been away in the van a couple of times since that write-up, the most recent with us arriving back at home yesterday, and each time I have tried something different with antennas etc. 

This last effort was comparing the wire up the middle of the 7M squid pole to a 19 metre length of hookup wire stretched out longwire-style up into a tree. Just perchance (or not), that wire length resonates on 80 metres...   I tried two different styles of UN-UN with them and came to the conclusion that the 4:1 version works well for 10MHz and up with the squid pole but a straight multitapped toroidal single-winding inductor works better for 7 and 3.5 MHz, longwire or squid pole, and connected to the highest impedance transformation point. The 'ground' side of the UN-UN was clipped to the chassis on the caravan drawbar.  I will probably make up a 9:1 or 16:1 conventional UN-UN (or both) to try out on our next outing, with the same two antennas.

The variation in propagation over a fixed length path even just on 40 during the afternoon is something to behold. Similarly, prop on 80 is variable but probably not as noticeable. It would have been good to have be able to try again on 5MHz as a rough frequency mid-point.  

I didn't put photos of inside the van in my write-up but, verbally, a foam-RG58 coax from both front and back mounts travel under the van floor and up and into a cupboard then behind the air conditioner and pass through the top A/C cupboard vent and are terminated in BNCs and coiled up on the top of the cupboard. They have company in the form of two RG6 coaxes that are terminated in F sockets mounted under the van and the top ends are again F's and coiled on the cupboard top. There is a 4-outlet AC power board up there too so that either the transceiver's 240VAC power supply can be connected and/or the satellite TV box powered. I have a a heavy duty 50A anderson style socket, fused for 40A, handy to the van battery to allow for 12VDC operation, plus an anderson-to-anderson extension power lead made from a 100A car jumper lead set plus a couple of 1.5 metre long BNC-BNC leads, all making radio positioning simple and flexible.

There are always ways to do the physical positioning within the van but getting approval from the "boss" is not always so simple. I usually opt for the 'forgiveness procedure' - install it first then seek forgiveness afterward saying 'it's all finished now'....

73 Doug VK4ADC