Heard some folks on 10M today, carrying on nice QSO's on the West coast about 2000 Z before fading. Have to try earlier tomorrow. I am normally at work at that time, so I don't know how consistent the band has been. Makes me want to put a 10M 1/4 wave whip on the Jeep.
Made my 1st ever (never tried before) contact on 18 MHz to ND.
Made my first 20M contact to AK few weeks ago, KL7RA. Talked to same guy on 10M way back in '92. Heard AK on 40M.
Made my 1st 20M contact to JA today. The bands are getting better.

 

Yes the bands are "getting" better.....can't help it as the solar cycle contiues, but it has been taking it's sweet time. News has it that Solar Cycle 24 has gone from possibly being the best solar cycle ever to now maybe the worst....

Yes, I have a Wilson 1000 cut for 10m that worked great the last time I used it. But now I have no 10m rig as I sold (which I said I'd never do) my old Ranger AR3500. Talked all over down into the lower 48 with just the 25 watts that it puts out. It was a great rig and I miss having it now. I need to find another.

I too just signed on 17m with a guy in JA that I've talked to many times before....JH1OCC, Yuu near Tokyo. He was booming into the shack at 5/9+. Also said I was doing the same. 17m has been my favorite band for many years now.

20m seems good tonight into JA, but the contesters were taking up the whole band as usual. Hard to carry on a ragchew with them crowding the band.

I've talked to KL7RA a few times on our local 80m net. I lost my 160m full wave loop last winter and never put one back up this summer. So now I'm stuck with only a 40m dipole for the low bands....

As I've said before to others here, let me know if you ever want to make a sked......
73

Ooops sorry, I just realized we hijacked the thread.......sorry bout' that.

 

That whole 10 meter 1/4 band whip is starting to sound very good to me. With a good ball mount, a right rear quarter panel installation would probably work quite well. Definitely something worth considering as the cycle picks up.

The thing that worries me about 10 meter (and 6 meter to a lesser extent) is that the 8900 doesn't do SSB - it's FM only. Is this going to be a big issue?

 

This thread could get me in some hot water! I've been eyeing the Little Tarheel II looks to have very similar specs to the High Sierra.

http://www.tarheelantennas.com/little_tarheel_ii

 

Well, they do use FM up above 29meg. I've actually talked into JA using 10m FM before and it was great. Of course that was in the shack using a homebrew 4 element monoband Yagi that I built and about 5-600 watts. It's just not that popular to do so as SSB is the phone mode of choice that's all, and you might have a hard time trying it mobile.
I still say that if you can afford it, I'd really look hard at trying to find a real nice used IC-706. Especially if you think you will like HF. And one thing I do know is that as soon as a person has privlidges on HF, 2 meters tends to get old real fast. I realize it's all pretty new to you now, but as soon as you get a good taste of HF, preferences start to change real quick. There's a real good reason the IC-706, all versions, are the most popular mobile radio to ever hit the market....

 

Yep......they are also very popular antennas.

Check it out... http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1953

 

I hear what you're saying here...FM is great for hitting repeaters and running simplex to the guy that's a county or two over...but bandwidth restrictions aren't the only reason that DX happens as SSB.

I've got three stumbling blocks between me and something like a IC706 or Yaesu 857 in my Jeep.

#1. Price. Not just the radio, but the antennas and mounts too.The hamsticks could get around part of the price issue, but I don't want to have to choose which band I'm going to run before I go on a road trip...and I don't want to share the interior of my Jeep with a bunch of 7 foot antennas while on that road trip

#2. Antenna durability. Whatever I get needs to be VERY flexible. A stainless 1/4 wave CB whip that's trimmed for 10 meter is do-able because once I throw a spring on the ball mount it'll handle anything I can dish out...but a lot of the trails that I run on include some TIGHT squeezes. I have doubts about a mini-screwdriver antenna or a Hustler antenna surviving. The only way anything other than a super-flexible whip is going to survive is if I tuck it completely behind my Jeep, mounted on my tire carrier, with nothing solid sticking up.

#3. Utility on VHF. I'd like to be able to run simplex with other HAM's that I'm wheeling with while still being able to monitor a repeater...or monitor a repeater while scanning through public safety channels...or use my mobile as a repeater for an HT while volunteering with the local HAM group providing comms for a race. At first I didn't think that these would be functions that I needed...but the more I think about it, the more I like the Yaesu and ICOM units that are two receivers and one transmitter in one box.

Are there any HF/VHF/UHF multibanders that include this sort of capability?

Also, do you know of anyone that's done HF mobile using a stainless whip and an antenna tuner mounted inside the vehicle?

 

I don't believe any of the HF mobile radios will cross band repeat. Now you are talking the perfect radio, HF-70cm all mode, Cross band repeat, built in TNC that will fit under my seat.

 

Yes.......some use an external tuner, but most of the newer all band radios have tuners already built into them.

 

Does that cause issues with the length of feed line between the tuner and the whip? Some of the things I've read have urged HAM's to keep that feed line as short as possible, and use solid copper instead of coax.

The I have to admit that some of the external tuners that are weatherproof are looking kinda good to me - Yaesu and Icom both make some.