watch the temperature under the driver seat, it gets real hot under there from the exhaust at least is does on an old 2008

 

thanks for the heads up,,, I probably don't use it enough but a very good point.... and there is air flow on both sides... I guess If I were to figure out the 706 I could just take out the 2720 all together...

or maybe I should install the 817 QRP rig.... and have the dipole in the ham bag for any ?????? needed or other antenna's and call it good.....
it's not that I use it all that much, so if I needed to use it in the mountains for an emergency I'm sure I could make a contact.

 

I went out to the shack around midnight last night and the VKs were just booming in up here on 40m.....some were 10 over.

Then there were the JAs with 5 element 40m monobanders up over 100 ft. I think you could have cooked an egg on their signals...

 

I just installed a Chameleon V2 antenna on my military mount. It is only 4 foot tall and will tune 10-80 Meters plus 6m. Easy to install and it comes with a 9:1 balun. I use a LDG Z100pro to tune it. It also works on MARS frequencies.

 

Looks like a good antenna. It got great reviews on eham.

 

I'm impressed with its performance so far. I have broke two antennas so I research a reasonable short multi-band mobile antenna before I bought it.

My military mount is at 5 foot so I cannot drive with the 12 foot military whip which broke in the pull-down position. I tried an MFJ 40m Hamstick (8 foot) which meant it was just under 13 feet and as luck would have it I hit one too many trees and it snapped at its base. Because I broke two antennas I didn't want to invest in a good screwdriver antenna. I would have had to use a little tarheel or Hi-Q 2.5/80/RT. Both whips would be close to the 12 foot mark and I would hate to brake that kind of investment.

 

This looks like an interesting setup. I have the 706 with the AH-4 tuner and this might be a good way to go. could you post a few pics of your setup?

thanks
73's

 

Really sorry to hear you broke your nice military set up. I really liked that thing. How does the Chameleon compare performance wise? I would think at only 4' that there would be a pretty big difference?

 

I bought another section for the military whip so it is operational. The Chameleon works really well with a 59 on 80m from TN to NC but the military whip does out preform it. If I am stationary I can swap them out quickly. The Chameleon's 9:1 balun is nice also. I have seen videos on youtube where they ran the V2 without the balun on a ball mount with good results.

 

Went out to the shack last night and had some fun again on 40m. First guy that came back to my CQ was a guy in Birmingham AL. That was really nice because for the most part when 40m is getting good, most the guys towards the east coast are asleep. And even tho I've had the big loop up for over a year, I just haven't experimented with it enough towards the east. I've been thinking I have a big null that way. But when he gave me a 5/9 report, that helped me know I was at least getting out that direction pretty good.

From there on out I had a mini pile-up going. Had guys from ZL and VK all the way to Venezuela calling me. I do believe this was the first time I've got down into So. America before on 40m. All gave me reports from S5 to 10 over S9 down in VK. One guy in VK was running 10-12 watts and had an S5 signal so the propagation was really pretty good. I did however have heavy static crashes between S5-7 so it was pretty difficult at times hearing everything the guys were saying.

One guy from the big island of Hawaii I was pretty impressed with. He was running a dipole and 100 watts and was a solid S9. So like I say guys even a simple dipole up at least 30' on 40m can do a good job.

Have any of you mobile ops that don't have a shack thought about putting up a dipole with a length of coax and running it out into your jeep? The way the bands seem to be you could probably sit out in your driveway and have a blast. Just a thought for any of you who would like to take advantage of the conditions with a little better antenna.

73....