As of today it's pretty much complete, all antennas installed, radios all installed, computer mount, all the wiring and cabling is done. Just a few minor details to tweak here and there and its all done for now. Next thing on the list, if/when i get the time/money to do it is a secondary battery.
It's an older van, 94, so don't expect it to be spectacular when i get the inside pictures taken care of in the next couple days. But it serves its purpose. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking, recently even surviving a close call with a deer that left the drivers side a bit beat up.
Here is the outside now..
The new lowband antenna finally! It's tilted back ever so slightly, when the door opens up it sits parallel with the roof. The benefit also, if I needed to flip it down I guess I could open the back door to drive into a garage or whatever. The back antenna, if you look closely, isn't even as tall as the top of the VHF toward the front, so it shouldn't pose much of a problem, I only know of a few places where I hit something with the VHF. I can also unscrew the bottom end of the Hustler mast and slip it down and out of the support arm.
Here is a detail shot of the piece bolted to the van.
I was thinking of using the next size up "T" with a threaded adapter down to the smaller PVC pipe, so that I could unscrew the support arm leaving the "T" bolted to the van door. But then one thinks about theft if its easy to remove! If I parked in a garage every night I might have went that route, but since I don't have a garage to put it in I though a more permanent mount would be better. And if I need to remove it a screwdriver and wrench and it's gone in mere minutes. It's two 10mm machine screws with poly locking nuts, the outside one you can just see in the gap between the door and van body. The screw holes are in the edge of the door where it's a solid piece above the rain gutter under the gap, so no worries about moisture getting in the door, and any moisture that follows the screws ends up in the rain gutter.
All this serves as is a stabilizer at highway speeds so it doesn't deflect back much. Also, when you slow down it doesn't twang up against the back of the van! It's tested now and works perfectly, the PVC has a little give or flex to it and it just kinda rides like a shock absorber. I could have done something a little more elegant, and i looked at a few options with making a clamp to go over the door edge and using flat material like plexi or similar for the support arm, but they are more susceptible to cold and cracking. This design is super cheap, cost less than $5 for all the parts, and if anything breaks its quick to replace it.
Yeah it's HamSexy, but it's a lot better than some jerry rigging i have seen on these masts.
The mast passes through another "T" fitting. In the top opening there is a rubber grommet, I found that it made a rather annoying pinging sound when driving over bumps, so I took a rubber grommet the right size for the inner diameter of the "T" and cut the one side, removing the lip that would normally end up on the other side of the sheet metal, then I took some adhesive and put a bead around the grommet and slipped it down into the "T". Works perfectly, still enough play to move and remove the mast if necessary, but dampens the noise from the mast jiggling around in the "T". I had thought about putting one in the bottom as well, however, it works fine with one, and if i put a bottom one in there it could trap moisture, which in the winter months would end up as solid ice buildup in the pipe and "T".
The antennas are the following:
Larsen NMO 150C 5/8 Wave 144-174Mhz, 51.5 inches. Through hole mounted of course!
Larsen NMO 440C 5/8 over 1/2 Wave, 440-460Mhz, 33.0 inches. Through hole mounted again of course!
Antennamax GPS, 30db gain active antenna. Mounted on a Larsen 6Ghz mount and Antennex L-Bracket, thanks to Waltel.com for quickly installing the SMA and shipping it out!
Huster MO-3 54" mast topped with a RM-10S 10m resonator, both of which give a 2.0 or less SWR across the FM portion of 10 and 6m for the lowband X9000 feeding it.
The radios, soon to be pictured are the following:
Syntor X9000 100w VHF
Syntor X9000 100w UHF
Syntor X9000 100w Lowband (10 & 6)
All of the radios are mounted to the floor under the second row of seating.
Also installed:
Kodiak KDCF-27 docking station with a custom built-in GPS receiver, i used a OEM module from eBay known as the Sandpiper II.
Toughbook CF-27.
NTN5438 Genesis Series Charger for my MT1000's.
No whacker lights or sirens..
(That was a joke in case you didn't get it)Wow, this list got long!
