Ok, I'll probably get flamed for even thinking about this, but I was toying with the idea of putting a 2m ham rig in my car, and was wondering if anyone knew if the CF part of the wing was hollow so I could hide the antenna in there. (maybe a dual 1/4 wave setup or something). I doubt anyone has thought about this other than me though lol

 

Why in Gods name would you want to do that!? Also I don't think that the carbon fiber wing is hollow...

 

Well, I've had transceivers in every car up until now, why break precedent , but I don't want any more antennas showing on the car than I have to have. What I may end up doing though is just converting the am/fm antenna to the proper wavelength and running both through that since I can't find any info on how to even take the wing apart to look.

 

Several options --

You're in Raleigh, right? Isn't that where that dynamite 146.88 machine is? If so, you could use a simple quarter-wave made by stripping back a piece of coax about 19" and tape it in the very edge of your back glass. Should be OK for local work.

If you don't mind external antennas, though, you'll get better performance by using one. I'd suggest a trunk-lip mount instead of a mag mount, and a 5/8 wave is probably your best bang for the buck. One of the Comet or Diamond antennas from AES would be a good choice, too.

Transceiver? You better find a LITTLE one! Even the Yaesu FT-1500M is going to take up some room. What class license do you have? If you have HF priveleges, consider something like the Icom 706 and remote-mount the transceiver under the seat or in the trunk, just like you would with a CD changer...

Let me know how you work it all out.
Earl Needham
KD5XB

 

In the headliner?

 

I have had pretty good luck with thru the glass diamonds for 2-meter mobiles, however, the only place on the EVO it might mount is the front windshield. And that would look pretty nerdie.

I have used a 2-meter Yaesu mobile with a mag mount on the trunk for a couple long trips and would probably mount it there. 70cm not very active in your area?

Speedlimit...

 

I have a technicians license (KE4VNC). I stay on 2m since I've never had a dual bander but was looking at the IC2720. (Not one of the aforementioned huge radios- I would like to keep my 1/4 mile times under 30 seconds ) Also, I wanted something that would work pretty well for simplex since I do more of that than repeater talking anyway. I had a patch antenna on another car that worked ok, but it was a far cry from even my 1/4 wave. Oh well, thanks for the input I'll keep thinking about it..

 

now that I think about it - how about putting 2 1/4 waves: 1 in the side of the front bumper and 1 in the opposite side of the rear bumper - I think some undercover cop cars have it like that

 

I don't know, but it sounds like that would be too close to the ground and you'd never get the performance you want.

Now, if you don't mind a totally custom job, go get yourself an extra am/fm antenna mount. Then buy one of the billet antennas out there. Replace the element with one long enough to resonate on 2 meters (!19 inches) and you'll have an antenna that works quite well and looks like it belongs on the car.

Assuming the stock am/fm antenna mount is straight-through, i.e. does NOT have any type of matching network in it.

7 3
Earl

 

Did they ever make 2m available without learning Morse code? I think I heard that 2m or maybe 6m or something was going to be easier to get into wihtout the code requirements. Thanks for any info.

 

Yep, you can get a Technician license without any code at all, and you'll be able to use certain frequencies on 10 meters, and all of 6 meters and higher frequencies. (I think this is right. I haven't looked at requirements for that class in quite a while.)

E.

 

That's awesome, go for it !