Quote from: raybiker73 on February 23, 2013, 06:43:30 AM
I have a Comet SBB14 antenna. It's mounted on the roof rack of my Jeep with a Comet rack/pipe mount. It wasn't very expensive and I've always had good luck with it. I also like that it has a breakaway/foldover at the base of the antenna so it doesn't get broken every time I drive under a low tree.

Thanks, i'm going to check that one out. 43" is perfect for my truck since i will be mounting it in the rear stake pocket.

What do you guys have for a mobile dual band?

I had a mag mount that blew off and a through the glass dual band that fell off.

I picked up a Breedlove stake pocket mount for my truck with a UHF connector and looking for some recommendations.

Thanks!

If you don't mind me asking what does hosting cost you each year?

Ray,

For a solar set up in order to go directly to the radio from a panel you need a charge controller to make sure the panel doesn't give the radio more than 14 volts. i skipped the charge controller and instead purchased a Energizer back up battery that has the ability to accept a charge up to 19 volts while metering out 12. So i would go panel - back up battery - radio. This way if the panel gives the battery more then 19 volts it will damage the $80 battery and not the $600 radio.

Here is what i purchased:

Battery - this has an adapter that fits the 817 perfectly
http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-XP8000AB-Universal-Smartphones-Netbooks/dp/B007AQEJYU/ref=pd_sim_pc_4

Solar Panel. I got this one becasue it folds and is light.
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/foldable-portable-remote/f15-300n

Powerpole interface:
http://www.powerwerx.com/adapter-cables/cigarette-lighter-plug-powerpole-connector-18-in.html

The solar panel has a female cigarette lighter adapter that comes standard with it. I didn't feel like messing around with cutting cables so i picked up the powerwerx adapter to give me a powerpole to plug into. i ended up cutting in a powerpole connection on the power cord for the battery charger and plug the solar panel into that.

Here is a video i found that i modeled my set up after:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsvPOyn0LeQ&playnext=1&list=PLYDWAZ5iGtT8-HHSUIxDl3pgLQAPbQBV7&feature=results_main

Gil,
I have a west mountain radio PNP and now a signalink. Both work great for PSK but i could not get the PNP to work with Winmor after hours of trying. I spent 10 minutes hooking up the Signalink and i was able to get connected to Winmor in my first try.

Quote from: White Tiger on February 08, 2013, 05:16:16 AM
Luck, you continue to astound me with the wealth of information you distribute!

Concerning these modes - do you still recommend FLDIGI to curious types...or would you think something like FLAMP offers more convenience for novices like me?

As a psk novice myself I have found fldigi to work extremely well, my contact to Kenya was with fldigi. I downloaded HRD and still haven't been able to get that to work correctly.

Dam dude, your invincible!!

Save some money and register for free with hamstudy.org it is a great website that got me my General in a couple study sessions and 5-6 practice tests.

Made a contact from Mass to Kenya on 20m PSK31 this weekend. I was pretty impressed with the ability of PSK31 to be able to do that with 30W. I know CW is the way to go, maybe someday.

FINALLY!!!!!

Got my fisrt test back to my phone and just sent one to WA4STO

Thanks! I will be following the 857D and Signalink primer from the Winmor Yahoo group, hopefully that works.

I'm back on this thing! I just snagged a used signalink and will be giving this another shot.

Thanks for the info Wes, it's pretty much what I had thought. I just need verification sometimes that I'm not crazy.

The meter is a MFJ and it is after the tuner, so radio-tuner-meter. The antenna is cut for 20 and I tried tuning up on 40 and 80.

I just picked up an 857 and a Z11Pro Tuner and i have a 1/2 wave 80M dipole with jumpers cut in for 10-20-40. I decided to do some testing with my tuner and with the dipole set at 20M i switch to 40, change the radio setting to PKT and key up. The radio flashes SWR as the tuner goes about finding a match. It eventually does but i notice my SWR meter is completely haywire, both needles pointing to the ceiling.

Anyone have an ideas?

Just got a dusting last night here in eastern MA. I will be heading to northern VT for work tomorrow and windchill is expected to be -30.