TL;DR - After a couple solo trips where I had limited cell coverage, and some thinking I should have done long ago, I now have an inReach Mini. I've known for a long time that - especially on trips where mine is the only truck - I should be carrying an emergency satellite locator device. The problem - for me - is the subscription; I hate subscriptions. However, I finally realized that the subscription for the Garmin inReach Mini is such a small percentage of the overall amount that I spend on this hobby that it is silly for me to…
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TL;DR - The NMO mount on my Ham Antenna was just a little too deep, and the antenna would contact the roof when it was tightened down, leading to rust. I've fixed that with a bit of judicious grinding. I've really liked the Diamond NR770HBNMO Mobile Antenna and NMO mount that I have installed in the roof of the Tacoma for the Kenwood D710G dual-band ham radio. The antenna tunes up nicely, and I constantly get good reception. Having solved my problem of hitting trees (see Winter 2021 Rig Review), the final thing I needed to fix with the Diamond was to reduce…
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TL;DR - I'm back to the old antenna, and I'm not longer using APRSDroid. Not so long ago, I switched from a Diamond NR770HBNMO Mobile Antenna to a STI-CO ROOF-FT-NITI Ham Antenna in order to solve a problem I was having where the coil of the Diamond would catch on tree branches. After running a couple trips with the STI-CO antenna - much shorter and more flexible, with no coil - I found that my APRS beacons weren't getting out quite as well as with the Diamond. That's to be expected - it was after all, a lower-gain, and shorter (¼ vs. 2/3…
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TL;DR - I got a new, shorter antenna. And it's great. Should have done this a long time ago. One of the biggest problems with a ham radio antenna installed on the roof of the truck is that low-hanging branches catch it, and try to pull the NMO mount out of the thin sheet metal. The biggest issue is the coil that exists in many antennas - to increase length and improve reception. To solve the problem, I replaced my Diamond NR770HBNMO mobile antenna (a great antenna that I still plan to run on trips where trees aren't an issue) with…
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TL;DR - The CB antenna basically pooped its pants. I've replaced it. A couple days into the trip, my CB reception and transmission essentially stopped working. My SWR jumped to over 15. The problem - we discovered - was that the wire wrapped around the fiberglass shaft had come unsoldered from the base, essentially rendering the antenna 2" long. We were able to fix that on the trail - solving my problem in the short term - but then on the way home, a strong headwind broke the fiberglass portion of the antenna. Or rather, separated it from the metal…
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TL;DR - no trouble on the last couple trips. I don't know if this is really solved, but I'm going to say it is. Because, I'm not doing anything about it.
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TL;DR - My APRS stopped working, because my Mobilinkd TNC 2 died early in the trip. The Mobilinkd TNC 2 has been a great little APRS TNC and I highly recommend it. Its weak spot - like so many battery powered devices - lies in its battery. I leave it plugged in to USB (for charging) at all times, and that means the battery is either fully charged - when I'm plugging away on a trip, or basically dead - when the truck sits for a week or two at home between trips. This is terrible for LiIon batteries, and my…
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TL;DR - I'd like to find a ham radio antenna that is more flexible/floppy than the Diamond NR770HBNMO that I've currently got, and that doesn't have a small section of wound metal in the middle, since that gets stuck on trees and pulls at the roof mount.
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