August 1, 2021. It's been a while since the last Rig Review. Since then, I've put five trips and 20K more miles on the Tacoma. It has - as always seems to be the case - been fantastic. Scouting Black Rock Desert (Apr 2021) Owyhee West (May 2021) Forty-One Miles…
3 CommentsTag: antenna
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…
Leave a CommentMarch 8, 2021. Over the course of the winter, the truck has performed well. Four (!) trips down to the desert to stay warm have put a bunch of miles on the odometer and resulted in only a few little tweaks to the set up. But any tweak is worth…
11 CommentsTL;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…
Leave a CommentTL;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…
Leave a CommentTL;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…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - I'd like to find a ham radio antenna that is more flexible/floppy than the one 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. I've been running a Diamond NR770HBNMO…
Leave a CommentAfter running the CB for two weeks straight on The De-Tour, there are a few notes I'll make about it for anyone considering the same setup: It's a really nice setup. It fits so perfectly, especially with the AC housing "mod," that you don't even really need to secure it…
Leave a CommentSeptember 10, 2017. When I got the ham radio, my hope was that I'd just skip the whole CB thing. I mean, when you've got the real thing… 🙂 But, as it turns out (and let's be honest, I knew this when I installed the ham radio), a lot of…
4 CommentsJuly 23, 2017. Ham radio is for old guys. I must be getting old. As the truck has gotten more capable, and as we’ve started doing longer and more remote trips, I’ve started carrying more tools, extra parts, etc. in order to make (minor) road repairs - hopefully enough to…
2 Comments