Ham Radio In the Jayco RV motor Home

[gfisher100]

I am new to RVing but been around Amateur Radio (HamRadio) for many years. Looking for thoses that are interested in setting up amateur radio in the RV. I have recently purchased a Jayco Melbourne RV. I have begun trying to set up a radio station as a portable unit in my RV.
I am interested in adding a battery to the Jayco Melbourne and solar panels.
I am now trying to find an entry way to the Jayco to bring in necessary cables for hooking up the radio.
I also have many questions that come up with the Jayco Melbourne.
Any one out there that has anything to add to the discussion of Ham Radio in the RV motor home.
Garry K9WZB

[edatlanta]

I just have a dual band HT Garry, ICOM 51A+. I work local fm repeaters when am in range, but mostly DStar. DStar allows me to talk virtually anywhere without external antennas. I know, no HF, but......

I use a Verizon smartphone as a hot spot and I get on DStar when remote using a Raspberry pi and DStar Commander image. Works great.

[M&A]

+1 on the PI with DVMega and DStar Commander. Running an ID-31A portable with an 880 in the Jeep (TV). I hang on 7B working a couple friends in FL and UK. 30C is fun while mobile.

My real desire is to pack the FT-847 all-band all-mode. I have a very light two section aluminum crank up tower that could mount on the TT rear. Except that the rear bunk (16XRB) won't be able to drop when this is in place. Arrg. I could put the HD antenna, WiFI, and dual-band vertical on this plus run an HF wire to a tree. Grounding would be an issue to solve.

73, DE N4HHA

[RoyBraddy]

I routed a couple of RG cables from my Ham radio location to one of these CABLE TV flip lid boxes. Drill out the two holes to fit two TYPE N barrel connections.


Google image..

My control head setup is using one of these KENWOOD KES-5 mobile speakers but have the mount reversed with flat area on top where I have a velco strip to hold my Radio remote Control heads to it. Each locations has the remove head and speaker for each of the raido's and scanners I am using...


Google Image

I also mounted two 2m/440 roof mounted antennas on the rear of of my trailer. I mounted a right-angle antenna mount to the upper side of the roof where my antenna hole into the trailer came in side of some ceiling mounted cabinets... No need to puncture the roof if you don't have two...

Roy's Image

I use my radio's that are all control head type radios and mount the main units in an out of the way space... My HF radio is Icom IC-706MKII. I also have this same setup in my truck so all I do is move the main unit unit back and forth and use two different control heads. I have also run a long remote control cable for the truck and left the 706 main unit in the truck sometimes.

The antenna I use the most for HF is the TARHEEL 'LIL TARHEEL II' and have a mount on the truck bed rail about a foot behind the rear window. I got one of those SCREWDRIVER ANTENNA mounts on the side of the trailer mounted much like my right angle mount. No drilling into the roof...

Roy's image

The screwdriver is grounded to the trailer frame but that about it. It will tune out any problem with VSWR... This works great on my 75/40M ops we like to do on the road...

When setup for long periods of time I will extend a two section fold out ten foot section of 3-inch aluminum antenna tower sectio. This gets me ten feet above my back bumper and supporting a PVC pipe down the center of it to get up around 20-feet or so. Here I use my OFF-CENTER long wire antenna that gives me all bands. I just throw the ends up into nearby trees. It is mostly a VEE antenna but works better than my Tarheel Screwdriver on 75/40 meters band.

If you haven't done any of this before I'm sure you are going to run into RFI interference coming from your trailer. The LED lights that have built-in regulators really get into Ham radio not on FM modes... Also Power Inverters eat me up big time with RFI noise...

I have never really cleaned up my Truck motor noise completely. Did all the by pass capacitors and the one that helped the most was the fuel line monitor line bypass capacitors... Also running ground straps from the motor to the frame at various places helped. This is trial by error on where the ground straps go... 40meters really gets eat up with my motor noise...

Good luck getting all setup for Ham Radio... Alan K0BG.com is one of the big experts in getting rid of RFI sources... Has helped me alot...

Roy Ken
K9PHT - King George VA

[Mustang65]

CONGRATULATIONS on the JAYCO!!!

...and WELCOME TO JOF!!! The members here are GREAT!!! There is a lot of GREAT information to be found here. I am sure that you will have information and pictures to share with us... so please do!!

Don

I guess the Ham radio guys found you already!!!