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: ham radio
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 CommentDecember 1, 2020. There've been a few tweaks to the truck, and two trips to Death Valley since the last rig review, so it's a good time to take stock of how things are going. First, in case you missed the trips, check out: Retracing Panamint Valley's Nadeau Trail Death…
5 CommentsTL;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 CommentMay 24, 2020. Our last two trips have both been to the Owyhee area of southeastern Oregon and western Idaho - Into the Owyhee Uplands and Owyhee Redux. The truck performed well on each trip, but as always there are little tweaks I want to make to the setup, so…
Leave a CommentTL;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.
Leave a CommentMarch 17, 2020 Back from the eastern Mojave, it's time for another look at how the truck performed over the course of the last 5 day's adventures. If you haven't read those - and want to - go right ahead, I'll wait. Removed from previous Rig Reviews The…
Leave a CommentTL;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…
Leave a CommentRig Review is a new type of post that I'm going to try to write up after most trips, where I'll note any things that worked really well, or could have been better. The idea has always been to optimize the Tacoma build and setup over time, so there's nothing…
6 CommentsTL;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 CommentJanuary 16, 2018. The Kenwood D710GA has been working well since it was installed. Transmission and reception seem good, the APRS has worked as expected, the display is nice (but not quite as nice as the Icom 5100A), and it's great having it securely mounted under the passenger seat. But…
3 CommentsI got asked a few questions about APRS, and figured that the topic would make a good post. This isn't everything there is to know about APRS (by a long shot), but it does explain things in (I hope) a way that can help clarify how various components in the…
Leave a CommentNovember 9, 2017 Having just installed a new ham radio setup to get APRS, I was keen to play with Kenwood TM-D710GA and Mobilinkd to track my location. So, on a few local trips, I turned everything on and waited. And waited and waited. Over the course of 30 minutes,…
2 CommentsNovember 5, 2017 It wasn't all that long ago that I got my Ham radio license and installed an Icom-5100 in the truck. A great radio, it's gone now - because a great radio isn't all I need; I need a great radio that can also do APRS. What's APRS…
20 CommentsNovember 1, 2017. I've always hated the A-pillars in my truck. Actually, it's the trim I hate. And I've hated it since I first tried (and failed) to remove it several years ago to run the wire for a microphone from my head unit up to the rearview mirror. See,…
1 CommentSeptember 17, 2017 The morning was an early one. I'd spent the last couple days wrapping up things as work and getting ready to go. By 10pm Saturday, my checklist was complete: CB radio installed Warm clothes and extra sleeping bag (just in case) packed Two weeks of breakfast, lunch,…
Leave a CommentJuly 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