[OZAPRS] VK2RCC not working

[Ray Wells]

Hi Ian,

Saw you pass through Kempsey yesterday. I'm in town these days and not 
on the property.

I have a bit of a problem with HF antennas on the Hyundai. A bullbar 
mount is not possible due to a ladder style rack mounted on the nudge 
bar to support the kayaks and the body shape doesn't lend itself to body 
mounting. I have to be content with a roofbar mount and that limits the 
30m whip to about 4-5ft stainless steel unit that's bottom loaded. I'm 
working on a 2m 5/8 whip and replacing the coil with whatever is need 
for resonance.

Regards,
Ray vk2tv

On 07/01/14 15:18, Ian Bennett wrote:
> Liz,
> 	As mentioned previously, I use a Wagner 1729 for my HF APRS. It is an old crystal controlled unit
> built in Australia in the 70's I believe.
> 	Any of the old Wagner/Codan radios used for SES/RFDS work in that period can be coaxed into working
> in the 30m band however the output filters may need a tweak if you are fussy about efficiency.
> 	Just feed the AFSK tones from your tracker of choice into the mic input, adjust the level so you
> are just under ALC threshold and that's about it.
> 	I had extra mounts welded on my bullbar to accommodate the APRS whip and multiband HF antenna (was
> a FAMPARC, now a Tet-Emtron two piece) which I use for voice and data from my IC-706MkIIG.
> 	I found a recipe for winding a HF whip (can't remember where I found it but happy to share if
> anyone is interested), which is aimed at the old 6ft whip used for 27M CB. In short, you pull it to
> bits and use the blank to replace the windings.
> 	I was given a 2m long whip wound for 4055KHz, so I removed all the wire and rewound it for 30m. It
> has served me extremely well on many trips.
> 	Don't get caught like I did and tune the antenna bare, then apply the heatshrink. Tuning the thing
> was the longest part of the process as I had to readjust every time I added a length of heatshrink.
>
> Ian
> VK1IAN
>
> On 06/01/14 17:43, Liz wrote:
>> On Mon, 06 Jan 2014 12:55:20 +1100
>> Ray Wells <vk2tv at exemail.com.au> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi John,
>>>
>>> Thanks for your input.
>>>
>>> Please understand I was not being critical, I really do understand
>>> the problems that distance can create, and gear does go down. My one
>>> regret is that I was unable to experience "normal" vhf aprs coverage
>>> in that part of the state because I think it would have been even
>>> more impressive than it already was.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Ray vk2tv
>> I agree with Ray. APRS coverage on VHF is improving, but the more sites
>> we have, the more times we will have breakdowns.
>>
>> I, too, "need" HF APRS for some places I go which are out of reach of
>> all VHF repeaters, the mobile telephone systems etc.
>>
>> If I went the 30 metre route
>> what antenna? (mounting it is problem number 1)
>> and what gear?
>>
>> Liz
>> VK2XSE
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