Van's Air Force
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2m or 70cm interface
- Thread starter dahugo
- Start date
Carl Froehlich
Well Known Member
Several audio panels can accommodate a ?Comm 3?. What audio panel are you using?
My Dogwood neighbor that circumnavigated the globe over both poles installed a Icom HF ham radio with a trailing wire antenna to meet the international HF comm requirement. Worked well.
Carl
My Dogwood neighbor that circumnavigated the globe over both poles installed a Icom HF ham radio with a trailing wire antenna to meet the international HF comm requirement. Worked well.
Carl
Bill Boyd
Well Known Member
Just a data point
I hard wired a Yaesu 2m mobile rig into my 6A panel 20 years ago, feeding it into the audio panel I remember not how. It functioned fine. Of course QSO's were only simplex because it would have keyed up multiple repeaters on every freq pair at altitude.
There were not many people to talk to, and I soon found that the task of flying the airplane demanded enough of me that yakking on two meters was not really something I needed to be doing at the same time. The radio came out shortly after that realization, and was never missed since. YMMV.
I hard wired a Yaesu 2m mobile rig into my 6A panel 20 years ago, feeding it into the audio panel I remember not how. It functioned fine. Of course QSO's were only simplex because it would have keyed up multiple repeaters on every freq pair at altitude.
There were not many people to talk to, and I soon found that the task of flying the airplane demanded enough of me that yakking on two meters was not really something I needed to be doing at the same time. The radio came out shortly after that realization, and was never missed since. YMMV.
Wire some miniature audio jacks for RX, TX, and PTT to the audio panel's COM2 input. Then you can plug in your ham (or aviation) handheld and use it as COM2. Of course, an external antenna is best: in my aircraft I use my second COM antenna for 2m FM and it works quite well. Simplex QSOs from >100 NM away are armchair copy at 12,500 MSL!
I mounted the jacks using sheet phenolic behind the panel to avoid ground loops. It looks like this in my '8A:
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Paddy
Well Known Member
HF Radio
I have a trans-atlantic trip planned for next year. Currently intend to take the Northern route via CYFB - BGSF - BIKF, which doesn't require HF. However, having HF anyway is probably a good idea. What hardware would be a good choice for a temporary (and affordable) installation for the trip in a -10?
I have a trans-atlantic trip planned for next year. Currently intend to take the Northern route via CYFB - BGSF - BIKF, which doesn't require HF. However, having HF anyway is probably a good idea. What hardware would be a good choice for a temporary (and affordable) installation for the trip in a -10?
Carl Froehlich
Well Known Member
One way:
- Icom HF transceiver with remote head: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-011766
- Use the matching AH-4 antenna tuner. Radio base and tuner mounted aft, tuner as close to the tow point as possible.
- Create a tow point on the bottom of the fuselage for a trailing wire antenna. Tow point should extend perhap 4? below the fuselage a little forward of the VS. Use your composite skills to make an airstream profile. Antenna should be 30? or so long (experiment on this). You attach the wire and drag it down the runway on takeoff. Standard 14 gauge stranded copper antenna wire works well. The set up is amazingly durable, but carry a spare lenght of wire.
- Practial experience demonstrated the need for a ?drone chute? on the end of the wire to provide just enough drag to keep the wire from whipping around. A small funnel, perhaps 1? diameter, works well.
The old school way it to run a wire from the VS tip to a pass through just aft of the windshield. Tuner mounted as close to the passthrough as possible. Odds are it will not work as well as the trailing wire as the length would be short.
Have fun,
Carl
KV4U
It?s been five decades since I was an active ham, but my (failing) memory is that amateur transmitters were set up for crystal mikes - quite different from standard aircraft mikes (no bias voltage eeded, lower audio signal out). Is this still true, or is my memory faulty?
