开云体育

Greeting FC-40 users!

I have uploaded some pictures of the setup in my XYL's Jeep Wrangler
TJ in the folder "W6SH Jeep Wrangler TJ - FT-857D & FC-40".
Although my XYL would probably tolerate me putting the big ol' ball
mount over the rear fender for the whip - in the interests of
matrimonial harmony I decided to try for as much of a "bolt on"
installation for a FT-857D / FC-40 / 102" inch whip combo as I could
manage. It is a low-profile look and happily so far my XYL approves.

This setup is just what I ended up with and is probably not optimal -
but maybe someone will get some ideas for taking their own FC-40
mobile. Going HF mobile means making compromises - but I have been
pleased with the FC-40 since I got it last Christmas.

Some mobileer purists would argue for bugcatchers or screwdrivers,
but the whip has the advantage for a Jeep of being somewhat more
rugged when going off-road. I work downtown and the whip also is
easy to pull down to a tie down mounted over the driver's side of
the windshield when entering parking garages.

I have been pleased with the performance on 20 meters and higher
freqs. Tuning on 40 is sometimes hit or miss - the TJ doesn't have a
lot of sheet metal for a ground plane. Interestingly, 40 tunes up
better when the whip is pulled down. I am experimenting with an 1:4
toroid autotransformer and more grounding braids to see if 40 will
tune up better.

One issue I haven't had too much trouble with is RFI. TJs are
notorious for fuel pump noise, but I quieted mine down by placing
several clamp on ferrite beads on the fuel pump power lead as it
heads into the gas tank (this is a tight place to get into,
however). I also put ferrite beads on the taillight wires to keep
down fuel pump RFI - that seemed to help too. Be sure to ground the
tailpipe as it can radiate ignition noise too.

I still get some ignition noise at times despite having several
beads on the ignition wires, I have got some copper conductive
adhesive tape however and I will cover and ground those ignition
wires as suggested by K0BG (I highly recommend his site for
mobileers at www.k0bg.com).

The radio is mounted in the aftermarket metal "Insta-trunk" which
provides some theft protection. The FC-40, and whip are mounted on
a "Arizona Rocky Round" Jeep rear double antenna mount which is made
by Rick at arizonarockyroad.com . This mount uses the existing bolt
holes for the rear tire mount. The whip is a RadioShack 102" CB
whip. The whip insulator is Delrin and available at geotool.com .
Voltages at the tuner output can be very high so a good insulator is
required here.

The VHF antenna is a Comet SBB-7 foldover.

I used #10 dual wire from the battery posts - this is hidden along
the passenger side floor - both leads are fused. I had to replace
the 7 year old battery as it was weak and used a Optima yellow top
deep-cycle gel battery. I found a cheap 1 Farad car stereo capacitor
at a flea market and put in the trunk to on the power lead to ensure
there would be no voltage dips while transmitting - although this is
probably unnecessary, it looks good!

I used the existing brake light grommet in the tailgate to bring out
the HF coax lead, I did have to drill another 1/2" hole in the
tailgate to bring out the VHF coax and control lead.

I coiled the HF coax into several 6" turns before it entered the
tuner to reduce any coax radiation. The mounting plates that come
attached to the FC-40 were removed. The tuner is mounted to the back
of the Arizona Rockyroad mount using plumbers straps and stainless
self-tapping screws and grounded to the mount and tailgate with 1/2"
braid. The tailgate is also grounded to the body with 1/2" braid.
Conductive grease was used at all ground points.

So far I have been impressed with the FC-40, it performs as
advertised and seems pretty stable on the road. So far I have
worked North America and Europe, I have had S9 reports from W2 and
VE7 almost had a VK-land contact during a late band opening on 20m a
few nights ago, except he went QRT too soon.

I continue to try to improve the setup and I will add new pictures
if I think I have made any leaps forward.

73 de Jay
W6SH