Jeff:

My setup won't tune below 5 MHz, even with a stepdown toroidal
transformer with the 102" whip. Not surprising as the FC-40 is only
advertised to go down to 40M with a 102" whip.

If I want to use 80M I'd have to use a Hamstick, a longer whip
(while stationary) or a loading coil. I'm still playing with all
three to see what works best.

6 meters tunes up no problem, I can hear local beacons but seems
like there is not much 6M activity around my new QTH.

10 through 20 meters work great and I love being frequency agile and
having a rugged setup for off-road.

73 de Jay,
W6SH/VA7JD

--- In YaesuTuner@..., "Jeff McRae" <jeff94yj@y...>
wrote:

Jay,

Out of curiosity - have you had any success with the Wrangler

setup on 6M?

Jeff
KG6TY
94 YJ

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

Jay,

Out of curiosity - have you had any success with the Wrangler setup on 6M?

Jeff
KG6TY
94 YJ

That's really interesting. I'm running a 102" stainless whip and haven't had much luck on 20 and 40. 20 tunes up great, but 40 tends to spike high when I'm transmitting.

I've only been playing with this rig for a few days. I'm sure I haven't gotten rid of all the 'operator limitations.

Glad to hear that this rig can work so well. I know that thus far, I've been very impressed.

brianb

I just came back from a round trip from Florida to Wisconesin. On the way up I was ab
le to get into nets on 75, 40, 20 meters. On the way back I had a QSO with a ham in Boston and at the same time was able to chat with his brother in Texas. This was done on 20 meters in the morning. We had such good results that we tried the same on 15 and 17 meters. This time I only could QSO with the ham in Boston. This QSO lasted close to two hours. Note the "K" factor was 1 or less that day for some odd reason.

I use a fiberglass 102 inch whip off the back of the vehicle and only running 100 watts from the FT-857D.

As for the 75 and 40 meter contacts, they were fine with reports of 5/6 to 5/8.



cbbatey1 <brianbatey@...> wrote:
It's been suggested to me that I replace my 102" whip with an 80-meter
HamStick.

Has anyone tried this. My whip performs great down to 17-meters, but
I've had trouble being heard on 20 and 40.

Any experiences/opinions?

Thanks,

ke5bsa




Kyle W. Jeske N4NSS @ arrl dot net
Licensed since 1966.
Level III Certified ARECC, Skywarn Advanced
FISTS: #9760 Grid: EL87qu 27.843927N -82.642812W
Backpacker, QRP, Antennas, and Stealth Antennas
My site:





















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It's been suggested to me that I replace my 102" whip with an 80-meter
HamStick.?

Has anyone tried this.? My whip performs great down to 17-meters, but
I've had trouble being heard on 20 and 40.

Any experiences/opinions?

Thanks,

ke5bsa

?

---

I use a 102 inch whip and the FC-40 on a Jeep
Wrangler. I get good reports down to the three top
channels of 60 meters. 40M is okay as well.

80M is out of the question with the 102 inch whip.
I have an 80M hamstick, but have not really tried as
yet to get it to tune there and above.

Larry-N7IBC

--- cbbatey1 <brianbatey@...> wrote:

It's been suggested to me that I replace my 102"
whip with an 80-meter
HamStick.

Has anyone tried this. My whip performs great down
to 17-meters, but
I've had trouble being heard on 20 and 40.

Any experiences/opinions?

Thanks,

ke5bsa

__________________________________
Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click.

It's been suggested to me that I replace my 102" whip with an 80-meter
HamStick.

Has anyone tried this. My whip performs great down to 17-meters, but
I've had trouble being heard on 20 and 40.

Any experiences/opinions?

Thanks,

ke5bsa

I have a 6 foot wood fence that protects my back yard. It must be
around + /- 200 feet in roughly a square configuration. I used 4 foot
fiberglass fence sticks and nailed them to the posts around the yard
above the wood fence. The wire is attached above to those sticks
which gives a total height of about 10 feet for the antenna. The
tuner is outside the shack and grounded right there. The antenna
tunes ALL bands 160 through 6 meters with no problems. I get great
reports too. If interested I'll send a picture. It does not look
like an antenna!

I got from a local fishing tackle manufacturer (Brisbane, Qld,
Australia) who in the past also made quite a few tapped whips for
RFDS applications. They are not doing the work any more now that
auto-tune screwdriver antennas have generally taken over for
Australian HF land mobile services. They told me I was the last
customer as I took their last blank.

So I guess the answer is no, not available any more.

--- In YaesuTuner@..., "kb5oze" <mike@d...> wrote:

Peter,
Where did you get that whip at? Is it available in the states?
How much do they cost?

Thanks,

Mike, KB5OZE



--- In YaesuTuner@..., "peterschrader2" <peter@r...>
wrote:

My helically wound whip is about 2.5 metres long. The tuner will

go

down to 1.9 MHz. Natural lowest resonant frequency of the whip

is

2.02 MHz. Check out the pictures in the photos section of this

group.

regards,
Peter
VK4TGV


--- In YaesuTuner@..., "Wiley Clarkson"

<wclarkson@c...>

wrote:

I am going to be purchasing an FT-857d on a special very

shortly.

The

special has discounted prices on both the FC-40 and the ATAS-

120.

Yaesu advertizes the FC-40 being used with a 102" to 108"

whip.

My

mobile situation requires that I use a flexible whip of between

50"

to

60". Has anyone used the FC-40 mobile with this whip length

and

can

you tell me how much the lowest resonate frequency that the FC-

40

would tune to changed?

Also, regarding the ATAS 120, can anyone give me the motorized

coil

length and the whip length? Yaesu does not supply measured

lengths

of

each in their advertisements. The overall length seems to fall

within

my needs but the length of the motorized coil may not meet the
restrictions I am working with.

Wiley WA5OTR

Peter,
Where did you get that whip at? Is it available in the states?
How much do they cost?

Thanks,

Mike, KB5OZE



--- In YaesuTuner@..., "peterschrader2" <peter@r...>
wrote:

My helically wound whip is about 2.5 metres long. The tuner will

go

down to 1.9 MHz. Natural lowest resonant frequency of the whip is
2.02 MHz. Check out the pictures in the photos section of this

group.

regards,
Peter
VK4TGV


--- In YaesuTuner@..., "Wiley Clarkson"

<wclarkson@c...>

wrote:

I am going to be purchasing an FT-857d on a special very

shortly.

The

special has discounted prices on both the FC-40 and the ATAS-

120.

Yaesu advertizes the FC-40 being used with a 102" to 108" whip.

My

mobile situation requires that I use a flexible whip of between

50"

to

60". Has anyone used the FC-40 mobile with this whip length and

can

you tell me how much the lowest resonate frequency that the FC-40
would tune to changed?

Also, regarding the ATAS 120, can anyone give me the motorized

coil

length and the whip length? Yaesu does not supply measured

lengths

of

each in their advertisements. The overall length seems to fall

within

my needs but the length of the motorized coil may not meet the
restrictions I am working with.

Wiley WA5OTR

My helically wound whip is about 2.5 metres long. The tuner will go
down to 1.9 MHz. Natural lowest resonant frequency of the whip is
2.02 MHz. Check out the pictures in the photos section of this group.

regards,
Peter
VK4TGV


--- In YaesuTuner@..., "Wiley Clarkson" <wclarkson@c...>
wrote:

I am going to be purchasing an FT-857d on a special very shortly.

The

special has discounted prices on both the FC-40 and the ATAS-120.
Yaesu advertizes the FC-40 being used with a 102" to 108" whip. My
mobile situation requires that I use a flexible whip of between 50"

to

60". Has anyone used the FC-40 mobile with this whip length and

can

you tell me how much the lowest resonate frequency that the FC-40
would tune to changed?

Also, regarding the ATAS 120, can anyone give me the motorized

coil

length and the whip length? Yaesu does not supply measured lengths

of

each in their advertisements. The overall length seems to fall

within

my needs but the length of the motorized coil may not meet the
restrictions I am working with.

Wiley WA5OTR

I am going to be purchasing an FT-857d on a special very shortly. The
special has discounted prices on both the FC-40 and the ATAS-120.
Yaesu advertizes the FC-40 being used with a 102" to 108" whip. My
mobile situation requires that I use a flexible whip of between 50" to
60". Has anyone used the FC-40 mobile with this whip length and can
you tell me how much the lowest resonate frequency that the FC-40
would tune to changed?

Also, regarding the ATAS 120, can anyone give me the motorized coil
length and the whip length? Yaesu does not supply measured lengths of
each in their advertisements. The overall length seems to fall within
my needs but the length of the motorized coil may not meet the
restrictions I am working with.

Wiley WA5OTR

HI !

Wire length should be something else than half wave to
avoid high voltage feed point and arcing inside the
tuner. Sometimes I had very nice blue shining light
inside my old manual tuner when running higher bands.
(That time I used 600W output and antenna was G5RV)

I made that excel file to see same time all bands
compared to half wave length and wire length.When the
wave length divided by wire length gives something
like 1,15 (2,15 , 0,85 etc.)it is enough far away from
high voltage feed point.

My wire length is 51 m, 10m up and 41m horisontal.
(51m = 167 feet) 41m horisontal is because if changing
later to dipole, it is already right length.
10 meter comes from distance betveen balcony and
horisontal wire. First the vertical length was
something else ( I dont remember anymore) and some
bands where difficult to reach good SWR (less than 2
).
I shortened vertical wire a bit and after that it was
better.After making better ground everything was ok.
My tuner is AH-3, AH-4 is quite similar with longer
wires ( 51m it is not yet real long wire..) .


73 s de rami, oh6bi

--- va3cgt <ctuckwell@...> wrote:

So what is a good wire lenght that will cover all
bands? I have up to
100 feet of wire to work with. looking for 160 to 6
meters but 80 to
160 would be fine.





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In a message dated 9/24/2005 10:21:08 PM Central Standard Time, ctuckwell@... writes:

?

>So what is a good wire lenght that will cover all bands? I have up to
>100 feet of wire to work with.? looking for 160 to 6 meters but 80 to
>160 would be fine.

?

There really are two separate considerations:

?

1.? Will it "match"?

?

2.? How efficiently is that length of wire RADIATING (or receiving)?the signal on that frequency?

?

I've seen 37 feet listed as a length that would match most - but NOT all - of the bands.? I'd expect radiation efficiency of the 37 foot wire to be very poor on the lower bands, however.

?

It's also going to depend upon your installation and antenna configuration.? Grounding and "RF in the shack" issues are critical.

?

I'd start with the 100 feet, see what that will match and start trimming until I was satisfied.

??

Keep records and share?your results with the group.? Please include the wire size (guage), type, and configuration of your antenna (slopper, inverted L, etc).??

?

"Zip" cord wire?is an inexpensive way to?experiment with wire lengths and antenna configurations.

?

?

?

?

---

Yahoo! for Good
to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

So what is a good wire lenght that will cover all bands? I have up to
100 feet of wire to work with. looking for 160 to 6 meters but 80 to
160 would be fine.

Gidday all,
I have uploaded some photos of my mobile setup.

It may not be 100% conforming with pure antenna theory, but it works!

Regards,
Peter, VK4TGV.

Sure can, I use a 1:1 balun with about 100mm of wire connecting the
ground and antenna terminals to the balun, then run about 2 metres
of co-ax to a spring base with a helically wound HF whip mounted on
it.

Tunes everything except for 160m (not suprising), to use low band I
use another piece of wire connected to the top of the whip and with
the other end chucked up into a nearby tree. Bit hard to do mobile
though ;-).

It is probably better to use a 4:1 in theory, but I thought it would
not matter so much with such a short balanced line, and it turned
out to be true.

I had promised to take a few photos, I must get around to it.

Peter
VK4TGV

--- In YaesuTuner@..., "r0de_runr" <r0de_runr@y...>
wrote:

Hey all,

I sold my truck with the 102 inch whip....I had the fc-40 about 3
inchis away from the inside lug of the ball mount so it was

perfect

for 10 gauge wire from the fc-40 lugs to the ant.

Now I cannot drill into my (new) Olds Bravada, so I need to figure
another way.

Can I cut off the end of a 15ft coax, wire it to the tuner and
connect the other end to a pl259 mount for the whip, off the

bumper

sor something?

Didn't think I could use a coax.

Also, what if I used a 4:1 balun in reverse to accept the wires

from

the tuner and adapt them to the coax to make the run over to the
whip?

Can a balun be used in reverse? Could use it in my shack to

attach

attick mounted slinky to the tuner.

Greg
W0GAN
Just a dumb general.

yes, I just conected the loop to the two connectors. I asked Yaesu
about using the tuner on balanced and unbalanced lines and they said
it should be fine. It worked well except for the QSB which I believe
came from excessive SWR.

73,
Jon
AB1FF

--- In YaesuTuner@..., "gkstemple" <gkstemple@a...>
<snip/>

One other question: Jon, how did you terminate the loop? Just

connect

it to the ground terminal of the FC-40, or what? Yes, I'm a newbbie
to the world of tuners and wire antennas. Thanks.


73
Gary
KC9DJQ

--- In YaesuTuner@..., "ab1ff" <ab1ff@y...> wrote:

I just got back from using my FT-857D and FC-40 in N. Maine on a
canoe trip. I used the FT-857D on battery (with a 14W solar pannel)
and the FC-40 connected to a random wire (~30-33m) most of the time
only about 10-15m high. I was using a sling to string the wires up
in the trees so I couldn't get too high. I also used about 25m of
counterpoise running on the ground.

I was able to get tuned fairly well on 20m and most of the time on
40m. 80m was generally a problem with the tuner as I got HSWR most
of the time. I didn't think 33m was close enough to 1/2? (40m)

for

it to be a match problem on 80m.

Does anyone know the range of impedences that the FC-40 can match?

Another thing that I noticed is that on 80m my carrier would have
practically little SWR but my voice modulation (LSB) would peak the
SWR.

I also had some complaints while QSOing across the Atlantic about
QSB. This may be the becuase of the FT-857D sutting down due to

HSWR

peaks.

I also tried using the FC-40 with a 5x10m vertical loop 2m off the
ground. This had the same tuning characteristics.

--jon

Jon & The Group:

There are about five FC-40 reviews on eham.net so far, some of them
dealing with wire length(s), and impedence the FC-40 did/did not
match (info that is sadly missing from the Yaesu brochure AND
manual). The reviews can be found at


As always, based upon your individual installation, you may find
differences.

Looks like an antenna analizer would be a good addition to the kit,
at least long enough to do some experimenting.

One other question: Jon, how did you terminate the loop? Just connect
it to the ground terminal of the FC-40, or what? Yes, I'm a newbbie
to the world of tuners and wire antennas. Thanks.


73
Gary
KC9DJQ

As with any antenna, Just try it. Let us know what happens. Oh, use
low power to start.

--- In YaesuTuner@..., "r0de_runr" <r0de_runr@y...> wrote:

Hey all,

I sold my truck with the 102 inch whip....I had the fc-40 about 3
inchis away from the inside lug of the ball mount so it was perfect
for 10 gauge wire from the fc-40 lugs to the ant.

Now I cannot drill into my (new) Olds Bravada, so I need to figure
another way.

Can I cut off the end of a 15ft coax, wire it to the tuner and
connect the other end to a pl259 mount for the whip, off the bumper
sor something?

Didn't think I could use a coax.

Also, what if I used a 4:1 balun in reverse to accept the wires

from

the tuner and adapt them to the coax to make the run over to the
whip?

Can a balun be used in reverse? Could use it in my shack to attach
attick mounted slinky to the tuner.

Greg
W0GAN
Just a dumb general.