Playing around with my portable/mobile quick-setup emergency amateur radio station this weekend. Total setup time: clamp vice-grip antenna base on truck tailgate=2 seconds, screw on Hustler mobile antenna=5 seconds, connect coax=3 seconds, set SGC-2020 transceiver and MFJ antenna tuner on dash=3 seconds, connect 12 volt supply=2 seconds. From SoCal using 10 watts or less on 20 meter sideband, I worked several stations in British Columbia, Texas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Alberta, Florida and Maine while checking things out. Had fun.

You should look at the fender mounts

nice--as someone who just fools around with a old Hallicrafters "boat anchor" it's fun to see what someone who really knows what they are doing can come up with..questions is,in a real,major disaster do you think any frequency's would be open.i assume there are a lot of people with ham sets and no license who would just jump in and jam the frequency's up knowing that the chance of being caught would be very small,and i'm talking nation wide,grab the BOB stuff and not a local storm or major earthquake.

Hi Canoedogs: As you know, part of being a real OM is knowing how to duck and weave around the QRM. Low-power operating is good practice, I think.

I know someone who was VERY VERY involved in the post katrina comms situation - for an agency that had less comms problems than some others

Their 2 big secrets? NVIS antennas, as LONG range comms aren't the big problem - MID range (100-300 miles) is the critical zone

AND

The much dreaded (even by the guy I'm talking about) Winlink 2k

The BIG thing with winlink (which they used on VHF/UHF where they could - where it's NOT so bad) is that they could pass email, complete with attachments from the served agency to where they needed it

This from a guy who gave up about 6 weeks of his life to get down there, and run comms (ham and NON ham - like sat phones, nextels, arrange for COWs etc) for one of the well known agencies

You have a nice and quick setup there. I must admit that you are much faster than I am. My portable comm station (FT 817, ATX 1080 or NR-770R, 3.4Ah 12V lead gel battery) takes about 3 to 4 minutes from backpack to QRV.

KG2V: Excellent, you're way beyond me in knowledge of disaster comms.

Max: Yes, I like that I don't have to really physically carry anything, and it's fast and easy to set up and get functional. I also have a Hustler fitting that I can use to mount up to 4 resonators at once for different bands and different comm distances. With an extra truck battery, I have plenty of DC.

Eugene: Where did you get your fender mount? How is the coax detached. Your mount looks like a much more permanent setup than my vice-grip clamp, but probably provides somewhat less radiation resistance and a better ground plane for the antenna.

My less than instant portable HF station:

Link to photo page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/civex/2066842210/
That's me in Death Valley one Thanksgiving weekend. Although I have it set up to operate outside the van here, I can put the radio in the cab and mount the faceplate on the dash for mobile operation. I'm on a separate battery here so I don't run my van battery down. When the radio is set up in the cab, it runs off the van battery.

Louise and I logged into the Reno Noontime net, and we talked to a couple of guys up in the San Francisco Bay area - one of them on his FT-817 at 5 watts. We operated at 100W with a Tarheel Model 100 on the van. More pictures here:
http://civex.smugmug.com/gallery/4328538_qivLk#253863395_CVbTA

Nice setup Philip.

I'm going to look around and get myself a good field-strength meter and play around with some other ways of mounting and demounting my Hustler whip. As you pointed out in your civex pix, the location of the antenna probably affects the directionality. Mounting the antenna on the rear corner of our vehicles probably doesn't offer the best ground plane and the least radiation resistance, and since I'm running QRP, I want to maximize the amount I'm radiating as much as possible without going to a longer wire antenna that will be less convenient to put up. My vice-grip mount is almost instantaneous, so that's going to be hard to beat.

http://www.walcottcb.com/gm2l-fender-mount-for-chevy-silverado-avalanche-and-suburban-p-1184.html

That happens to be the one for my truck but they have them for other models. I'm thinking of getting one of those quick release adapters though as I've bent the mount twice already.

> My vice-grip mount is almost instantaneous, so that's going to be hard to beat.

Yeah, it's all a compromise, and in mobile operations the compromises have greater effects on operation. The vice-grip mount is an excellent choice for instant-on operation. Because I have a van with a metal roof, I'd go for a big magmount for the Hustler and locate it more nearly in the center of the roof.

Everything depends on the individual's set up. Given a portable set up where I'm not in motion, I think I'll give the Hustler and magmount more consideration - it'll be much easier than putting the screwdriver antenna up. I've got two antenna inputs on my TS-480, so I'll see if there's a performance gain with a centrally mounted antenna.

Many thanks for the information about your rig and set up. I'm not sure I've see that model Hustler - can you ID it specifically for me? I thought they were all cut for a specific band.

Philip: That Hustler is cut for a specific band. I have the big resonators for most of the ham bands now. It's easy enough for me to jump in the pick-up bed and change resonators whenever I want. They just unscrew. That one in the picture is for 20mtrs as I recall.

Oh, and Philip, like I said in the earlier post, there's a Hustler fitting that sits on top of the mast that allows you to screw in up to 4 resonators at once if you want to band-hop without getting out of the truck. One resonator doesn't interfere with the other, according to Hustler.

Okay, I was reading and saying Hustler but thinking Hamsticks, which I believe are single-frequency antennas. Apologies for my confusion. I looked Hustler's antennas up on the Internet and read up on how they work with the resonators. Shoulda done that before I asked. :->