Some time ago, the local coffee shop threw out some market umbrellas. Being a little more fanatical than your average dumpster diver, I picked one up and brought it home because it had some good timber which may have been useful for something one day. The sun had done its job on the umbrella canopy but the timber structure was in good order. Recently, I had a rush of blood to the head and decided to re-configure the geometry of the umbrella to turn it into a portable amateur radio mast. This is the story of how I did it.
The market umbrella was a typical four sided timber framed market umbrella with a fixed hub at the top and a sliding hub to support the braces. There was a brass pin to hold the sliding hub in position when the umbrella was erected.
The first thing I did was to remove the canopy and throw it away because it was just too rotten even for a painting drip sheet. I then removed the arms from the fixed hub at the top of the pole and then I removed the braces from the sliding hub. This was fairly simple and required only a pair of pliers to untwist the wire fixing the arms and the braces to the hubs. I then took two wire coat hangers and reversed the arms and the braces so that the braces were attached to the fixed hub on the end of the pole and the arms were fixed to the sliding hub on the pole. Fixing the arms and the braces back onto the hubs was a little bit of a hassle, mostly because my grandchildren were trying to help. In the normal course of events, it is a fairly simple activity where the coat hanger wire is formed roughly into the circular shape of the hub and then threaded through the holes in the arms The arms are then set into the recesses in the hub and the pliers are used to twist the wire and tighten it. I did the same thing to reinstall the braces on the fixed hub.
I then set the modified device on the ground and attempted to erect it. I found that the original hinge position needed to be changed for two reasons. Firstly, the distance from the fixed hub to the hinge point on the arm was about the same as the length of the strut so that, when the sliding hub was moved as far as it could, the braces ended up almost parallel to the arms and the arms lay flat on the ground, leaving the device somewhat unstable. The second reason that I moved the hinge point was to make the device fold more compactly than the umbrella. I moved the hinge point (the point where the brace attaches to the arm) about 200 millimetres towards the tip so that, when folded, the arms sit neatly against the pole, beneath the fixed hub. This also has the effect of stabilizing the geometry so that the sliding hub can be moved towards the fixed hub without the device becoming unstable.
The only carpentry work was to drill the four holes in the arms. The only tools I used were the pliers, drill and 5 millimetre bit, screw driver and a hammer to peen over the ends of the threads on the new hinge pin bolts.
Market umbrellas with eight arms can be treated similarly but you may consider only reinstalling four of the arms to save weight and complexity. I do not recall having seen a six-sided market umbrella.
So what did all of this cost? Well, the coat hangers cost nothing because I picked a large bundle off a previous Council clean-up and the four machine screws, four nuts and eight washers came out of stock.
And how long did it take me? Even with the grandchildren helping it took a bit over half an hour.
The finished product is a bit like a large version of a camera tripod but a lot larger and a lot more stable. It will support VHF and UHF beam antennae and verticals and will even support one end of a long wire or the centre of a dipole. There are many options.
I thought it was worth the effort and one of the members of the Waverley Radio Club liked it so much that I decided to give it to him as he has possibly more use for it than I do.
Richard Cortis
VK2XRC
Back in about mid 2000, people were starting to point at the rust holes in the old XF Falcon. In about October 2000, my sister visited and announced that she was going to buy a new car and that, really, I should buy one too! After some discussion, it was decided that I would buy her 3 year old car at an agreed market value and she would go and buy something far more ostentatious. So, in December 2000, I took delivery of a 1997 model Falcon GLI. The bottom of the range, but it had airconditioning and cruise control. I haven’t yet worked out what I will do with the cruise control in the Sydney traffic.
Okay, so I have taken delivery of my new car, changed the rego, put my plates on it, and that is just the beginning. First of all, it took two full days to decommission the old car. There was the 15 year old 2m and 70cm dual bander, the crystal locked RT80 modified to work on two metres, and the Plessey MTR8000 modified to work on six metres. Both the RT80 and the MTR8000 have remote control heads. They need them. The Plessey is about the size of half a slab of beer and weighs quite a bit more. You would not want to carry the RT80 very far either. In the old car, to maintain reasonable family relationships, I had run the remote control cables under the back seat and under the carpet to emerge in the console with discretely located control heads. The dual bander was located in the ash tray hole about a foot behind the gear stick. All this stuff had to be retrieved very carefully. I managed to find and restore the ash tray too. Accordingly, a long time was spent carefully disassembling the car and reassembling it. I wanted to be able to offer something reasonable to sell too!
Along with all this stuff, I also decided to retrieve the mobile phone hands free kit as it was probably worth more than the car. Having spent about $1000 to $1500 keeping the airconditioning working in the old Fally in the last two years, she went for a grand. I hope the new owner enjoys the $350 stereo that my wife insisted on installing before we went on holidays for Xmas 1999. However, I digress.
I now have this new (to me) sparkling, and shiny car and three black recycling bins full of radios and stuff which has to go into the car without my wife being in the slightest bit inconvenienced. Her request was that I not make the car look like a fishing trawler. I think she was referring to the antennae. She did not care if it would be easy for me to spot in the carpark.
Okay, so back to the task at hand. Having shelled out for a sparkling nearly new car (new to me), I thought it was time for a new dual band radio. So I went out and purchased a Yasu FT8100 with a remotable front panel. This is one of those radios with the ADMS (Advanced Data Management System) software where you program in the memory channels with the computer. Now that was a learning experience! Finally, after several sessions of psychiatric help with various Waverley Amateur Radio Society gurus, the FT8100 was in a state suitable to be installed in the car. Thanks to Mark VK2YZA, Simon VK2UA and Eric VK2KUR.
Because I live and work in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, I spend a lot of time driving on roads with line of sight to the Waverley radio tower that seems to radiate gigawatts of pager noise. So, we have to maintain the old crystal locked RT80 which is very very good at thumbing its nose at pagers. Apart from the odd polite burp, the RT80 seems to tolerate the pagers quite satisfactorily. Okay, we have decided to keep the RT80.
Back from the dim dark distant days of my entry into amateur radio, I have been an enthusiastic fanatic on six metres. So the MTR8000 has to be found a home in the car.
At the front end of the central console, the dashboard of the new car had this sort of recess, which appeared to suggest that there was room for a CD player or something just below the broadcast radio. So, I set about to remove the plastic facade of the dash in this area. Take out the ashtray, undo the screws, lever, pull, lever, pull, lever a bit more, CRACK. Anyway it was out and there was a space for the FT8100. I brought the face of the dash panel up to the shack and, with a hacksaw, sawed the back off the plastic shelf and slid in the FT 8100. Back to the car, and with a certain amount of grunting, sweating and swearing, the FT8100 was set into the dash panel in an acceptable manner. This entire goings on consumed the best part of a day.
On the basis that I was proposing to run the FT8100, the RT80, and the MTR8000, I decided that a separate power supply was required which was independent of the general car wiring. The first thing that I discovered was that
the new Falcon was far less friendly in terms of available cable routes from the engine compartment to the passenger compartment. Remember the fishing trawler? Remember also that I have to be quite aesthetic in this work. In addition to the power for the radios, I also needed separate power for the mobile phone hands free kit and an antenna route for the FT8100. I am 1.8m tall, 110kg, and 54 years old. There did not appear to be a suitable cable route on the passenger side. Accordingly, lying upside down with my head in the driver’s side footwell of the car was neither comfortable nor pleasant. However, I did manage to locate a rubber bung with some cable penetrations that also had room for other cable penetrations. The only trouble was that this rubber bung was totally inaccessible to a person other than a dwarf with three elbows. Getting the cable through the rubber bung was another matter.
Having located a suitable cable route, I then had to find a way to get the cable through the rubber bung. I raided the wardrobe and stole a couple of wire coat hangers. There was washing on the line so I hoped that the coat hangers would not be missed until the car episode had passed from memory. From these I cut three sections of wire approximately 30cm (1 foot) long. I sharpened one end and I cleaned up the other end and solded the main radio power wire to one, the mobile phone power wire to another and the RG58 coax to the third one. As far as the RG58 is concerned, I cut back the outer sheath about 7cm, folded back the braid, cut out about 5cm of the central core and then solded the braid onto the needle fabricated from the coat hanger. I then filed off the rough edges of the solder so it would pull through the rubber. The power cables were also smoothed out and the leading edge of the plastic insulation was cut back.
With significant swearing, sweating, and one significant puncture wound to my hand, I managed to push through the needles from the inside and then retrieve them from down in the bowels of the panel work in the engine compartment. I never got to actually see the engine bay side of that rubber bung. All I could do was to feel for it. Hence the puncture wound. Anyway, the cables were pulled through. I duly installed fuses on the ends of the power cables and connected them to the battery terminal. Then I went out with my wife and she wanted to use the broadcast radio. New discovery. This car has one of those coded radios. My sister, who sold me the car, was no help so there was a trip out to the local Ford dealer, complete with detail ID and the car rego. You would think I was applying for a passport or something. Anyway I now have the code for the radio. Be warned.
Once I had the heavy fused power cable through to the passenger compartment, I installed a 35amp relay which was actuated either by the power from the car cigarette lighter or by a switch. To prevent power feedback into the car system, I installed two diodes on the actuator coil terminal of the relay. One diode for the cigarette lighter circuit power supply (ignition on) and the other for the switch (ignition off). The aim is to avoid damage to the car circuitry and the associated unbelievable costs in rectification. The idea was to be able to operate the radios without having the ignition turned on. That system worked very nicely. The relay was tucked up somewhere inside the front console but I had to take the front panel off yet again. The separate switch was attached to a triple outlet cigarette lighter socket that was also attached to the main power cable. This is so that I can run the GPS in the car at the same time as my wife can charge her mobile phone. The third outlet is in case I am allowed to charge my hand held. The original cigarette lighter remains in its standard format.
Okay, so we have the FT8100 in the dash, what about the others? Both the RT80 and the MTR8000 were installed in the boot under the rear window shelf. Holding up the heavy steel bracket for the MTR8000 and then screwing it to the rear window shelf was quite an effort. The RT80 was a bit simpler. Anyway, they both went in and have taken no appreciable or useable space out of the boot. I even had to stick my head right down into the boot just to see them.
Next job was to again dismantle the car and run the cables for the remote control heads through to the console. Rip out the back seat, use an old whip antenna as a mouse to push through under the carpet, attach a string, pull the string back and then pull the remote control cables though with the string. This took nearly a day. Small amounts of blood, lots of sweat and some tears.
The substantial control head for the MTR8000 (same size as the FT8100 complete) was installed to the side of the console, at the driver’s hip, just outside the seat belt buckle. The RT80 control head went on the back of the console, useable by a back seat passenger if I ever had one. I still have not found a suitable location for the speaker from the RT80. The FT8100 speaker is set in the shelf at the front of the console, in front of the gear stick. Perhaps it should have a friend from the RT80. Microphone holders for the RT80 and the MTR8000 were hung on the back of the console on each side of the RT80 control head. I can feel for them and put them away without taking my eyes off the road.
The antenna for the FT8100 dual band radio went on a bracket on the front guard. This is a fairly standard arrangement with the bracket bought from Dick Smith. The only easy bit.
I decided that the RT80 would have a quarter wave antenna in the centre of the roof and that the MTR8000 would have a similar arrangement from the boot lid. Drilling the hole in the boot lid was a simple matter as I could get to both sides of the lid to drill the hole. The antenna installation in the centre of the roof had the potential to be fairly difficult. However, it turned out to be quite simple. I removed the central dome light from the head lining and had a look at the roof structure. There was a beam across the roof at the dome light but the head lining could be pulled down a bit to gain access to the roof just in front of the dome light and its associated beam. I started by drilling a 3mm hole upwards through the metal roof sheet from the dome light opening. I then used a large bit and a tapered reamer to enlarge the hole. In hindsight, it may have been a lot easier if I had used the correct size hole saw to make the opening in the roof as the tapered reamer seemed to want to only make a star shaped opening and lots of filing was required to obtain a satisfactorily shaped hole. The antenna cable from the central dome light area was fed through over the hood lining using a flat plastic strip called yellow Tongue. It is the plastic key used in chipboard flooring sheets. Some gets thrown away on most building jobs and it is always useful to have a couple of metres on hand if you occasionally run cables. I keep a bit on the boat too. You could use an old whip antenna if you wanted. The cable was then fed down through the various linings beside the back window and down into the boot. I had attached the cable to the antenna base before installation. This meant that I had to put the BNC connecter onto the radio end of the antenna cable in the boot compartment. This required more grunting, more swearing, and profuse sweating.
So, out I went in my new car with my new radios to try them out. The first report that I received was from Bruce, VK2JAI who said that I had the most horrendous
alternator whine he had ever heard on 70cm. There was a similar whine, but thankfully less, on 2m. The MTR8000 has a minor problem. However, the RT80 appeared to be free of alternator whine. Cold comfort!
To treat the alternator whine, I installed a ceramic capacitor from the alternator output to the body frame of the car. I also installed an in-line suppressor on the main power line near the battery. Thanks to Eric, VK2KUR. These works substantially reduced the alternator whine, however, it still exists and I now have to acquire sufficient strength of character to disassemble the face panel on the console, gain access to the power supply wiring for the FT8100 and install some more suppression in that area. Perhaps it is too hard. On the other hand, do I really want to be recognised by my "signature" alternator whine? I will ponder this question for a while.
I have been trying to manufacture a "City" antenna for six metres. I need a whip not more than 95 centimetres long so it fits in the garage. I have made a helical that tunes a bit but it is "peaky" and does not work very well. The quarter wavelength "country" whip is great. However, the "country" whip does not fit into the garage. I think I need more psychiatric help on this one!
There is still substantially more work to be done to fully commission this car to make it into a half decent mobile amateur station. The old car had a 35 Amp alternator. The new one seems to have a high rate alternator, probably with an available charge rate in the order of 60 to 100 Amps. I am working on removing my signature alternator whine. So far, apart from the pain and the puncture wound, it has been fun. I intend to continue the fun, operating mobile every time I am out. I still have to find a location on "The Trawler" for a 10-metre antenna. Who has a design for a 6-metre/10-metre dual band whip? Make sure the "city" version is not more than 95 centimetres long so it fits into my garage!
The project to install mobile amateur radio in my new car has been a challenge, both technically and physically. The work under the dashboard has been good for my joint mobility. The changes in the design and manufacture of motor cars since my last project has meant that the whole project needed to be re-thought, virtually from the road upwards. This is progress and forms part of the challenge. The car does look just a little bit like a fishing trawler, but my wife has taken the end result as an acceptable compromise. I hope my experience has encouraged others to make more significant efforts to "go mobile" on their favourite bands. Has lots of fun setting up your new car and I look forward to working you mobile to mobile on six metres. The next step is to find somewhere to put ten metres!
Richard Cortis
VK2XRC 13/3/01
Some time in mid 1999 my wife and I decided to have a New Year houseboat holiday on the Murray River around Renmark, S.A. and we decided that we would drive over and back. Because it was a holiday for both of us, I was allowed to take some radios and associated gear. This was no DX expedition but it was amazing just how much gear was needed to cover expected eventualities. My recent attendance in WICEN exercises meant that there was a certain amount of experience, which suggested that a fair bit of junk was necessary.
The car was OK as it already had 70cm, 2m and 6m FM installed. The gear for the houseboat was another matter, as I had no clear idea of dimensions and details for erecting antennas. I knew there would be a substantial twelve-volt house lighting battery separate from the engine starting battery. All I needed for power was a long heavy power cable of indeterminate length with alligator clips on one end for connection to the battery. Easy.
As my aim was to operate ten metres FM, I made up a simple wire dipole with a balun and some RG213 coaxial cable. Hopefully, the cable would be long enough. As a precaution I loaded some connectors and some more coax. I also packed an SWR meter and an old but trusty EAT300 tuner. For six metres I took my Diamond tri-band vertical, a quarter wavelength whip and associated hardware. The rigs used were an ancient Yaesu FT690 with an amplifier and an Icom IC706 (mark 1). I also had an Icom IC-T7A handheld and associated chargers and cables etc. All of this junk filled a plastic recycling bin and overflowed into the boot of the car. The gear in the bin in the boot was much heavier than and took up much more space than the rest of our luggage including the dozen bottles of wine!
For antenna support, I loaded an old fibreglass sailboard mast and an aluminium tube, which was also intended to support the Diamond tri-band antenna. For attachment to the boat I had a roll of cheap plastic rope and the inevitable roll of duct tape. The quarter wave whip for six metres was to be supported on one of those steel brackets used to hang antennae off bull-bars on those Toorak Tractors.
The sailboard mast was tied to the handrail along the starboard side and the aluminium tube was tied and duct taped to the post for the forward sun awning. The six-metre whip was attached to the other end of the sun awning using U-bolts. With a little bit of help from the tuner we were up and going on four bands, 70cm FM, 2m FM, 6m FM, 6m ssb, and 10m FM. Not DX expedition stuff but up and going for a bit of fun on holiday.
While my wife was sunning herself on the deck, I was motoring sedately along the Murray River at about five kilometres per hour (according to the GPS), microphone in one hand, beer in the other, steering with my toe and admiring the landscape. I even had a pretty girl sunning herself on the deck in front of me! What more could anyone ask of a holiday!
As I said earlier, this was a holiday, not a DX expedition so radios were turned off for conversations with my wife, for meals, for the afternoon siesta and in the evening. However, I did manage quite a few interesting contacts around Australia and overseas.
Motoring down the Murray River from Renmark towards Berri, I spoke to Andy, VK5LA on ten metres and later on the local two-metre repeater. When we arrived in Berri on New Years Eve, Andy came down to the boat for a visit and the usual look around and detail assessment of the station set-up. It was too early in the morning so we restricted the celebrations to a couple of cans of lemonade. It helps to avoid dehydration!
We moved off when my wife returned from her walk in town and headed back upstream, a couple of kilometres above the village of Lyrup where we tied up to the bank in the best mooring site of the whole trip. Ignoring amateur radio, we started the petrol (noisy) generator, opened a bottle of genuine French champagne and watched the fireworks on TV. As we were not far from Berri as the crow flies, we also had a good view of the Berri fireworks display.
We did not move the boat on New Years Day as it was such a nice spot. However, there were ten metre contacts in abundance. Only lunch, a walk by the river and the obligatory siesta interrupted my games.
Moving upstream, we spoke to Tony, VK5ZAI on two metres and met up with Tony and Bill VK3SWD on Tony’s houseboat "Nooralie" which he built himself. It is like a four-bedroom townhouse with ground floor terraces and rooftop sundeck. It even had a separate room for the shack and was complete with 70cm and 2m yagis for playing satellites from the boat. Tony is a satellite enthusiast, possibly even a fanatic. He provided the local ground station facilities so Andy Thomas could speak to his father in Adelaide from the Mir space station. Tony was an interesting guy to meet so we did it again! A few days later, we had dinner at the Renmark Hotel with our wives. Lucky the boat was tied up to the riverbank just across the road from the pub! I also had the privilege to visit Tony’s home and be treated to a guided tour of his station. The home built but professional quality antenna rotator system and the console installation in the shack were amazing. Nothing like the tangled mess of wires and cables in my shack!
When it was time to come home I dismantled the antennas and masts etc and taped them up ready for the roof rack. It is funny that the gear that just fitted into the recycling bin on the way down seemed not to fit at all for the trip home.
About an hour or so south east of Mildura on the way home, I looked up and noticed that the antenna masts etc were not there. There was that immediate sinking feeling as I realised that they were still lying neatly taped together on the side deck of the houseboat Liba Liba 3 about 300 kilometres back at Jane-Eliza Landing in Renmark. A quick mobile phone call to Tony VK5ZAI. I imagine he will make good use of his prizes!
Apart from a few contacts on six metres FM from the car and the usual repeater contacts, the trip home was uneventful. All I have to do now is scrounge some more portable antenna mast gear. Does anyone know of anyone who wants to get rid of an old sailboard mast or two?
Richard CortisIn July 1999, my wife and I were having a couple of weeks holiday relaxing on the beach at Sanur in Bali, Indonesia. As I believe there is no reciprocal amateur licensing agreement between Australia and Indonesia, my only thoughts for amateur radio were to take a few magazines to read on the beach.
One evening, whilst shopping for minor gifts for family and friends, we wandered into a shop owned by Made who introduced himself using his nickname, Yogi. In the usual manner I was given his business card and advised that he could provide transport at a very competitive price. On completing our purchase, we left the shop and I politely put the card in my pocket.
The next day, whilst going through all the accumulated paraphernalia of business cards etc, I came across Yogi’s card and noticed the amateur call sign YD9CKY and the radio club logo. My curosity was aroused and, being on holidays, I had the time to wander around and say hello the next day. Yogi took me into his family's Balinese style house behind the shop. Balinese houses look inwards to a central courtyard rather than outwards.
Yogi made me welcome in his house, made me a Bali Coffee and showed me his two metre hand held and two metre mobile radios. Yogi said that he could only use the hand held because his antenna had been damaged. As he did not appear to have a substantial tool kit, I returned to the hotel and collected my touring tool kit which consisted of a tiny pair of pliers, a couple of small screwdrivers, a piece of hacksaw blade and a swiss army knife. After a couple of hours we had fashioned a suitable antenna and Yogi found a piece of steel pipe which we used to elevate the antenna off the timber post on the corner of the building. All seemed to work OK and successful contacts were made.
Later on, Yogi introduced me to Wayan, YC9FLE. The local Dempasar radio club has the call sign YC9ZAI.
I met Yogi several more times in his commercial capacity as a tourist driver and I must say it was very pleasant to have someone as a driver that I knew was not going to take me to his brothers shop.
I was quite surprised and in fact delighted to discover amateur radio in Indonesia. The opportunity to visit a local family as a friend and guest was a rare and welcome opportunity and provided substantial insight into the day to day workings of a typical Balinese extended family.
Who knows? If there is a relaxation in the political climate, reciprocal licensing may become a reality. The prospect is exciting.
Richard Cortis