• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

    If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.

    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

    This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.

The 102-inch whip in a perfect world and the real world

Status
Not open for further replies.

rescuecomm

Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2005
Messages
1,445
Location
Travelers Rest, SC
The comment about long antennas making up for other short comings made me laugh. I knew a guy who had about 5 antennas on his 3/4 ton truck including a six meter whip. He was of short statue and those comments were made about him. HOWEVER, two people that didn't know each other attested to a 300 Mhz quarter wave also being part of the package. LOL.
 

rescuecomm

Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2005
Messages
1,445
Location
Travelers Rest, SC
As far as antenna mounting goes, off road travel does restrict what you can use and have it survive. My FJ cruiser has the dual band VHF/UHF clamped to the roof rack on the drivers side. The six meter whip is on the bandi mount on the rear door upper hinge. Why?? Because they are out of the way when I carry a canoe or lumber on the roof rack. They have survived off road travel for hunting and hiking/exploring. Optimal - NO. Practical for me - YES. I still remove both and use a rain cap on the NMO when going through an automatic car wash.
 

merlin

Active Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2003
Messages
2,386
Location
DN32su
First consider those 102 inch whips were designed to use with a ball and spring mount for the 108 inch 1/4 wave. Mounted on a rear fender, they worked very well with directional effect off the opposite corner of the vehicle. In my travels, the best 10/11 meter antenna made is the Wilson 1000M at 65 inches it far outperforms any 1/4 wave. The engineers worked overtime on that one, a base loaded 5/8 wave with hi Q windings in the coil. DC ground rid a LOT of noise compared to the K40. Electrically the same as Antenna Specialist M-67 CB antenna.
Yea, my car was a bit of porcupine, 3Db VHF, 5.5 Db UHF, the 1000M on the roof and a Hustler on fold over/ball mounted L rear fender, 40 meter coil. Didn't look so bad being a '67 Cad CDV.
 

merlin

Active Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2003
Messages
2,386
Location
DN32su
It looks like the guy with the cop car used mag mounts everywhere and possibly ran the coax through the holes for the old antennas. I don't see any coax coming off the mag mounts. Or they are mag mounts with no coax for maximum geek affect.
I just have to wonder what the radio console looks like. I see nothing of any array like the 4 NMO mount spikes for lo-jack
 

prcguy

Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
15,228
Location
So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
All the current US military whips in the last 20yrs for HF and 30-512MHz have to pass a 20kV insulation test. The 16 and 32ft HF whips can get used for NVIS in the folded over position but you would never use a 30-512MHz whip folded over.


In my day it was to keep the antenna from contacting the high voltage power lines for the trains when crossing the tracks. Did all kinds of nasty things when many kilovolts were fed to the antenna port.
 

jhooten

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2004
Messages
1,735
Location
Paige, Republic of Texas
All the current US military whips in the last 20yrs for HF and 30-512MHz have to pass a 20kV insulation test. The 16 and 32ft HF whips can get used for NVIS in the folded over position but you would never use a 30-512MHz whip folded over.


The only insulation on the MS-116/7/8 antenna section was a layer of primer and OD green paint.
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
9,178
Location
Baltimore County, MD
Think of the Mayberry police car, and that antenna was shorter as they were on 39 megahertz, not 27.
Hey, if it was good enough for Andy Griffith, it was good enough for me!
That looks like a CB whip on the car to me. It was strange that it was always in the hold down clip. I seem to remember seeing an Eico CB radio in the Mayberry Sheriff's office. I remember years ago when some fire and police used CB radios.
 

trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
5,604
That looks like a CB whip on the car to me. It was strange that it was always in the hold down clip. I seem to remember seeing an Eico CB radio in the Mayberry Sheriff's office. I remember years ago when some fire and police used CB radios.
That's very true, I know for a fact that Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane of Hazzard County used one. Also Sheriff Buford T Justice of Portague County. ;)
 

kevinb210

Newbie
Feed Provider
Joined
Apr 27, 2021
Messages
3
Location
Selma, Tx
Oh boy this thread brought back some memories. HAH! In the 90's I had a fullsize chevy pickup with a headache rack which then had a 102" and a spring mounted on top of it. I spent many hours running flat strap from cab to frame, bed to frame, hood to fenders, fenders to frame, etc etc etc.. probably went way overkill but I wanted to make sure I had a good fairly centered ground plane for it to work against.

It obviously wasnt that great rolling down the freeway as she would run pretty much horizontal, however stationary it was a talker, and yes looked very dorky! There might have been a floor heater with an export radio feeding it the beans.. and HAH I just thought of something else.. who knows how much it really affected things.. but one thing a few of us would do from time to time was to park down on the coast. Then, jump out with a set of welding leads with about 3-5 foot stripped off one end, and throw them in the ocean. The other end, we would clip to the frame of the truck with the idea we were extending the ground plane and 'pushing' the signal towards the water to hit the mudducks on the other side of the bay.

The truckers hated us so much back then, they would literally just shut their radios off once they got close to town.. we didnt have much excitement growing up other than CB's LOL
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top