Hamradion in the r,pod - R-pod Owners Forum

Welcome. One of the mods here is a ham, he talks about his rig starting about half-way down on this page: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=2275&KW=&PN=1&title=my-1930s-radio-new-pics

Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual

Originally posted by manrocker

Hallo R,poders ,I got my pod 177 now for8 month did all the mods you can think of .Now it's time to get back to my 40 y hobby ,Hamradio.i have a 100, tower at home ,but i think it won! fit on the pod.So my question is? Has some podder a ham rig in his machine,I would like to know what transmitter,and more so the antennae and grounding system.I am looking forward to your replay,73 Manfred kh6rp

KH6RP de WA9DU

Hello! Tech was kind enough to point you towards my pics/setup. All in all, it seems to work about as well as a typical mobile/vehicle setup. I can hear them about as well as they can hear me. I like the setup for the convenience and ease of setup and operating.

Grounding is something I continue to experiment with. I have tried - no ground at all, grounding to the chassis of the camper, grounding to an earth ground and, both of the aforementioned. Believe it or not, no grounding at all seems to work about as well as any (much like a car isn't "earth grounded"). My "theory" is that the setup acts like a verticle dipole as it is sensitive to the lenght to the painter's pole. It tunes best with the pole fully extended on 40 meters. On 10 meters, it tunes best with the pole retracted to 8 feet, or so.

The 12' pole (3 - 4' sections) is aluminum and I purchased it at Lowes. Though aluminum, it is not conductive along it's lenght or, even each section - it must be coated with lacquer (or something). I attached a lenght of 1/2" braid connecting the top and bottom sections with self tapping screws. The antenna mount/clamp was ordered from AES. It is the type used by truckers to mount antennas to their side mirrors.

Breaking down, I unscrew the ATAS from the pole, retract the sections (with the braid and RG-58 coax attached). I use a few velcro "wire wraps" to to secure everything to the pole. Both pieces fit nicely in the front storage compartment.

For earth grounding, I took a 3-4' lenght of copper plumbing pipe, hammered one end flat (into a point) and attached a lenght of 1/2" braid with a hose clamp. (With the other end of the braid clamped to the braid on the pole).

For 12vdc, I tapped into the WFCO converter/distribution panel with #8 AWG wire. The bottom 2 fuse poitions are rated for 30 amps. The converter can be a little noisy when on commercial power but, not terrible. If I were not so lazy, I'd run wire straight to the batteries.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. 73

(With a KH call, you must have been in Hawaii, at some point?)

Hamradion in the r,pod - Event Date: 17 Aug 2012