I've recently put together a battery back-up system to power the radio equipment in the event of a power grid failure.  It consists of a 12-volt gelled-cell Optima Red Top car battery in a battery box below the operating bench, the Astron SS-25M switching power supply, and a PWRgate from West Mountain Radio feeding a five-outlet RIGrunner.

I hope eventually to use an inverter and power my computer equipment as well, and add a solar cell array and maybe even a wind turbine.  Ideally, I'd like to get off the grid altogether, though that is going to take some doing if I want to keep my refrigerator and air conditioning going.

 

 

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My Butternut HF6V on the mobile home roof:

The non-penetrating roof mount is shown to the right.  The antenna and mount had been in place for some time before I decided to add counterpoise radials, thus the rust covering most of the center plate.  I removed the rust with a drill-powered wire brush just prior to drilling the holes for the radial terminals.  Below is the roof mount with the 12-lb. paving stones in place and the ground radials attached.  The radials extend out to the sides and corners of the mobile home, and beyond the mobile home to the rear fence at the property line.  On the underside of the flat plate a grounding strap is connected from the plate to the metal roof of the mobile home via a sheet metal screw, and this screw is heavily caulked to prevent roof leaks.

The base post of the HF6V, which is normally stuck into the ground, had to be cut off very close to the insulator (actually, part of the insulator was cut off too) in order to mount the feedpoint close enough to "ground" that the base post didn't become a radiating part of the antenna.  I ordered and received a replacement base post in case I ever have enough real estate to mount this thing in the ground as it was designed to be mounted.  I obtained some silicon "Rescue Tape" at the September 13th, 2008 Southwestern ARRL Convention in Mesa (where I also passed my AMATEUR EXTRA test) and wrapped it around the stub of the base post so it would make a tight fit into the pipe mounted in the pipe flange.  This insulated the base post from "ground," of course, so I connected a short piece of flat metal strap from the metal plate to the grounding terminal on the base post.

MFJ ANTENNA ANALYZER READINGS
September 14th, 2008

	Resonant		2:1 VSWR Limits		Bandwidth
Band	Mhz	VSWR	Low Mhz	High Mhz	kHz
75/80	3.663	1.2:1	3.647	3.679	32
40	7.140	1.0:1	7.045	7.284	219
30	10.160	1.1:1	10.074	10.261	187
20	14.086	1.1:1	13.598	14.686	1088
15	21.048	1.5:1	20.872	21.320	448
10	28.000	1.4:1	27.543	28.622	1079

This photo also shows the 11-element 2-meter beam.  It's not up very high because it is located on one side of the mobile home and there isn't enough real estate to guy it properly.  One of my someday projects is to dig a hole in the ground under the mast and sink the base of the mast about two feet.  It's fastened to the eaves also, so I figure that should give it enough strength to push it up another ten feet or so; maybe twenty.  Alternatively I might start thinking about moving it to a new location altogether so I can guy it.  Then I could put it up to full height.

The TM-271 is mounted on a block of wood cut to fit the CD Storage slot in the dash.  You have to taper the cut a little bit to get the block to go all the way in, but you want to be careful:  If you taper it too much it will fit loosely and work its way out as you are driving.  The Taurus came with a flat rubber mat that sits on the bottom of the storage slot to absorb vibration, and I use that on the top of the block to tighten the fit -- I did taper it a little too much.  It works pretty well, though.  I do find that once in awhile I have to push the gear selector forward against the radio a little bit to disengage the interlock so I can remove the ignition key when leaving the vehicle.  This is fairly secure against theft; I have tinted windows that make it difficult to see into the interior, and with the gear selector in Park and the key removed from the ignition you'd have to remove all four mounting screws from the mounting bracket before you could get away with the radio.

The power pigtail from the radio is cut off just beyond the fuse holder and mating Anderson PowerPole connectors are used so the radio can be removed when necessary.  The #12 power wire is routed under the dash, up over a couple of braces to keep it up under the dash, and then up through the door hinge area and to the engine compartment.  This image to the left shows how the wire is routed.  If necessary, cable ties can be used to keep the wire away from places where it might get pinched when opening and closing the door.

As seen at the top of the above image, the power wire is routed into an opening inside the front fender, and there just happens to be another opening into the engine compartment at the other end.  The image to the right shows the wire routed along the edge of the fender and connected, via another set of PowerPole connectors (secured with a cable tie) to a Radio Shack waterproof blade-type fuse holder in both the positive and negative lines.  These fuseholders are good for up to thirty amps and thirty amp fuses are installed.  The other fuseholder, at the radio, is only fifteen amps.  The TM-271 comes with two in-line plastic fuseholders at the battery end of the power cable, but they have to be waterproofed with electrical tape or Rescue Tape if you use them.  I think these Radio Shack fuseholders are a more elegant and clean-looking installation.

I use a Diamond NR770HNMO dual-band (2m/70cm) mobile antenna on the Diamond magmount.  The TM-271 is 2-meters only, but I like the fact that this is a "break-over" antenna:  The antenna rod can be pulled up slightly and laid over horizontally when necessary to clear garage doors.  Besides, someday I might get back onto 70cm, and this antenna is only nine dollars more than the 2-meter Radiall-Larsen for a more robust antenna.  Yes, I know; I lose about 3-dB of signal strength with the magmount, but the idea is to not drill holes in the car.  Besides, I have a sunroof that slides into the area where the hole would have to go.

The Diamond magmount comes with four adhesive-mounted cable clips for routing the coax.  (See arrows.)  My objective was to route the coax outside the weatherstripping until I could get low enough that the cable would have to come up again to enter the cabin of the vehicle.  That way, any rainwater that follows the cable down will drip off before it enters the cabin.

My wife, KD7DMB, doesn't like to use the radio while driving, and in fact doesn't even like for a radio to be in her car unless she needs it -- like when a major emergency is developing and all the cellphone towers have been turned off (or she is having an emergency and her cellphone battery is dead).

So I wired her car just as I have the Taurus, but the radio and magmount antenna is in the trunk.  Here is how I rigged her radio, so that once she hooks it up she can use it while driving if necessary.  The mounting bracket is fastened to a sheet of Masonite just slightly larger than the footprint of the radio, and industrial Velcro is fastened with adhesive to the bottom of the Masonite to keep the radio firmly attached to the cloth upholstery of her passenger seat while it's in use.  If the Velcro won't hold on the seat fabric, the replaceable floormat is the same material as the mating Velcro, and it can be dragged up onto the seat to provide a more secure mounting.  Plastic pointy things are on the underside of the floormat to keep it from sliding around.

Using another chunk of 2X4 cut to fit, with a sloping face on it, I mounted the remote head for the IC706MKIIG in the same location where the Kenwood TM-271 used to be.  If anything, I think it is even better than the TM-271 installation described above.  The wiring to the battery is almost the same except that it doesn't go to the remote head:  It actually runs along the drivers' side doorsill to the doorpost just behind the drivers' position, where it connects via Anderson PowerPoles to the extension wiring from the body of the radio mounted in the trunk.  I secured the PowerPole connectors together with cable straps.

The rectangular speaker, mounted on the same 2X4 as the remote head and just below it, was purchased for ten dollars at the Superstition ARC HamFest in early December.  I was desperate for a decent speaker because listening to the little MFJ speaker I bought for $12.95 at HRO drove me up the wall.  Arrgh, it was shrieky!  It was also very poor clarity; a friend said "Foof-oof!" to me on the radio four times before the penny finally dropped and I realized he was saying "Velcro."  The speaker was square in shape and didn't really fit well under the remote head, either.  I didn't know if the rectangular speaker I bought at the HamFest would sound any better, but at least it would fit better and for $10 I decided I could take the chance.  As it turned out, it sounds great!  I will say "Excellent!", in fact.

Just aft of the gear selector is the iBox control for the tunable Sidekick antenna, affixed to the console via double-sided foam sticky-tape.  I had to thoroughly clean the mounting position with denatured alcohol (not Isopropyl, which is oily) because the car wash people like to go over the interior with Armor-All, and nothing will stick to it.  I finally got the microphone hanger to stick by cleaning the dash off with denatured alcohol too.

Mounting the body of the IC706MKIIG in the trunk requires running the remote head cable and the antenna control box cable from the radio to the remote head and control box, and I've tied them together with pretty pink cable ties (well, that's the only color I had left in that size).

I also had to buy a twenty-foot extension cable for the antenna control box ($15 plus $10.50 shipping):  With the cable stretched straight, in the air, in a straight line between the control box and the rear of the radio, it was about a foot-and-a-half too short!  (It never fails, does it?)  So the extension cable is also coiled up back there.  I had all those cables neatly dressed to the sidewalls of the trunk using the hook-side of industrial-strength Velcro pressed against the felt-like liner, but when the cables were too short and not routed under the seat as I wanted, I let them lay around.  I've since re-dressed those cables nicely to keep them away from everything else I carry in the trunk.

Also visible in the image above, right next to the deck lid pivoting support, is a black bundle of wiring for the trunk light and spoiler brake light and license plate light.  Just to the right of that is a length of half-inch grounding strap which grounds the deck lid to the body of the car.  Mr. Fluke says the deck lid is grounded to the body when it is open, but I don't know if that is always true when the trunk is closed.

And here is the antenna to the right.  It is currently tuned to 3665-kHz, so you can see much of the coil extending from the lower portion of the antenna.  Tuned to the high end of 10-meters, you can't see any of the coil at all.

I'm using a Diamond K400C trunk-lip antenna mount, and I scraped the paint off the underside where the Allen setscrews dig in to make a good ground.  As I mentioned earlier, I also connected a ground strap from the deck lid to the body of the car near the antenna mount.

I'm rather impressed with the antenna.  It tunes very quietly; you can hardly hear the motor from inside the car at all.  What you can hear is the ear-splitting sidetone from the radio during the tune.  When you push the rocker switch on the control box to adjust the antenna, the radio automatically switches to CW and transmits at ten watts as long as you hold the rocker switch down.  Transmitting in CW produces a sidetone, and it is not gentle and quiet.  I had to turn the volume down significantly, because it hurts.  Eventually I discovered the BEEP/SIDETONE control on the side of the radio case (next to the speech compressor gain) and was able to turn the sidetone 'way down.

The Sidekick antenna comes with a three-foot long whip, and I have found it is nowhere near long enough for seventy-five meters.  The antenna tunes to minimum VSWR, of course (We're talking 1:1 as near as I can tell) but there's no capture area worthy of the name.  Therefore I also ordered the High Sierra 6-foot whip ($32 plus $15.23 shipping) and it has proven to be a major improvement.  Also, I can still tune to the high end of ten meters, just barely, so it didn't make the antenna too long for HF.  It's surely too long for six meters, though.

In comparison to my Butternut HF6V at home (see 'way above) the mobile installation is pretty weak.  Most of the time it has not done well on my five o'clock sked on 75-meters, but that is band conditions as much as anything.  I can hear two friends about 85-miles away, but my signal to them is usually just about 1-dB above mental telepathy.  Most of my signal is skipping over their heads.  On the other hand I regularly get into Los Angeles with a real good signal on 40-meters, and a few times I've talked to Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Texas.  It does pretty good on 20, too.  This is going to be fun the next time my wife and I go on a cross-country trip.