HF in the car?

[Fansome]

Years ago I met someone who used a device called a "Spider Antenna" for HF receive and transmit from his vehicle. He swore by it. Unfortunately, it looks like they went out of business some time ago; perhaps it might be possible to find one for sale, used. I checked on eBay, but no luck.

http://www.spiderantenna.com/spec.html

[Capt. Radio]

I don't think there was anything special about the antenna. If I can recall, each element at the top had its own coil to resonate in the ham band of choice. Whatever ham band you were on would make a good match to the transmitter if you had that particular coil combination in place on the stick.

If you're just receiving in your car, you don't really need to match impedances that carefully. IMHO, A good reciever will do fine with just a 4 to 5 foot whip.

I suppose if you wanted to go through the trouble of resonating the whip on a particular SW band, you could make a simple tuned circuit for that particular band.

[kmorgan]

Spider Antenna no longer sold, inventor passed in '02. eham has a "Friends Remembered" for him:

"previous w9owx Mpls. Mn. got ham liscense at age 12......used to own Thee spider antenna business,as it turns out speaking as his son, in his later years was not a very nice person,he ended up in a paupers grave,but he certainly asked for ever thing he recieved,going to hell is not a nice ending "

yikes. Apparently he was not very well liked.

[redhat]

So, a follow up...

I observed that the kenwood in the car was a little deaf, so I installed it in a vehicle with a real antenna, not a printed one, and the difference is quit amazing.  I can hear hams on 75 meters, shortwave broadcast stations, and even heard a numbers station on it last night.  It makes me wonder what it would do with an 8' whip?

A DX machine it is not, but I can probably hear half of what's out there with relatively little effort vs. what I can hear in the house.  Despite the mighty V8 two feet away, ignition noise isn't bad at all, much better that what I expected.

So in short, yeah, it's kinda gaudy and doesn't have RDS or 1710, the noise blanker seems to work, and I can listen to strong (am at least ) pirates in the car.  Definitely worth the hundred bucks.

+-RH

[skeezix]

Which model of Kenwood?

[redhat]

KDC-U356R; The clencher was this one had USB playback

+-RH

[skeezix]

Nice.

Just checked eBay and there are a bunch of Pioneer DEH-X2650UI available!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pioneer-DEH-X2650UI-Shortwave-Car-Auto-Radio-FM-AM-SW-CD-RDS-USB-IPod-Sony-/251382893874?pt=Car_Audio_In_Dash_Receivers&hash=item3a87968d32

[redhat]

Yeah, the problem with the Pioneer is its tuning range, shortwave is broken up into 20 or more pieces, none of which cover 6800-7000 KHz.

+-RH

[skeezix]

And MW with 10 kHz steps is only 530-1640.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well I've finally got tired of looking at the Kenwood in the box on the counter and decided to hook it up and be disappointed.  Boy was I ever wrong!  I've got it hooked up to a power supply and a 4 foot piece of wire for an antenna on the kitchen table and it works great!  Incredably it receives almost as good as my 525, R1000, R70 and SW8 on the big longwires out in the woods.  I haven't got it in the Solara yet due to waiting on a harness to bypass the JBL amp in the car but if it receives half as good in the car as it does in the kitchen I'll be very happy.  Yes its kinda cheesy looking but doesn't bother me.  Sounds decent too on some Bose 301s.  Might be the best 90 bucks I've ever spent, except for party stuff during the 80's!  Model KDC-MP149.

[vhavrilko]

ALCON,

I know this is an old post but I wanted to let you know that I purchased a Alinco DX-R8T and will install it in my 2012 Dodge Ram 1500 hopefully this weekend if I can complete my required case assignment for my doctoral studies (that must take priority).  I went too long without HF (other than 11-meters) in my vehicle so I hope this works out.  My antenna is a Opek HVT-400B which covers from 80 to 10 meters on HF plus VHF.  The only disadvantage is the need to use a jumper cable to switch bands.  If anyone has a better solution for a receive only antenna, please let me know.  I will report on the results once it is finally complete. Only the antenna portion is installed.  The radio and power cable installation are next.  I would have used my Icom R-75 but there is no room to install it without purchasing an expensive radio mount system (use by law enforcement) and I would have to remove my center console.  The Alinco has a detachable head which will be mounted on top of my 11-meter transceiver for easy access.  I welcome any advice for mobile HF use.

V/r
Vince

[SWL MONKEY]

I use a ALINCO DX70 with LDG auto atu in my van I'am a ham as well but like to SWL when I'am mobile has 100 memory channels and use various antennas as I TX&RX 
Easy to use no fuss radio
My van is diesel and get minimal electrical noise  though on my works truck had  piezo crystal injectors (smiler to what's in a electronic cigaret lighters) and boy where they noisy

[vhavrilko]

I did finally install the Alinco with the Opek antenna and it pulls in signals very well.  The only two issues are: first, the Opek antenna needs a jumper to switch bands so you need to pick the band you want to monitor before you start driving.  Second, even with the noise blanker, I have unacceptable spark ignition noise above idle.  I just purchased two West Mountain Radio CLRspkr units, one from Universal designed for the vehicle and their latest one purchased directly from West Mountain Radio which I am trying out in my shack.  I will temporarily install it in my 2012 Dodge Ram 1500 and try it to see if it eliminates spark ignition.  It seems to work on other interference but the trick is to have the volume at a specific level or it does not work too well.  Also, you need to get used to the digitally processed audio but like all things in life, it is a trade-off.  No free lunches here.  I thought I would give it a try before I start grounding all the vehicle parts to the frame.  I read the forums on vehicle noise and it can be frustrating and turns out to be a hit and miss process.  I welcome any technical advice.

V/r
Vince

[DLKE]

I know several hams with hf equipment in their cars.
Have also an ICOM 706 HF Radio and an hombrew 2.7m long hf-antenna, otimised for 40m (7.1 Mhz).
That works fine at all times. DL and EUR will go allways and when condx ok for grey line, than also
contacts wid other continents (DX) works fine in SSB and mostly in CW (SchurrKey at left knee)

[skeezix]

Put the Pioneer in the car.

Compared to the Sony CDX-GT570S:
- No 43m pirate range. 
- 530-1640 kHz
- Audio bandwidth is narrower. While the fidelity suffers, it does take out the 5kHz hets (which was getting annoying).
- Noise suppression from the car is better (but does not completely eliminate it)
- 21 MHz SWBC band
- Seek button moves manually and doesn't scan unless held in (which is the opposite of the Sony, which drove me cRaZy and the main reason why I changed)
- SW reception seems a bit better, but unless I put them side by side, really can't prove it.
- MW reception does seem noticeably better.
- It doesn't desense as much when near a MW sta

Its not perfect, but does the job adequately.  Don't regret the Sony and was fun, even listening to pirates on it. That I will miss, but honestly, only caught a handful in the car.

The Pioneer stays for now as it does eek out an advantage over the Sony. Plus it has a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port for a memory stick with MP3s. So when radio is boring, can pop in a stick with The Conet Project...