Golf Sportwagen Mobile Setup

Moving my mobile rig into the Volkswagen presents a number of issues. Unlike the Jeep, which had a multitude of places to mount equipment, the Golf Sportwagen makes more efficient use of space for VW gadgets and options. Finding even a little space for the FTM-400 head, without blocking VW gadgets or sitting out of reach up on the hot dash, is quite a task. 

After a few trials, I settled on giving up the use of the storage box in front of the shift console, as I think it's the least intrusive, and safest place. The head is attached with a Ram flexible stem mount, which is attached to a 1/4" thick piece of oak cut to fit in the opening of the compartment I pulled from the dash.

The Sportwagen has a great place to mount up to a few radio bodies. On the driver's side of the rear cargo area, there is a trap door in the sidewall, located behind the rear wheel well. Remove this trap door and you have a solid, removable mounting platform for radio bodies and accessories. It makes for an out of the way mounting location that is easily accessed for servicing the gear in your mobile "utility room". The bodies remain in the climate controlled area of the car, and are hidden when the rolling cargo cover is pulled to the rear.

Power is supplied by a RIGrunner 4005H mounted above the radio body, which is wired directly to the batter with double fuse pairs on each end of the feed line. Power for the FT-991A or any other rig is ready and available for field day. 

The Comet NMO antennas are mounted on two stainless brackets I made and attached to the roof rails. Everything is electrically grounded, so after running the Comet CAA-500 Mark II on the setup, both antennas are about as good as it gets.

ZUMspot Nextion

Ah, the awesome ZUMspot, a digital voice door open to the world! How fantastic it is to talk all around the world with no static and no noise, like everyone is in the same room! Very cool! Between all the modes of digital voice, I have to say my favorite is YSF C4FM for its exceptional voice quality. My second favorite is DMR, but this requires getting used to the frequent "R2D2" picket fence sound.

The thing about the ZUMspot - and many other hotspots - is there is no display. It has the Pi-Star on-board html software, but to see the station information requires using a second device. But since this technology is fairly new, it is evolving very quickly. This is a good thing.

Riding along with this forward momentum, I'm now exploring computer programming for Raspberry Pi, and designing programs for the Nextion display. As it goes, I now have an awesome 3.2 inch Nextion touch display programmed and connected via USB to my ZUMspot. OMGoodness! It is, yes, AWESOME!

Next? Maybe program links to QRZ on the call sign...

Yaesu FT-991A with GPS

I'm not sure why, but the Yaesu FT-991A does not come with a built-in GPS unit. So if you want that data included in digital QSO's, you will need to connect your own external GPS antenna. Now comes the Garmin GPS18x PC, a fully compatible NMEA GPS, WAAS enabled antenna that connects to the FT-991A's GPS/CAT DB9 serial port. Power is supplied by a 12 volt plug into my Yaesu FP-1030A power supply.

Setup is pretty simple with radio menu 028 set to GPS1, which is the the default setting. Plug it in, and turn it on. Wait, slow down. Did you get that?

Now when you key up on a C4FM repeater - as well as with a few other functions - your location/distance is also transmitted/received for the other stations. And if it makes your day, you get the cool little green GPS satellite icon showing up on the FT-991A touchscreen. Nice!

Update: Oct 2020 

With a Powerwerx PowerPole-to-cigar lighter adapter, I plugged this into my RIGrunner 4007U because I kept hitting the plug sticking out the front of the power supply. This GPS is working great!

Here Spot!

As I said previously, my home, mobile, and HT radios are all Yaesu with but one exception, that being a recent purchase of a Tytera MD-390 HT for DMR.

For several years now, I have been gaining interest in VoIP and digital comms in general. A Yaesu HRI-200 WIRES-X node might be pretty cool, but to my understanding, I would have to dedicate a Windows computer and a Yaesu C4FM radio like my FTM-400XDR. That is a bit more investment than I am willing to commit to given I don't even know if I will like it, so I began searching out other VoIP solutions.

After a bit of research, I decided to purchase the ZUMspot RPi kit which includes the ZUMspot-RPi UHF board rev. 0.4, Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless, and a micro SD card programmed with the Pi-Star software image. I also bought a layered case to keep it all safe.

After getting it assembled into the case, and setting up the WiFi and software, my first impression  was, "This thing is awesome!" Talk about easy to set up, this was so quick and simple. And how does it work? Fantastic!

One of the first "rooms" I connected to was the FCS00290, America Link WIRES-X. Immediately I hear clear, crisp, full-quieting digital voice from fellow HAMs in Australia, Japan, England, and Wales. Very cool! The one problem I had, though, was feeling as though I was cheating or something. Having a QSO on the internet just isn't the same as a QSO using only my own equipment, but man, it sure is interesting. Effortless QSOs with people all over the world. Who'd a thought!

And the ZUMspot is smaller than a 1 inch cut-off from a piece of 2x4 stud! Totally awesome!

More later...

She's a 10, or 11

So there it was, the littlest thing I ever did see. At first I couldn't believe it, but sure enough, there it was. A dinky little 4" x 4" x 1" thing that she said was the real deal. Yes, it was the tiniest, I mean the tiniest 10 meter radio I have ever seen. Wait, what? Yes, a dinky little radio described as a 10-11 meter Ham/CB radio. And now she has my full attention.

The short-story version has me doing some focused web surfing, a lot or research, and in the end finding that several roads all lead to one place. The Albrecht AE-6110, the Anytone Smart, and a few other sticker names are all stuck on the same radio. Prices were as high as $170, and as low as eBay's cool $58, with free shipping. Yes, that's right, short-story. Oh yeah.

So what's the big deal? No big deal! In fact, it's the tiniest deal I have ever seen for what's purported to be a worth-every-dollar-and-then-some transceiver that operates on both the 10 meter Amateur band for those of us with a ticket, and with a tiny mod either way, runs square on the "11 meter" or Citizens Band for those without a ticket. Whaaat? Yup. For $58 bucks, I decided I just had to try this.

During my research, I found several links to making the tiny - go figure - mod. There are some good YouTube videos and at least one or two really good blogs on this. Then I got to thinking about it and surmised that with a little help from a Digi-Key KAS2102ET DIP switch, the radio might be able to do either/or with just a "little" hood-pop, click, click, and she's a 10 or 11.

My research on this little radio also led me down another path. Is there such a thing as an antenna that works on both 10 and 11 meters? In the US, it seems solid options are hard to come by. Since the radio has a number of European frequency settings to choose from, I did my data digging around Old Blighty.

Blimey! What's that, Guv? The prized Les Wallen Modulator antennae. Seems Les and now a few other chaps have been making the Modulator for decades, and you can spot one for only about 20 quid. Crikey! Ends up this config is the cat's pajamas for this sort of thing. Now just get one on the way, and Bob's your uncle!