A99 on the mobile

[579]

I've been thinking about mounting a A99 on the pickup, when I'm stationary. Right now I have a ss 102" mounted on the toolbox of my truck. I was going to mount a 3' pole to the toolbox, put the A99 on it, that way I can use the same coax.

Do you think it's a worth while idea?
Would I see much of an improvement over the 102"?

[Twink]

i think it's a cool idea if you can't set it up at the base. where would you park the truck?

[TheCBDoctor]

Hi,

You would see a great improvement on both receive and transmit. As long as you are stationary, and do not forget to pull it down before you go mobile again. No ground plane is needed with a full wave antenna. You may heed to go to 36 feet of coax. If are using 18 feet of coax now; try it. If you have problems, barrel another 18 feet to the existing coax for a total of 36 feet.

[Texas Mobil 219]

If you got an reciever hitch on your truck. Weld about a 2 to 3 foot pole on it. That way when you go mobil in your pickup all you have to do is take it out and lean it up on the house or lay it down. When you get home. Slider back into place.

Just a thought.

[linx]

There's someone local here with one on a receiver hitch. I've also seen beams on receiver hitches.

['Doc]

I would expect to see the same differences between an ordinary mobile antenna and a 'fixed' mounted 'A99'. The biggest difference would be the 'A99's height above ground. I would have to think that there would be an improvement over what you normally see with the mobile antenna.
Since an 'A99' is tunable, I think using your present feed line, no matter what it's length, should work just fine. If not, re-tune the 'A99'. That's why them 'rings' are there, isn't it?
How practical is the whole idea? Well, that sort of depends on if you think it's worth it. If you can put up with the inconveniences, why not? And unless your truck is longer than mine, you might find a red flag to the end of that thing (or take it apart)...
- 'Doc

[626]

Cool idea...

I think that should work. But, if you are going with a base antenna why not try other antennas as well. There are several bases in my town that run A99's but, every time i key they dont get heard and Im just running a 102 with a small 1x2. Any height advantages the antenna has can easily be made up for by parking your truck on a small hill and just using your 102.

Not trying to be a wet blanket. The part about this hobby that I really enjoy is the experimentation. I would be interested to hear the feedback.

GUNNY

[TwentyTwo-Zero]

The mobile A99 works quite well - as I'm sure other base antennas would. During the last cycle I did exactly what you are curious about. I would take the A99 and 3 5' sections of mast up to my favorite hilltop and set it up. For quick set up the A99 was already clamped to one of the pieces of mast. Screw the antenna sections together, assemble the masts, slide it into a 1' piece of tube that was welded to a receiver hitch and slip a pin through to hold it in place. I had a 3' ground strap and grounding rod (already connected to the mast) that I would pound into the ground. Coax was also connected to the antenna in advance so all I had to do was disconnect the mobile antenna and connect the A99. I did a lot of DXing from that hilltop...

[Texas Mobil 219]

I think in going to build one for my truck. I just a good idea in my openion. May design it to were i can spin it to the side. Lock it in place. Put it together. Unpin it and swing it up. That way i would be able to get it up there. Auto Cad here i come. LOL

[PONY EXPRESS]

I wonder what would happen if you mounted it on a back bumper and somehow tied a rope to it that bend it over toward the front bumper and tied off.
So its clearence would be only about 12 ft tall before it doubled over toward the front

[Texas Mobil 219]

Im thinking it would be directional then wouldn't it.

[579]

I'm running a Galaxy 99v, and an X Force midnight special 700, on that 102", and gets out and hears great. I'm running rg-213 coax, so that's why I'd like to mount the pole to the toolbox. Just unscrew coax from 102", and screw it into the A99. I have a few different locations that I sit. One that is about 5 miles from my house. I mostly use it for dxing, but sometimes go their for local. It's supposed to be the highest natural elevation in eastern Ontario, but it's on the shoulder of a road. Their is a open field, about 1/2 a mile from my house that I'd probably use the A99. I would take the three sections apart when not in use, but leave the mounted pole on the side of the toolbox. The base of the A99 would be about 6' off the ground.

I have a 2.5 s-unit gain when sitting on the side of the road, at that high location, compared to the field.

Would the A99 still have more gain in the field, compared to the 102" at the high location?

[626]

I'm running a Galaxy 99v, and an X Force midnight special 700, on that 102", and gets out and hears great. I'm running rg-213 coax, so that's why I'd like to mount the pole to the toolbox. Just unscrew coax from 102", and screw it into the A99. I have a few different locations that I sit. One that is about 5 miles from my house. I mostly use it for dxing, but sometimes go their for local. It's supposed to be the highest natural elevation in eastern Ontario, but it's on the shoulder of a road. Their is a open field, about 1/2 a mile from my house that I'd probably use the A99. I would take the three sections apart when not in use, but leave the mounted pole on the side of the toolbox. The base of the A99 would be about 6' off the ground.

I have a 2.5 s-unit gain when sitting on the side of the road, at that high location, compared to the field.

Would the A99 still have more gain in the field, compared to the 102" at the high location?

The more I reread this post the more I like the idea...

I think the main benefit to the A99 would be that it will be grounded via a stake or copper post in the earth. The 102 would rely on the vehicle as a groundplane. That coupled with the height would make a pretty good difference. Being that they are both vertically polarized and relatively omnidirectional, there may not be a huge gain difference. Now if you could park and put up a beam now that would be something.

A great test would be a side-by-side comparison from the same location.

Keep us posted please

GUNNY

[TheCBDoctor]

Hi,

There is one thing that many seem to be overlooking. A Full Wave antenna has an (ERP) Effective Radiated Power or gain. An I-Max would be better than an Antron 99, but the A99 has gain where the 102' of stainless steel has unity gain; that would be 1 or less due to losses. A 6 db gain is better than none.

The other is the antenna does not have to be grounded or have a ground plane, but taking a chain attached to the base of the antenna, and tossing that chain into the ocean will do wonders. Since a full wave length is 36 feet long you would, in theory, have to be 36 feet from the ground; again this is not a big concern because the Base Station antenna would have advantages over 9 feet of whip. The whip has less height, no gain, and requires a ground plane.

I personally would like to see you find a way to drive down the road with it on the truck . We did have one guy from around here that used to mount his I-Max on his Van and head for the high hills and park. He used heat too.

Respectfully

[freddo]

Aaron if you REALLY wanna do some "local DX" (groundwave), run up to Champlain Lookout in the Gatineau Hills (yeah, you have to cross into Quebec to do that!), 1150' high, great view and you'll reach all over, a good 80-100 miles all around, barefoot. How do I know, I used to do that years ago with a Shakespeare BigStick (pre-A99 days!), especially when it was rainy or drizzling, the city folk wouldn't bother to go up to the lookout to have a cook-out... great fun. All w/o a footwarmer too so with a receive pre-amp and a little juice, I'm sure you'll have a ball. All I did was prop it into a picnic table (E-Z to do), didn't bother with a ground or anything else, ran RG8 into the pickup. The BigStick would fit into the box when taken apart for the trip home.
BTW some local hams go up there every Field Day and get some major points on HF, VHF, UHF.