Mobile Radios and How They Rate

  One of these days when I can afford it I will purchase a mobile radio for my vehicle. I have looked at quite a few of them in my various catalogs. There are some radios at the ham radio websites that have some interesting features. It is is just very difficult to choose form this list, but I will after income tax ha ha.

  I did check out the usual ham radio websites such as Ham Radio Outlet, Universal Radio, AES Electronics and DX Engineering. The other source of information I checked out was at Eham.net, because I find the abundance of information very helpful. The other considerations I take into account are the size of the radio and the size of the display on the radio. I tend to like a bigger display, because as I get older little tiny characters get harder to see.
  One of the other choices I look are what frequencies can the radio cover. When I check out the websites I seem to be drawn to the amateur radios that cover the high frequencies as well as the vhf and uhf frequencies. The only thing that stops me is the cost of the radios in that category. I will just have to save up my pennies.
  My preferences seem to be with Yaesu, Kenwood and Icom. One of my favorites is the Yaesu FT-857D mobile radio. It gets very good reviews at Eham.net, which are up around 4.5 out of 5. One it's in a small package, Covers a wide range of frequencies and puts out 100 watts. It covers the HF frequencies, 6 meter 50 mhz band,  the 144 Mhz and the 430 Mhz band. For More information check out the radio at this link http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=102&ProdID=698&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0 . Here is a picture of it below.

Dipole and Wire Antennas

  At the present time I am running a G5RV Lite dipole made by Radiowavz. It covers the 6 meter through 80 meter bands. Mine is at approximately 35 feet at the apex and each end leg is about 16 feet above the ground. The apex is on a mast connected to my chimney, one leg comes down to a tree in the front yard and the other leg comes down to a mast that my vertical antenna is on. Here is a link to the Radiowavz  website http://www.radiowavz.com/html/g5rv.html . See the pictures below. The drawing is an example of how a wire dipole can be set up.

Looking for a good Vertical Antenna

  When I was deciding on a vertical antenna it was the typical dilemma of what to pick. The first thing I did was look at the areas around my house to think of how much space I have. The other thing I had to take into consideration was what things may affect the swr on the antenna. A few examples are trees, houses and other metal objects. In my situation my backyard is very small. It is only maybe 23 feet from the house to the fence and about 26 feet wide. I do have a side yard, but have to watch out for the electrical lines to the house. Remember safety should always come first.