New Retire Old Guy Ready to Hit the Road

[nightstars]

Hello from KL7IEK - George. Working to complete a Ham Shack in our RV and get out on the road this spring. I'm still going this way and that on antennas, but with due trial and error this should be overcome. So far we're at two VHF/UHF handhelds, Kenwood TS530S, 10 and 12 meter mobile, too many computers and cell phones. Hope to hook up with other Hams on-the-road. Are there any RVing Nets out there, e.g. on 40M or 80M? 73 from KL7IEK.:radio:

[NN5I]

Welcome, George. I think you'll have a good time. There are RVing nets, but I dunno when or where. Others here will have pretty good info on them.

Again, welcome.

[wa8yxm]

Regarding too many cell phones and computers.....

A Mi-Fi Device will let you hook up several computers but you have to pay for your data, Just had a chat with my Darling Daughter who used to be a Verizon cuss-too-more (Spelled that way for a reason) she complained about ever esculating bills and reduced service,,, The problem here is if you want coverage, VERIZON is the company that is most likely to provide it. I'm with #2. (Works well for me but that is mostly dumb luck).

WHen I'm in a park with wi-fi I use a common "Home router" to hook it all up. and a WI-Fi "Modem" (Linksys wireless game adapter, a no longer produced product.)

A good all around choice might be a cradlepoint router.. These can often accept either a USB stick or a Modem for the "WAN" (internet) side of things and handle all your LAN devices. My next router may be one of these.

Though I truly like the WGA for park internet, With a bit of help from George Thomas (www.amateurlogic.tv episode 3) It has a very good range to it.

[Radio]

And you'll like hanging out here on ORR.net.

Welcome aboard, (again!) :welcome:

[nightstars]

Thank you Wade. The rv shack project continues. I will keep folks posted on progress and if and when it is perdy, I will post some pictures. 73's George KL7IEK

[nightstars]

WA8YXM - I normally just tether my phone and hope for an open Wi-Fi. Cheers and 73's from GeorgeKL7IEK

[wa8yxm]

Things have changed since I set up my rolling shack but.. Back then I had a Wife who was not really a fan of Ham Radio.. So I needed a room I could close off for the radio.. Turns out this Motor home has one and a half of those.. The one comes with a shower, 2 lav's and a toilet.. The half, has only one lav and a toilet. And a Kenwood TS-2000..

Of course one factor was the location of the main fuse panel for the motor home... This smallest room in the RV is seperated by in interior wall from the main RV (Well 3 of 'em, the 4th wall is an exterior wall) on one side is the bedroom, the other side is the living/dining/main/great room and the other side of the wall opposite the exterior wall is a hallway.

ANd the fuse panel is on the hall side of that wall (With access from teh back, that is half-bath side)

So the best 12 volts (Well 13.6) in the motor home is .. Right there.

Nothing like having a TS-2000 with an 80amp power supply (Progressive Dynamics 9180 with optional wizard) and around 500 amp-hours of back up power. (What's surrounding the inverter)

[wb5nfc]

Moved to new CQ thread.

[N3LYT]

Hello from KL7IEK - George. Working to complete a Ham Shack in our RV and get out on the road this spring. I'm still going this way and that on antennas, but with due trial and error this should be overcome. So far we're at two VHF/UHF handhelds, Kenwood TS530S, 10 and 12 meter mobile, too many computers and cell phones. Hope to hook up with other Hams on-the-road. Are there any RVing Nets out there, e.g. on 40M or 80M? 73 from KL7IEK.:radio:

7.265 I thing they are on most nights around 7 EST.

[nightstars]

Thanks for all the great comments. Completed the radio desk and shelf today and have them installed. Tomorrow I'm taking on mounting the 10-40 meter vertical. Also plan on wiring in an additional 20 amp plug. Nice that the power distrabution box is right back by the radio desk. Still waiting for coax.

http://www.openroadsradio.net/attachments/photobucket/img_11727_0_886d0c941e1e2e12509c091d9a133502.jpg

[wa8yxm]

WA8YXM - I normally just tether my phone and hope for an open Wi-Fi. Cheers and 73's from GeorgeKL7IEK

That is what I do too George.

On the road I tether the phone (Well turn it into a hot spot, Works better than tethering on this computer).

During the summer both of the parks I frequent have Wi-Fi. of varying quality. In the winter one of 'em has wi-fi good enough to stream video on Wed's after 9pm (The only time of the week I wish to do that so though it likely works as well at other times I'll never know cause I've no motive to know).

The other park has rock solid 4G on the phone.

[nightstars]

Put power on the old TS-530S. Seems the microphone has died while in storage, or that's what I'm hoping, considering the other alternatives. Anyway progress continues and I'll keep the photos coming as I get projects complete. Cheers KL7IEK - George

http://www.openroadsradio.net/attachments/photobucket/img_11731_0_89a8d335670a6c3c66cc5110d4a38b83.jpg

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae231/nightstars1/VerticalAntenna10thru40meters_zps0cb9ad4b.jpg

[nightstars]

Well KL7IEK RV is up and on-the-air. Maybe I'll try the 7191 net in the morning. Cheers and 73's.

[wa8yxm]

There are a couple of nets for RVers in fact, one is the RV service net and another is the RV-net, one is on 40 meters around 8pm eastern as I recall, sorry do not have the frequency handy at this operating station but I can look it up or given the time (Every night by the way) you can likely find it easily enough. Not so many RV nets on 75/80 as mobile/portable antennas tend to slough off at longer wavelengths.

Batteries wend dead on the KB or the other laptop I have here, Spares stored next to TS-2000,,, Memory (TS-2000's) says 7265 KHz for that RV net.

Digital memories are very handy some days.. (I have not yet copied the radio to this computer or I could have looked it up here.. Strange the batteries going dead in that wireless KB today.... I bought spare batteries.... YESTERDAY!!!! Something is clearly not working as Murphy planned.