Amateur Radio FAQ

[gamer_jim]

Finally got some time to work on mounting the 5100 in the truck.

How do you like it? Im thinking about one myself.

What antenna did you use and how did you mount it?

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[Occam]

It was get-around-to-mounting-things kinda weekend.

Finally made up my mind on where I wanted the FTM-400xdr’s control head. Had just the right 1/4-20 friction arm to do it, too. Except the 1/4-20 receiver on the head turns out to be some metric nonsense. So I pulled the back off, drilled out the threads, and tapped it for 1/4-20. A few minutes with the dash apart, and all done. Quite happy with it. And I finally got around to cleaning up that petrified latte foam from the console cracks, so there’s that, too.

 

[Antarctica]

Would love to have a nice dualband like some of these radios, but I can't get my head around paying nearly as much for a 'feature rich' dual band as I would for an HF rig or a shack-in-the-box.

And all the chinese crap doesn't excite me.

 

[Occam]

Would love to have a nice dualband like some of these radios, but I can't get my head around paying nearly as much for a 'feature rich' dual band as I would for an HF rig or a shack-in-the-box.

And all the chinese crap doesn't excite me.

Just for the record, Yaesu is a Japanese company, and this rig seems very well made (thread standards not withstanding - the metric fasteners are certainly normal on that side of the Pacific). No, this rig doesn't give off any of the vibes you'd normally associate with low-end Chinese electronics. And to top it off, the documentation is very well written, translated, and printed, with lots of good support info. A very different experience than that from so many Chinese shops. And I know, because I've been in the IT and photo/video industries for a long time.

 

[Antarctica]

Just for the record, Yaesu is a Japanese company, and this rig seems very well made (thread standards not withstanding - the metric fasteners are certainly normal on that side of the Pacific). No, this rig doesn't give off any of the vibes you'd normally associate with low-end Chinese electronics. And to top it off, the documentation is very well written, translated, and printed, with lots of good support info. A very different experience than that from so many Chinese shops. And I know, because I've been in the IT and photo/video industries for a long time.

Exactly what I'd expect from any of the "big three". I was referring to the $80-$200 stuff that's all over Amazon. The price of that stuff is tempting, until you start to look at how much better anything from Icom, Kenwood or Yaesu is!

Nice, clean install BTW...

 

[Occam]

Nice, clean install BTW...

It helps that it's an over-a-decade-old truck and we've crossed the it's-OK-to-drill-holes-wherever-I-damn-well-want Rubicon. That part is pretty liberating, and makes for better installs, even if GM never envisioned it that way. That little SmallRig friction arm has its other 1/4-20 going right through the wall of the back of that console compartment, anchored with a nylon locking nut. Very stable - no wiggle at all. Control line passes through another shameless but invisible hole. Tidy! And I just hang a ball cap on it when I leave the truck. So far so good. I'm now ready to fire up an expensive, fancy radio so I can listen to old guys 50 miles away talk pretty much entirely about how they installed their radios back in the day

 

[Antarctica]

I'm now ready to fire up an expensive, fancy radio so I can listen to old guys 50 miles away talk pretty much entirely about how they installed their radios back in the day

That's pretty much all Ham Radio is... ;-)

 

[MJD438]

How do you like it? Im thinking about one myself.

What antenna did you use and how did you mount it?

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I like the radio. Easy to use, clean sounding.

Antenna is from a friend, so I'll have to get back to you.

Mounted on a low profile Acari third brake light passthrough mount.

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[gamer_jim]

I like the radio. Easy to use, clean sounding.

Antenna is from a friend, so I'll have to get back to you.

Mounted on a low profile Acari third brake light passthrough mount.

Thanks, I spent some time today at reviews and I think I've talked myself into this one.

Have you done DPRS or APRS with this? I'm new to D-Star so I may be talking out of my ass but a review on YT I saw said you can still send messages to APRS via D-Star. Any experience with that?

I also want to be able to connect a laptop to it for PSK31 purposes. I think I can do that with the optional BlueTooth adapter. Any opinion on that?

 

[ToolAA]

It was get-around-to-mounting-things kinda weekend.



Finally made up my mind on where I wanted the FTM-400xdr’s control head. Had just the right 1/4-20 friction arm to do it, too. Except the 1/4-20 receiver on the head turns out to be some metric nonsense. So I pulled the back off, drilled out the threads, and tapped it for 1/4-20. A few minutes with the dash apart, and all done. Quite happy with it. And I finally got around to cleaning up that petrified latte foam from the console cracks, so there’s that, too.

I would have sworn that thing had a standard 1/4-20 thread. Nice install by the way. Oh one thing I’ve done is place all of the ham repeaters on VFO 1 and all of the municipal channels as well as NOAA and APRS on VFO2. When I’m working downtown I hear a surprising amount of FRS and GMRS traffic.

Have you tried monitoring any of the Wires-X rooms yet?

 

[Occam]

I would have sworn that thing had a standard 1/4-20 thread. Nice install by the way. Oh one thing I’ve done is place all of the ham repeaters on VFO 1 and all of the municipal channels as well as NOAA and APRS on VFO2. When I’m working downtown I hear a surprising amount of FRS and GMRS traffic.

Have you tried monitoring any of the Wires-X rooms yet?

I’ll bet they press in a different nut for metric-centric markets, and this one slipped into the Barbarian Export shipment somehow. My friend, the other barbarian is Mr. Machine Tool, so problem solved.

Haven’t quite decided how I want to segregate the two VFO memory stacks. I like the idea of being able to get to anything from 1 while 2 is APRSing. We’ll see!

Wires-X? One planet at a time on my first deep space mission, mister!

 

[Occam]

Have you tried monitoring any of the Wires-X rooms yet?

Of course now you got me curious. Alas, can’t seem to get any nodes to interact. I see the radio appearing to TX/RX after the “X” button hold down while tuned to several of the listed nodes, but no joy on what YouTube seems to be suggesting I’ll see next. Probably doing something wrong. Maybe after more coffee tomorrow.

 

[MJD438]

Thanks, I spent some time today at reviews and I think I've talked myself into this one.



Have you done DPRS or APRS with this? I'm new to D-Star so I may be talking out of my ass but a review on YT I saw said you can still send messages to APRS via D-Star. Any experience with that?



I also want to be able to connect a laptop to it for PSK31 purposes. I think I can do that with the optional BlueTooth adapter. Any opinion on that?

Nope. Newbie here still just playing on central MD repeaters occasionally. No experience in the digital modes as of yet. Sorry

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[ToolAA]

Of course now you got me curious. Alas, can’t seem to get any nodes to interact. I see the radio appearing to TX/RX after the “X” button hold down while tuned to several of the listed nodes, but no joy on what YouTube seems to be suggesting I’ll see next. Probably doing something wrong. Maybe after more coffee tomorrow.

Try tuning to the CARA repeater in Columbia. RX 449.475 TX Offset -5 CTCSS Tone 156.7 Hz.

You do not have to press the Red-X button to TX/Rx Wires-X traffic. So if you hear people talking that means you are hearing the repeater. It’s usually quite busy from 6-10am and 4-7pm.

If you don’t hear anything just key the mic for 1sec and you should hear the repeater respond or you could just call for a radio check If you are connecting, someone will respond.

Edit: For some reason the CARA repeater is working differently today. You will have to press the X button to connect. If successful you’ll hear a 3 beep tone and the lower display will change showing the callsign of the repeater KC3UJ. Then key the mic and you’ll hear a different beep tone and the display should read “Connected” in which case you should now be connected to the AmericaLink wires-x room, which I believe is the default room for the digital node on the repeater.

Sounds complicated but compared to programming DMR radio’s it’s really simple.

 

[Occam]

Try tuning to the CARA repeater in Columbia. RX 449.475 TX Offset -5 CTCSS Tone 156.7 Hz.

Alas, no joy. I’m probably just not good enough on my current antenna at 17 or so miles. There aren’t any other obvious WIRES nodes any closer, so guess I’ll have to test again when I’m physically farther north/east from the driveway at home. Thanks for the guidance!

 

[Occam]

Yup, it was a range issue. Eliminated some of the terrain between me and that repeater, and started hearing some choppy voice traffic. Climbed a hill, went another half a mile, and was able to use the big X to make the connection, and there we have it.

 

[gamer_jim]

I think I'm going to pull the trigger on this ID-5100A but I need some help deciding on an antenna mount.

I own a Browning BR-180 Antenna (37" tall) with an NMO connector. It's a pretty stiff dual band whip with a coil in the middle.

My vehicle is a Honda Fit, so it's a hatch back. I have a Larson trunk mount NMO that worked well on my Cobalt. I park in a garage daily for work.

Does anyone have an opinion on any of these 3-disc magnetic mounts? MFJ-336M or the Tram one. Most of the reviews for either of those manufacturers are not good.

Ideally I would want a mount that could swivel 90 degrees. So I could put it on the back of the hatchback door and then when I park in a garage tilt it 90 degrees to lay flat on the roof. Do they make such a thing?

Diamond makes the K9000LRM which is a motorized mount that does this but it's $120. I don't need it motorized.

I am not interested in buying an antenna with the built-in swivel.

Another option is to use the existing trunk mount and put it on the hood on the passengers side. That would work for my commute but I can't see the wife agreeing to that when we go out or travel long distances.

Would I loose much signal putting it on the putting it on the bumper, which is plastic?

 

[K31]

Ideally I would want a mount that could swivel 90 degrees. So I could put it on the back of the hatchback door and then when I park in a garage tilt it 90 degrees to lay flat on the roof. Do they make such a thing?


I am not interested in buying an antenna with the built-in swivel.

https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/comet-rs-720nmo-1196 ?

 

[TapRackBang]

Bonus: The Antenna Farm still doesn't charge sales tax while all the big ham shops do. (At least as of a month ago.)

 

[gamer_jim]

https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/comet-rs-720nmo-1196 ?

Thanks.

I did some research and I think I'm going to go with this:

https://www.gigaparts.com/comet-antennas-cp-5nmo.html

It's the same thing you posted but includes the NMO connector. I tried looking at my existing trunk lid mount but I don't think I'm going to be able to salvage it to use in the RS-720. I put my existing trunk lid mount on my car and it fits nicely on the passenger side hood but slopes down a bit. I think the 3 adjustable planes of the CP-5NMO should compensate for this and it still has a twist knob I could use to tilt the antenna downward. With it being on the hood it may even clear the garage I park in. Or at least clear the coil in the middle of my antenna.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll post pictures and a review when I get all this in. Unfortunately the Icom 5100A charges $35 for the mounting bracket of the main radio. I'm also getting the BT adapter. Hopefully it will allow me to talk hands free from the controls on my car's steering wheel.