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RecycledElectrons

Joined: Thu, Jun 2nd 2011, 04:57 Roles: N/A Moderates: N/A

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Power a mobile rig from a cordless drill battery? Jul 28th 2013, 23:51 7 15,538 on 21/11/18

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Two HF and one VHFwith a triplexer? W1VT on 3/9/13
Thank You for Your kind reply! That's a great product,

but I now realize: There are about a dozen antennas out there with "8900" in their names, that are quad-band antennas. They are compromises. They do not get all the 6M band and all the 10M band, but they seem to claim to work without an antenna tuner. They run $80 to $160 each, and will break like any antenna.

I am going to resist the temptation to run 4 separate antenna mounts (for now) and get an antenna that claims to work with a bit of tuning. (My MFJ antenna tuner should make tuning easy.)
Two HF and one VHFwith a triplexer? W1VT on 2/9/13
I have a similar problem. I recently ordered a Yaesu FT-8900R. It has a single 239 (259) connection for the antenna. It does 10m, 6m, 2m, and 70cm, which is everything I want to run mobile.

I thought it would be easy: I have one antenna mount for each frequency.

The problem is quadplexing the antenna.

I think can get a triplexer that will divide it into 70cm, 2m, and everything else.
Diamond MX2000: http://www.gigaparts.com/store.php?action=profile&sku=ZDM-MX2000
Comet CFX-514: http://www.gigaparts.com/store.php?action=profile&sku=ZCM-CFX-514
So my first question is: would one of these work, with the HF output tied into a manual switch for 6M and 10M? My Yaesu puts out 50 watts PEP, max.

The problem is: Using a manual switch seems like a good way to destroy my radio's final output stage if I have it set to high power and key into the wrong antenna. Is this a problem with the Yaesu FT-8900R, or is it sufficiently protected to prevent this?

A triplexer that would split off 10M, 6M, and VHF/UHF would work better for me, as there are lots of 2M/70CM combination antennas, but I can not find such a triplexer.

Is it possible to cascade a dupexer after a triplexer? I seem to remember that this is a bad idea, but I don't know why.

Is there such a thing as a 10M/6M duplexer?
Power a mobile rig from a cordless drill battery? RecycledElectrons on 2/9/13
I've got it assembled.

One problem: that "20A" panel mount ammeter from eBay actually reads 20.0 at 1 Amp, 10 at 0.5 Amp, etc.

http://www.Next2070.com/Radio/DC-DC_Converter.JPG

http://www.Next2070.com/Radio/18V_Adapter_and_Charger.JPG

(I need to learn to take better pics at some point. I apologize for the quality of my pics.)

It seems to work for power tools so far, and it runs a cigarette lighter socket in my apartment just great.

I use a cheap Imax B6 hobby charger to charge batteries that are plugged into the adapter. It lets me charge my home-refurbished lithium battery packs.

I have not tried it with a ham radio, yet.
don hirth KF5SQB dondel on 31/7/13
Economy? Do You have a gas or diesel powered automobile? If so, You could use Your car/truck to charge a depe cycle battery, and use that to power Your ham radio gear. (As long as You always have some gas in the tank.)

The exact details are up to You.

* How much power will Your rig draw? That, and the time You want to spend running off the battery will determine the size & cost of the battery.

* Do You park right next to Your ham shack, or 1/4 mile away? You could run a wire from Your vehicle to power Your ham shack (or at least charge the batteries.) Or You could leave a battery charging at Your car while You run off another one, then swap batteries every so often.
* Does Your vehicle has a low battery shutoff, or not? If not, it's risky to leave it charging batteries when it's not running. Do You have a friend next door who could give You a jump start? Are You comfortable leaving Your car running for a long period of time? (as long as Your need the power?)

Power a mobile rig from a cordless drill battery? RecycledElectrons on 29/7/13
RFI? I never thought of that, but it's easy enough to test once a DC/DC converter is wired in.

Yes, 12.0V DC is lower than I would like, but 12.0V DC/DC converters are much easier (and cheaper) to obtain than are 13.6V DC/DC converters.

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