Ham in Jeep...

[Austen]

I can stand a two footer i thought i was going to need something like 6-20 feet high off my kj. What does duel band do as oposed to what?

 

[nzoliver]

Hi,
Well, 2m (144Mhz) and 70cm(430Mhz) are the sort of starting points in to Ham radio. 2m is the most common and you will find that is what most repeaters are on. 70cm is good in the city as the UHF signal will bounce around the bulidings a little better. 2m travels further in the country and is better in hilly country too.
I'm picking that most people in the US go for a dual band radio although they use 2m 75-90% of the time. A bit like here really!!

 

[Austen]

Now that is an informitive post! Thank you. Now can you Tell what it takes to het the license?

 

[nzoliver]

Hi!
Well, I think for the US you will need to go to:
http://www.hello-radio.org/

This should point you in the right direction. You can buy a HAM radio to listen but you cant transmit untill you are licenced. Equally you could buy a scanner which would be much cheaper and listen in to 'how it's done' with one of those.

Oliver

 

[al7fi]

On the other hand

You could get your General class license (US no longer requires you to test on CW (morse code) and get on 20 meters (14 Mhz) and hook up with oliver down in ZL Land. The worlds the limit once you are licensed. Spend as little as you wish or as much as you can afford, or (shudder) even build it yourself!

Good luck and 73 from AL7FI

 

[Corwyyn]

Who else has something like it? Keen so see as the KJ is limited with its' 'roundy' dash. The KK is way better for 'stuff' (beer)

Well I have my dual-band Kenwood mounted on the side of the center console:

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And the control head is on top of the dash hump; I also have the control head for my Alinco HF radio mounted on the center of the dash above the vents:

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Here are a couple of pics of my antenna setup. It's a lip mount on the tailgate with a Comet dual-band antenna about the same size as Oliver's:

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And yes everything is dusty I'll take it down and spray it off every couple of weeks and wipe the inside down, just hadn't done it before I took the pics.

As far as getting your license, here in the U.S. the ARRL website as mentioned is a good place to start, you can order study guides from them or any number of sources such as Ham Radio Outlet or Amateur Electronics SUpply. Here in AZ we have a weekly net (discussion group) on a local repeater that is geared towards using Ham Radio in offroad situations (although as with most nets all Hams are welcome to join in).

If you want anymore info on getting your license just drop me a PM

Cheers from AD5VG!