While out at https://www.angleseycircuit.com/ or IO73SE at the weekend for a rally.
Inbetween stages/recoveries/stage turn-arounds I managed to work 3 x SOTA stations on FT-857 via mobile 20m whip
EA4HIH/P - EA1/AV-014
CT2HOV/P - CT/BA-013
EA2CW/P - EA1/BU-058
Cheers
John
m0vaz
Does that have a positive earth like the early LRs did?
No this as a 1999 Defender with a negative earth
If it did, would there be a way of connecting up a modern transceiver and antenna? I’ve wondered about this before, I’d imagine the main problem would be the groundplane for the antenna?
Nice Defender, John! Is that the 20m antenna I can see at the rear of the roof?
Now thats a good idea. It’ll make a change from sleeping in between stages.
Cheers VK2STG, yup thats the 20m antenna. Its actually roughly centtral to the roof rack,
I also took with me a 40m version.
Fraser, this is the first time I have done this. I wouldnt suggest driving through a forest with the whip on. The race circuit was OK, no bridges or trees to worry about.
That is also a fair point.
I have a single venue rally coming up in September. Ideal opportunity.
However, it’s on an active Royal Marines base.
I may get shot.
You could always ask to see if you can operate 
We can’t afford the ammunition any more so you’ll be safe 
That maker and others originally used a positive earth electrical system. Modern electronics gadgets have made that very difficult as a negative earthing system is more or less essential as it becomes very difficult to isolate such gear and prevent mistakes being made. A vk1 had an early land rover which he decided to convert to negative earth and reported the huge increase in ignition noise in his 2m radio. I wondered whether Rover continued with the positive earth in later models.
I think they gave up on that circa 1963. Most were subsequently converted from dynamo and +ve earth to alternator and -ve earth.
Of course, the un-altered ones are now worth ÂŁÂŁÂŁÂŁ more.
73, Fraser
A great deal of my yearly contacts are from my 4x4 truck over marginal roads and in wooded areas. I have found that if I use the 22 inch Hustler mast (the real short one) that keeps my overall whip to about 4.5 feet with coil and stinger. Less breakage at that length. On twenty it allows me to chase SOTA and POTA just fine. Not the best antenna, but it gives me contacts. GL OM John N0EVH
That’s what I was thinking…
and
My solution to this problem is base loading with a flexible whip, mounted on the front bumper - less efficient, I know, but any antenna is better than a broken antenna!
I have a couple of homemade antenna bases/loading coils made by winding solid copper wire on a 50mm PVC former, one that can be tapped to cover 80 - 15m (but primarily used on 80 & 40m) and another smaller one that covers 40-10m. Both are used with a 2m stainless steel whip similar to what’s used on commercial Aussie autotuning HF antennas i.e. Barrett and Codan. Actually, the whole principle is similar to those antennas - I think it must be “convergent evolution” if that’s the term I’m thinking 
of. There’s LOTS of overhanging trees on the fire trails that lead to SOTA summits - and on 4WD tracks generally, round here at least.
Most of my events are in forests, and having snapped and lost a 10m/6m/2m/70cm mobile antenna I learnt the hard way. (as I didn’t use 10m & 6m much) I replaced this with a dual band 2m and 70cm.
I might have to try some more SOTA and Motorsport combinations.
Show them you ticket, show them your ticket!!!
