20160726 - Ham Radio Setup

About 2 years ago, I met a friend up in Minnesota that was into ham radio.  He, like me, was an avid motorcycle rider.  We talked about how sometimes, particularly in the mid-west and west, you're nowhere near a cellular tower.  Those are bad places to be without communications.  Actually, in a pinch, I could press the alert button on my Spot tracker; but, that is a one way communication and the person on the other end really doesn't know what's going on.  Enter ham radio.  At the time, he was able to carry a portable radio in his saddlebag; but, nothing more.  I thought about that conversation often and while I had some down time, I decided to study for the Technician exam and get licensed.  I started studying  the week before field day, 2016 and during my study, I learned that there was a field day.  I sent a quick message to one of the local club members and the next thing I know, I was helping set up antennas and listening to guys chatting with folks all over the country.  It didn't take them long to convince me that I needed to get my Technician and General, so I started studying for that.  The next weekend, I sat for both exams and passed.  Introducing KM4VGK, a General.

I've been trying very hard to wrap up projects and not take on new ones until I've wrapped up old ones; but, that did not happen in this case.  I've been working on setting up the motorcycle so I could use ham radio while riding.  Several other things have been put to the side...finishing the carburetor rebuild on my Harley, home repairs, maintenance and decor for the new house, selling some stuff I want to get rid of and more.  About the only other project that's survived is cutting the lawn and keeping up with the weeding.

So, there are really 3 parts to this project - mount an antenna, mount a radio and connect the two.  Simple, right?  Not exactly.

I started out trying to build my own mount.  My idea was to use the luggage rack and mount the antenna to the side of the trunk mount.  My metal fabricating skills are non-existant.  Even still, I didn't do a bad job.  The only thing was that the antenna wasn't exactly rigid and moved around too much.  I couldn't have that.

So, moving right along, I decided the best way to do this was going to be to mount the antenna directly to the trunk lid.  It was clear to me that in order to provide some stability to the antenna, I was going to need a piece of stainless steel on top of the fiberglass and one under it to support the leverage produced by the antenna moving in the wind.  I can drill holes in fiberglass and in stainless steel; but, I can also wreck a 1,000 trunk.  The other complication with this is that the trunk is not flat.  It has some contour to it.

Living in Florida, I have access to boat stuff.  Boat repair people know about fiberglass and mounting things on fiberglass.  Boat repair people deal with grumpy people who are very particular about their toys, so quality workmanship is expected.  I brought the trunk, antenna and mount to Hudson Marine and explained the project to them.  They said they were equal to the task.  Actually, they said "hell yah, we can do that."   Well need to put some stainless steel top and bottom and rivet the two together to make it stable.  Well also need to waterproof it.  Well, the first part I thought of, the last two parts I did not.  A couple days later, I got a call that it was done.  It was harder than they thought.  The contour of the trunk top gave them some issues.  They would not explain to me the trade secret of how they bent the metal to match the contour of the trunk.  Here are some pictures:

The antenna is mounted in this one; but, blends in with my house.

I am very impressed with the job they did.  the only thing I don't like is that the trunk lid isn't even all the way across (the gray piece in relation to the lower black piece).  This could totally be my fault as this bike did fall on it's sign and could have taken the trunk out of alignment; and I just didn't notice.  I brought it back to them and they said there was nothing there to adjust it with.  I believe them.  The other thing is that inside the outside rim is an inner rim that is sealed with a gasket.  I'm confident that my belongings aren't going to get wet.  I'm also going to test with a garden hose.

So, moving right along, we have an antenna.  The second piece to this project is mounting the radio.  I don't have many choices.  I exchanged emails with Ram Mount as they have many options for motorcycles.  I saw a picture of a K1600GTL Exclusive with a tank mount base and inquired about that.  They said it will fit my bike.  They also said that the handlebar mount will work.  I liked the handlebar mount better, so I ordered that.  It did not fit.  I then ordered the gas tank mount and it should arrive either tomorrow or Thursday.  I'm betting that it will not fit either.  The GTL Exclusive had screws on the gas tank filler plate.  It is those screws that this mount attaches to.  My filler plate has no such screws and I'm not about to start drilling and tapping on an expensive bike.  Update forthcoming.

So, getting the antenna and the radio connected is the third piece.  The antenna cable fitting is not the same as my radio, so I bought an adapter cable.  That works.  The cable is routed under both seats.  What I don't like and can't change is that the wire travels within inches of the battery.  I don't know if that will have any bad consequences for the radio signal.  Also, the full cable length only gets me about mid way up the gas tank toward the filler neck.  It is unlikely that the cable will reach the radio if I were to mount on the gas tank as planned or have a local metal shop build me a custom mount for the handlebar.  I'll need another extension cable.  I think the extension cable I bought for this occasion was $40 something dollars with shipping, which leads me to a short rant.

I hate doing business by mail order.  Order something, pay ridiculous shipping costs and then wait a week for it to arrive.  If the part is wrong, you get to re-order and wait again.  I would much rather drive or ride hours to get what I need the same day.  If it doesn't work, you can take it right back in and exchange it for what does work.  Not all Internet things are good.  Rant over.

OK, so Ram sent me the gas tank mount.  They said it would work.  I trusted them.  Bad on me.  The problem was as I described above.  Thinking through this, I thought there might be an easier way, Velcro.  My gas tank has a gentle curve to it, so Velcro isn't going to provide as tight a fit as it would on a flat surface; but, I wanted to give it a shot.  So, off to Walmart I went.  The end product really is not bad at all.  Everything is stable, particularly the radio (and the Gerbings thermometer, bottom).  The least stable thing is the Sena SR-10 at the top.  This is where the most curvature for the tank is.  I will ride it like this for a little while to see if I like it.  If I don't, I can mount it on top of the gas tank filler plate.  There is enough room up there for the handlebars to clear it.  Not pictured is the PTT switch on the left hand grip.  It connects directly to the Sena.