HAM Radio

Articles that pertain to HAM Radio such as HF operation, contests, new equipment, etc.

Hamming it up in the Toyota Prius

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With the warm weather I took a few days to fix up the ham radio install in my Prius.

Equipment:
Radio: Yeasu FT7900R 50w VHF / 40w UHF Radio
Antenna: Diamond NR770NMO (for trips) and/or Comet SS-460NMO (for urban)
Mount: Diamond K412CNMO

Hatch Antenna Mount
Hatch Antenna Mount

The Prius is a fairly straightforward car to install a radio in.  Obviously as a hatch back, a special hatch antenna mount must be purchased.  I opted for the K412 from Diamond as it adjustable on 3 axis, so I was certain I could get the antenna exactly vertical. The manual suggests this mount is good for antennas up to 42″ in height.  The mount attaches to the car by the use of two “set” screws.  Make sure to read the instructions for the antennas you are using.  If your antenna requires a ground plane, make sure that the set screws make it through the paint and are touching the metal of the car chassis itself to form an electrical connection to ground.

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Updated Pro-96 Scanning on Linn County

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Hello All!  Back again with an updated Arc96 file ready for you to upload to your Pro92/Pro2096 –> Download Cedar Rapids P25 August 2014 Here <– In this revision I have broken out the banks in such a manner to easily allow the user to switch between scanning CRPD/CRFD/County and Fire. Bank 0: Linn P25: … Read more

Pro 96 Scanning on the new Linn County System

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Well the Linn County system has come online, and despite what I had originally thought, this scanner CAN be used to receive the new Linn County P25 system (CRPD, CRFD, etc)! There are a few gotcha’s that are explained in depth on Radio Reference: http://forums.radioreference.com/radio-shack-scanners/284784-pro96-tg-id-display.html http://forums.radioreference.com/iowa-radio-discussion-forum/283714-new-linn-county-p25-help-7.html These basically boil down to: update your scanner DSP … Read more

Updated Pro 96 Pro 2096 Cedar Rapids Police Scanner Config

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It’s been 3 years since I last posted an updated Pro 96/2096 scanner file for the Linn County metro area. There has not been a significant number of changes in public service scanning in Linn County in that time. However, I have revamped my scanner programming to cover a new approach in scanning. I am … Read more