military whips

[lawdawg79]

Hey guys, still in the build process on my K5 which is going to be a bug out/expedition rig. I plan to install communications equipment, ham, cb, and I have a Marine radio someone gave me but dunno if thats worth installing, I dont know much about radios other than CB and the 800mhz radios I use at work. Anyways, my PD got 3 humvees from the military, I can get all the leftover radio stuff out of it if I want it as it wont be used by us. Whips, whip mounts, antenna cable, and speakers and such. Should I get all that stuff or will I not really need it when I get a ham and operator license. I dont mind having a big whip on my K5 like a cucv, I think they look cool. But if there is no benefit in using one i may not grab em.

 

[diesel4me]

I would get what you can,if they were free,why not?..the mounts at the least would be worth having,most likely a CB whip would probably fit or could be adapted to them--the whip itself might be close enough to CB frequency to be used too...

I saw some brand new military surplus mobile antennas at a flea market last summer,the guy was asking 75 bucks each for a whip with a ball mount..
They looked really rugged,more like a base station whip...

A friend I often meet up with there is a radio "nut" and is always searching for old vacuum tubes,antique radios,and he's into ham and SSB radio,he looked at them,but passed when the guy wouldn't take less than 50 for one--he had about a dozen of them for sale...

My friend said he wasn't sure what frequency they were made for,probably somewhere near the 27 mghz CB band,(11 meters?) and he is more into the 144 Mghz ham bands,because with the repeaters they use,you can practically talk cross country with them..

 

[lawdawg79]

Well I would like to be able to talk across the country if not worldwide from my K5, obviously I need the proper license and equipment. Im still learning about all that, are there mobile hams I could put in my K5 capable of this? Like I said im still learning but want to have everything built and in place for when i get a HAM installed.

I guess ill go ahead and grab everything and sit on it til I get it installed.

 

[diesel4me]

I dont know that much about ham radios other than they use the 144Mghz band mostly,there are some UHF frequencies in the 440 Mghz bands also..

The antenna's get shorter as the frequency goes up...a CB requires a 9 foot whip to be a 1/4 wave length antenna,to be able to make a good "match" to the radio...the 144 Mghz antenna would be much shorter,the UHF even more so..

I "almost" got a ham license way back in the late 60's when I was only 12!--was taking classes to learn morse code and how to build a tranciever out of an old vacuum tube TV set !--but my dad got a new job,we had to move,so I never did get to take the test,and all my "gear" was left behind at a neighbors house (never did get it back either )...since then the world has come a long ways...now you no longer need to learn morse code and I hear the license is pretty easy to get,the test is not that hard..

I would google "ham radio" and look for some ARRL Handbooks at a library,or maybe they are even online now,those will tell you all you need to know about how the radios work,what frequencies they use now,the repeaters,etc,and how to make your own antennas,etc...my friend likes his radio because its range is often better and the reception as clear as a cell phone ,without a bill...

 

[campfire]

Well I would like to be able to talk across the country if not worldwide from my K5, obviously I need the proper license and equipment. Im still learning about all that, are there mobile hams I could put in my K5 capable of this? Like I said im still learning but want to have everything built and in place for when i get a HAM installed.

I guess ill go ahead and grab everything and sit on it til I get it installed.

Anything ever happen with this?

 

[az_762_nato]

The ones to get are the EPLRS AS-3449 antennas if youre running in the 440mhz range. They bolt into the regular military mounts and work great on 70cm