WB4SON

While I had programmed every repeater in my local area into my IC880H before installing it in the truck, I had no idea exactly where the repeaters were located, and I discovered that I was not able to bring all of them up.  I had purchased one of the small editions of the ARRL Repeater Directory to help guide me, but that wasn’t the easiest thing to use.

Yep — there’s an App for that.

Enter RFinder The Worldwide Repeater Finder.  This company has a simple to use App that is available for IOS and Android devices.  It isn’t free, it costs $9.95, but that includes full use of the database for a year (it can be renewed each year).  Once you’ve bought the App for one device, you use your logon credentials to access the service on any device (phone/tablet/PC).

RFinder has a basic search screen that allows you to search for repeaters within a specified distance from your current location (GPS position), or any other location that you would like.  You can also search for a specific machine by call sign.  As you can see from the image below you can restrict your search to certain bands as well

RFinder Search Screen

Once you set your search parameters, you press the “Update List” button which fetches the data.  Pressing “Show List” presents a screen like this one:

RFinder List of Repeaters

And if you press the “Map” button you will get a view that looks something like this:

RFinder Map View

I really like the map view as it plots my current location and gives me a good idea of where the machines are with respect to my location.  If you touch one of the towers on your screen you will see the call sign, frequency, offset, and PL information.

The only drawback I see so far is that you have to have a live data connection on your phone for the application to work.  That also means if you don’t renew the subscription you don’t retain access to your out-of-date data (unlike one of the printed guides which remains useful).  But given the price (cheaper than the list price of a Repeater Guide), the fact that the data is updated constantly, and what you can do with the data, that sounds like a good trade-off to someone who is on the road with ham radio.  Besides, that is one less thing I have to worry about lugging along with me as I always have my phone.

My WB4SON-mobile is a Chevrolet Avalanche.  Despite the fact that I’ve owned that truck for over a decade, I’ve never had a permanently mounted rig or antenna, relying instead on my handheld with a mag-mount antenna.  After about the sixth time of forgetting to take the antenna off the roof before entering the garage, I decided it was time for a permanently mounted antenna, but one that could be raised or lowered remotely.  Adding to the challenge is the fact that the Avalanche is quite tall, clearing the garage door by only a few inches.

I finally decided on a Diamond Antenna K9000 LRMO Motorized Antenna Mount.  (Note I said LRMO, the “O” means “Oversized” — my dealer insisted the standard LRM would work — it is simply too small).  This was mounted to the luggage rack, with the control cable and coax passing into an existing gasket between the passenger front and rear doors (sealed with a bit of RTV to prevent water incursion).  The two cables conveniently fit underneath the gasket, which allows them to be directed around to the front of the vehicle where they exit at the end of the gasket between the front door and quarter-panel.

Diamond K9000 LRMO Motorized Mount.

The only only trick I used was getting the coax and cable into the passenger compartment.  To do this, I pinched the gasket along the front edge of the door, and cut a small slit about 3/8″ long close to the base of the gasket.  This allowed me to pass the control cable and coax through the slit, putting the cables on the inside of the door frame.  At this point they were simply routed into the fuse box area of the dash as shown in the photo below.  Note that the gasket was also sealed with a bit of RTV to keep it from leaking and to avoid the slit growing longer over time.

Cables entering passenger compartment via slit in door gasket

Finally, the radio was mounted to the center console.  Here are two photographs of the antenna (a Diamond SG7500A) raised and lowered.

Antenna lowered prior to entering garage

Now all I have to do is to remember to put the darned antenna DOWN when I pull into the garage!  The rule is:  If the rig is OFF the antenna is DOWN.  Heaven help me when I forget (actually the mount allows that to happen).

Antenna in operating position (tip is ~10 feet tall)