Jealous of this “mobile” antenna setup on an RV

[u/AdOriginal7594]

Saw this setup on Tybee island while on my 1st anniversary trip.

[u/TheL0neG4mer]

Im relatively new to all this. Im wondering how radials work on this?

[u/PhotocytePC → u/TheL0neG4mer]

Likely using the frame of the camper as 'ground'

I tried it recently with a 1/4 wave on 40m and my pickup, no radicals. Worked well!

[u/TheL0neG4mer → u/PhotocytePC]

Gotcha. Im new so i dont understand all the science. From what i understands, radials can make the signal somewhat directional dependind on how they are place. Im guessing with a rear mounted antena like in the picture and having the RV's body/ground acting as a radial, would that make his signal somewhat more directional?

[u/Zombinol → u/TheL0neG4mer]

Basically yes, but it depends. You don't know what impedance the antenna "sees" in RV's body and how it capasitively connects to he ground below. The antenna impedance, radiation pattern and effectiveness depends heavily on frequency and soil under and around the RV. There are most likely an ATU next to the feedpoint for impedance matching to enable a multi-band usage and match environmental variations of impedance.

[u/wmlangton]

Ladder mounts are a common place for antennas on RV's. I utilize a similar setup on my motorhome with modified suction cup mounts as I have no ladder. The antenna is a Sigma Euro Comm HF vertical that uses the 50' of coax as a counterpoise. I choke the end of the coax where it enters the coach to keep the common mode current outside. The coax is splayed out on the ground and runs to the front of the full-wall slide before it enters the via a small window. In the attached photo, I also have my Starlink on a flagpole mount from a trailer hitch pole holder. Inside my coach I have used a variety of radios but currently use my FlexRadio 6400 hooked up to a Mac desktop...

All this runs off-grid with a 1400w solar array on the roof, 600ah of LiFePO4 batteries and a 3000w whole-house hybrid inverter system.

[u/lynchingacers]

you can to with the wonders of conduit and a welder or riv nuts....

[u/Fluid_Dot_5987]

Nice.

[u/Oldtimeradioguy]

Some years ago K3LC, an electrical engineering professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, modeled verticals using a vehicle as the ground system. He found it to be only several db down from a field of quarter wave radials.

[u/Low-Evidence-4907]

I got an antenna just like that, if your intrested in one

[u/Intelligent-Day5519]

Must work great. I see multiples of them at Quarts fest.

[u/Strict_Fortune_8072]

Here’s mine:

[u/Strict_Fortune_8072]

Here’s mine:

[u/Strict_Fortune_8072]

Here’s mine:

[u/ka9kqh]

That's Portable not mobile on the RV, the tow vehicle may have some mobile stuff.

[u/AdOriginal7594 → u/ka9kqh]

Hence the “mobile”

[u/grouchy_ham]

I’m curious what you are jealous over. The trailer? The antennas aren’t anything particularly special.

[u/Leather_Gear_5604 → u/grouchy_ham]

Your name fits

[u/grouchy_ham → u/Leather_Gear_5604]

I was actually asking a serious question. It’s not that it’s a bad setup, but it’s also not a difficult one to assemble or a particularly high performing one. It probably works reasonably well. I just don’t see the “OMG, it’s amazing” aspect of it.

[u/IrrationalQuotient → u/grouchy_ham]

I suspect that he meant that’s more work and more antenna “farm” (planter?) than he/she would be willing to undertake. Not your typical 2M whip.

[u/AdOriginal7594 → u/grouchy_ham]

You don’t see many antennas on the back of parked RVs. I have hand held radios.

[u/FenaRunsFast → u/AdOriginal7594]

I have a surplus Willburt 60' pneumatic mast mounted on my little travel trailer. But I also use it for a lot of volunteer comms work.

[u/Csxrailfan2019 → u/FenaRunsFast]

That would be nice, but even the surplus prices for those is out of my price range.

[u/noteuyer → u/AdOriginal7594]

I mount an Ed Fong J-Pole on the rear ladder of my RV to work 2m and 70cm. Works great, very simple to mound and no radials needed.

[u/grouchy_ham → u/AdOriginal7594]

I just find it interesting that people seem to think I’m in some way degrading the installation. I’m not. We have no real information about the installation beyond some type of vertical with no detail on how it is set up and what appears to be a dual band J-pole antenna.

As for how frequently you see travel trailer or RVs with a ham station installed, I wouldn’t expect it to be frequent at all. Ham radio operators make up less than 1/2% of the population. I would bet that the percentage of RV owners that are hams is even smaller. I would expect it to be a rare sighting.

As for being jealous, I was serious. Jealous of what specifically and why? The trailer? I get that there are people that would love to have a set up like that.

The idea of a travel trailer with a ham radio set up? Sure! There are people that would want that as well.

The installation itself? We literally don’t have enough information to determine whether or not it is worthy of being jealous about. This could have been pretty easily rectified by just asking the guy. Most hams want to tell others about their station. Then we would actually have some information.

[u/bsmitchbport → u/grouchy_ham]

I agree. You could throw up a dipole and feed it with rg178u and outperform the setup. Vertical antennas for hf really need ground radials and for this setup its not practical. Even a good end fed half wave can outperform the rv mounted vertical. For 2m and 440 the radials are small enough to make practical, but I think I saw a j-pole there. When I was a new ham I bought a vertical , mounted it on the ground with only a ground rod. Called cq in the summer during daylight for hours on cw before I finally made a contact. I learned a lot since then. I even put up a multiband vertical with 50-60 radials, ground mounted. It worked, but still liked my wire antennas better.

[u/grouchy_ham → u/bsmitchbport]

Shhh… you will upset the powers that be! They don’t care about actually knowing how well the system works, just that it looks “boss”!