Ham HF Radio & Antenna?

[622BH]

I just took part in an Oregon Disaster Airlift Response Team (ODART) exercise this past weekend.
Our attempts at NVIS communications on 80 & 40 Meters were unsuccessful in connecting 90 miles. But I was able to connect out around 1000 miles...

SO, my question to those fellow Hams who are also RV drivers: What radio and HF antenna rig have you successfully installed in your airplane and where did you install the antenna?

73s, W8HMC

 

[rleffler]

I have an antenna from Delta Pop Aviation for APRS. It’s located underneath my RV-10 in the middle of the empennage.

 

[Bill Boyd]

With one or both stations aloft, a 90 mile QSO on 2m might not prove that difficult. Sounds like your issues were primarily propagation-related on 80 and 40 if you were making contacts at 1000 miles out.

You asked for experienced feedback on rigs and antennas, and I have none beyond 2-meter stuff (in the plane). Based on my HF land mobile experience (it's the only operating I do anymore) I'd predict success with a compact remote-able rig such as the IC-7000 I use every day in the truck, paired with a trailing wire antenna end-fed via an auto-tuner, or possibly the base of a screwdriver antenna using a slant wire to the tip of the vertical stab instead of a stainless whip upper section they are meant to be paired with. None of this is going to be easy to implement; HF antennas on aircraft are always an engineering challenge.

Have fun. And consider the 60m band for NVIS.

 

[Carl Froehlich]

We used a trailing wire on Bill Harrelson’s Lancair IV for his over both poles trip. It worked.

He used a standard ICOM radio with automatic antenna tuner - the tuner mounted aft near the antenna anchor point. The antenna anchor point was just forward of his VS. The wire is dragged on the ground prior to takeoff - so he kept a spare. Never needed it.

You will need to experiment with the wire length for your frequency(s) of interest as the tuner is not magic. I’d start with 30’ or so.

Carl
K0CU