My antenna mount and location worked out great at the rally.. The antenna it self not so much. I lost the antenna, slipped out of the base/ set screw after couple hours off-road. Don't know if I should try again and use Locktight or get a different antenna such as the Comet.
Your antenna was fine it just needs some locktite. I took the setscrews out of my Comet and locktited them. My research has shown that any motorcycle installed antenna needs to be disassembled (or at least have the screws removed) and the screws need to have locktite installed. Mine is tuned really well already so I went full out and used red locktite haha.
Thanks, I had noticed that with mine and I had assumed I just had a short in the wiring, but this may very well explain it!
I want to look into using a more robust PTT switch than the one provided by Sena. Mine is messed up and do not think just replacing it will solve the issue for long. Need to look at possible adapters to use a PTT like the ones Rugged Radios offers I think.
Finally got around to testing my Baofeng + Pryme headset. I wear ear plugs. Took the speaker covers off and put the naked speaker in the lining of my G-Max modular helmet. The lining has holes there--for a headset? Put the radio on NOAA weather and traveled at all speeds on everything except off road. No problems at all. Durability? Remains to be seen. The PTT switch I removed from the velcro holder plastic and zip tied the switch onto an AdventureTech mirror extender. Perfect! WeeStrom. 2007. Tx test next week.
Pryme setup works great for listening. But the people listening to you will likely have a very different experience.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yeb1PjllFAQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> My Ham radio install using a cheap Baofeng dual bander. This particular UV-5R is over 2 years old and still trucking along just fine except for the volume issue which is why it's been relegated to motorcycle duty.
$40 radio, $400 of BT gear to make it wireless.... I am in the same boat and I think it is worth it. IF you do decide to upgrade the handset, I can recommend the FT-60R from Yaesu. Weatherproof, but significantly heavier if you don't replace the battery with Li-ion. Oh, and unless you get the FT-60 with no R from overseas you have to snip a surface mount resistor to TX on FRS, MURS and GMRS.
My buddy on the other end says I come through fine, as does he using the same Pryme headset. There is a fair amount of static however. I'll have to start chasing that down next. We were using MURS frequency only. I was ready to try 2M and 70CM when his battery fell out and lost. Saturday next we'll have another chance to do some more experimenting. We leave for Canada at the end of the month... In the mean time, I'm hoping to wire in an Amplirider amplifier which will take in directions from the GPS and music from an iPod as well as the Baofeng speaker output.
I'm actually running far less than 400 dollars of Bluetooth gear. Actually I think I might be under 300, somewhere around the 250 dollar range. I picked up the SMH-10 back when they were still 150 dollars each (pretty sure they are but haven't checked mine just keeps going) and found the SR10 on this site used for 90 dollars IIRC. I chose the BAOFENG cause if it bounces out of the cradle or the vibrations destroy it I'm not out a 150 dollar radio just a 27 dollar radio, and I've got tons of batteries for them now. This is the original one I bought over 2 years ago. Only issue is the volume rheostat doesn't quite work right anymore it's either on full or off. Not a big deal on the bike. I ouldn't mind having the FT-60R for it's wide rx though. Sometimes it's fun to listen into airband stuff. Yakima what radio are you using? I've found poor performance on MURS as it's just outside what most HAM radio HT antennas are designed for. If it's a Baofeng and you are using the stock rubber duck that thing isn't too great either since it's desgined for such a wide freq range and is a big compromise on most of the band(s)
If you go the external antenna route this is the one you want: http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/ncg-comet-ca-2x4sr-1593.html it will handle the MURS,FRS,GMRS and 70cm/2m range with a reasonable SWR in the unlicensed bands. (And I was quoting the current retail prices on BT gear, it is F'ing insane)
Just catching up on this thread and there is a lot of talk about power and antennas. If I may... db gain at the antenna works BOTH ways, receive and transmit. db gain in power only works for the transmit. To compare apples to apples you have to know what they are comparing. dbi or dbd. dbi is the comparison to a theoretical isotropic radiator dbd is the comparison to a dipole (something that actually exists). The gain difference is 2.7 db, if someting is 2.7 dbi it is 0 dbd. With that, especially for what we're talking about, motorcycle mounts, you want the biggest you can get securely mounted on the bike. Stoke mentioned the ground plane. This is essential on any 1/4 wave antenna. It comprises the other 1/2 of the antenna. But again we have to get theoretical, the antenna lobes will be symmetrical if the ground plane is equal in all directions if it is equidistant around the base of the antenna. This theoretical perfect is impossible on a motorcycle. Given where we have to mount at or near the rear of the bike your signal will favor the front or direction of travel. This "handicap" will diminish with the higher (5/8 or 1/2 wave) antennas. Also if you're going to use a quality SWR bridge to sweep the antenna on the bike, get out in the open and sit on the bike to do your testing. YOU are part of the antenna system. Last but not least, make sure you bond the base (mount ground) well. I suggest a piece of braid to the frame of the bike. Make it as short as possible. Me? I tried a Yaesu VX8, Sena 20S, and SR10. I used the rubber duck on the Yaesu. The end result was unsatisfactory. A true "Handy Scratchy". I have a Yaesu FTM-10 that I'm looking for enough real estate to mount on my RT. It's a 25 watt dual bander that I think has been discontinued. That with a good antenna should work good enough. Interesting enough, it uses the same cabling from the SR10 as the hand held (same mic connector). My 2 cents after near 30 years of Amateur radio and mounting radios in ALMOST everything I have owned. Gerg NZ6E
Everytime I've ever bonded an antenna mount to the motorcycle all I've ever been rewarded with is extreme amounts of noise. We experienced this same deal with Stokes antenna setup he tried for about a week. I don't know maybe we're doing it wrong. With the longer whips on my HT such as the 16 inch one and even with the shorter 8 inch one I've had good performance. With the 16 inch model I can hit the repeater on Palomar from nearly anywhere in the county from 50 miles straight line distance. This of course all depends on terrain. I really would like that external setup to work but again I've had no luck getting it to work. It worked for a few weeks then just stopped working when underway. At a standstill even with the bike running I have no problems. When it did work the SSB-5 gave me great performance on both bands. Thinking it was the ANTENNA it's self I moved it to the Jeep and tested it out at highway speeds with no issue so I figure it's got to be the mount or the coax that's giving me issues and not the antenna itself.
Possible ground loop issues? That is a MAJOR problem on a bike. In a car it's easy to hook everything up to the battery that needs power but on a bike it gets a bit problematic. Cars are inherently electrically quieter than bikes to begin with. With the testing on my bike I used the internal batteries only to avoid those issues. Coiling up the coax exacerbates the problem because it becomes an antenna of sorts to pick up the motorcycle noises. Torriods EVERYWHERE help but sometime they can be hard to fit everywhere. There are rather expensive junction boxes to power everything that are specifically designed for electronics to prevent ground loops. The computer on my bike is under the seat. Zero shielding and would/will be close to the antenna. Not sure how to deal with that. Direct case ground to the battery? I don't know, trial and error when find a place to mount my set up. Gerg
I was going to suggest if you tried the UV-5R on battery power and see if that eliminated your noise issue. I also assume you aren't running direct power to the SR10 while you are transmitting. Again, it's better to run if off the internal battery. You might also play around the coax cables going from your radio to the antenna. I had to try a couple different ones before I found one that worked the best. I had to stick with a pretty thick coax cable to get it work pretty good.
Just... no torriods on the antenna! =) I break almost all the rules, using thin coax and coiling it under the seat, but not running it off the bike power. I suspect the BMW has better built in shielding, but I could be just lucky.... The crappy pre filters and audio processing on the 5 series handsets is just abysmal. The FH8 is something of an improvement, and provides an 8w output option. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...nkCode=as2&tag=v87-20&linkId=LWR4PMDHH5S5KZYF You can also try adding a 19 inch "Rattail" to the antenna. Just a regular piece of wire attached at the base of the antenna. This counterpoise can give you better reception and transmission of signal. http://www.hamuniverse.com/htantennamod.html
Tried the counterpoise no increase in performance on 2m and on 70cm actually resulted in a decrease in performance. Also 12v or batter power doesn't make a difference on the external antenna. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually it's juts going to take some more trial and error. There's a "new" model of the UV-5R the BF-F8+ which is supposed to have an upgraded chipset over the older UV-5R but not the extra few watts of power of the HP. I'm really not to interested in the extra couple of watts of power of the HP it's line of sight UHF/VHF anyway.
I have the BF-f8+ I linked, it is a lot cleaner and more sensitive then the UV-5R, but still no where as clear as the FT-60R. Is it worth the $110 or so difference for the FT-60R? Meh. Probably not with the wind noise and all on a bike.
HAHA most seem to be. Can't blame us. I'd much rather sacrafice a 27 dollar radio than a 150 dollar radio espeically for a bike that sees dirt use. The UV-5R has some features I like to have over the FT-60R, but I would like the FT-60R for it's wide recieve. Have you put it on a power meter to see if it's actually puting out 5 watts? When I put my UV-5R on the bike on a meter I found it was actually making 5 to 6 watts (when it's supposed to max out at 4) on most of the 2M band and 4.5 watts on the 70cm band. There were a few frequencies that had it down to 4.5 or so watts on 2M but not many. I need to put my other 2 5Rs on a meter and see if I get similar results