Hi Dave, I absolutely love how you’re taking on ham radio! I’ve been a ham since 1998, and it’s really exciting to see high profile people advocate for our hobby!

Antenna coupling and grounding are something to study. The magnetic mount on the top of the Gladiator, doesn't make a good enough ground connection for the antenna. In the perfect world your cold side of the antenna be connected to the frame of the Gladiator. Then that short whip would probably be enough. Always enjoy your videos regardless of what you are sharing. 👍

Mr. David thanks for all the knowledge you share!

It's so cool that you're putting this info out there. You're one of the better presenters on KZfaq and any information you put out is done better than most. I'm happy with my little rink a dink Beofeng hand sets. Not that they are a great solution, but they are about as much effort as I'm willing to put into comms. If that changes, I know where I'm going to get lined out properly. As usual, great content. Thank you.

God bless, Dave. Bringing us real knowledge, hard won. Grateful to you boss.

Very cool, Mr. Canterbury. Just got my technician license and set up for 2 meter. Great to have comms in the backcountry, and em-comms during fire season. Glad to see your radio series!

I have been an Amateur Radio Operator since the 90’s. I used to run a parts store that had a Radio Shack franchise. I purchased an MFJ259 antenna analyzer to tune CB antennas for customers. I was amazed how much the SWR would change just opening a door or especially the rear lift gate on an SUV. Also if the vehicle was close to the building it would effect it.

Loving these radio EmComm videos!! Keep them coming, sir... 73 de BJ, KM4RB (licensed ham since 12/1986)

These series of radio videos have been fascinating to watch.

Dave, você é o melhor. 👍👍👍 Abraço aqui do Brasil!

Great video again Dave. I'm relatively new to Amateur Radio. Got my Technician license in 2021 and am studying for General now. It's good to see someone put the components together, tune the antenna for the band, etc. Since there's no amateur radio group of "Elmers" around to ask, anyone who can help me get my comms setup for best performance and to avoid unintentional problems is appreciated. Good idea to contact the Shark mfgr about whip. I think the little bead at the end does serve a purpose to keep signals clarity at a better level. Keep it up! 🤠

Hey Dave. Greetings from the UK. keep up the good work.

Awesome Setup you got There..

I bought a whole set of those Shark Sticks that were supposed to cover everything from 80 meters to 10 meters. It's been a while but to the best of my recollection. All the Shark Sticks are very narrow banded. SWR lower than 2 only cover a small portion of their listed band. I use a rig expert AA-55 zoom for all my antenna tuning needs and the following is what I have found. Your milage may very... Where you mount your antenna will affect the results and I'm sure variations in manufacture will also be a factor; On the good end of this... The 20 meter and 40 meter antennas are the best in the set. The good SWR range covers about 1/3 of the the band. Bonus #1... I found that with the addition or subtraction of a 3" inch antenna spring. you can shift the low SWR portion between the Data and voice sections of the 20 and 40 meter bands... Bonus #2... I also have an older 4' foot Fire Stick CB antenna which turns out to have 3 good SWR dips in it's band width. One nails the 6 meter band at 51 Mhz with a terrific 1.13 to1 SWR. It also gives me a very tunable 15 meters with 3 to 4 SWR across that band... Now for the bad... The 75 meter hits 4 Mhz with about a 2 SWR. The rest of the band needs a tuner and the addition of an antenna spring has no affect on this antenna... The 15 Meter antenna is junk. It lands a 1.3 SWR at 19.6Mhz which is centered between 15 and 17 meters. The SWR in both of those bands is very high, like 17 and 23... The 10 meter antenna is just ok but Like the 15 it lands between 10 and 12 meters but closer to the 12 meters giving semi-tunable SWR's of 6.5 and 4.5...

Dave Canterbury we miss you here in Indiana I know you were born in Indianapolis the same year I was I followed you on dual Survivor I thought you were an excellent participant on the show and I enjoy your channels on KZfaq I'm not much into the radios but I do admire listening to you explain it to us keep on rocking on Dave you got a lot of knowledge in your head

Dave, you already have the most important tool for being a good HAM. A glorious white beard!

The Jeep is the counterpoise in this antenna system if the coax ground is connected to the chassis. The Jeep is shorter in length than most vehicles, therefore you needed to increase the length of the radiator. The radiator AND the length of the counterpoise comprises the entire antenna system, and makes for either a bad or good SWR in tuning it. If the connection to ground is through a separate battery, not connected to the Jeep, the shield of the coax is going to be the counterpoise and will most likely be short also, making the radiator longer. ....Thanks for the Winlink demo, have it working FB de K0MP

Good stuff Dave. I’d be curious if you electrically bonded the Jeeps panels, doors & hood to the frame that you’d have the right ground plane to base the stick off of. I had to do that on one of my vehicles to work hams sticks and screw driver antennas.

I believe the problem you're having adjusting your antenna is a ground problem. A good way to check that is to check your standing wave, and as you're checking, grab the bottom of the mount. Where it is grounded. If your SWR goes down, you have a ground problem. Keep in mind a ground wire doesn't work as well as a ground strap. So if there is a ground problem, trace your ground from frame to body and make sure there is a ground strap. I never did like magnet mounts because one, they hold a little water between the magnet and your truck. This causes rust because the magnets scratch the crap out of your paint. Your standing wave should be 1.5 or less. Anymore then that just backs back up into the finals that produce power in your radio. So if you have finals in your radio producing power, and some of it is backing back up, and the final is still producing, you can easily crack a final. This happens only when you have the mic keyed, or producing output power. Think of an antenna setup as magnets, you know how magnets either attract, or repel. Well the power output of your radio is being repelled by the ground plane. This outburst power comes from your antenna and is repelled by your ground plane, and shot in the air. This power shot from your antenna will travel so many miles up and hit the atmosphere and clouds, then the power is repelled back down to earth, which skips back up in the air again, over and over. This is called skipping or skip. Sometimes you can contact a certain area and other times you can't. It depends on the atmosphere in the clouds.

I'm in WV and our SBC association is going to be doing natural disaster training and HAM radio is one of the sections in the training I have a small boefang haven't been able to get licenses yet but I enjoy learning about HAM radio

I'm glad you learn something because that sounds alien to me from .my novice point of view - I gather what I can

Just threw away an old, no longer working phone charger cord, but heard the voice of Dave Canterbury in my head telling me, “that’s good cordage, we could tie up our tripod with that”.

Hey dave. I love your ham stuff and it makes me really inspired to get into Ham radio. I struggle with understanding what's needed when it comes to testing and what not. I was wondering if you had troubles as well and maybe you could make a video on how to help guys like me? Or honestly, even an entire ham radio book. I own all of your bushcraft books and I can tell you have really progressed into this, overland, bug out, ham genre. A book on just ham, in your style I think would really benefit a lot of us.

That much longer stainless rod is the best choice for reception and weather resistance. Cap that rooftop attachment point for element protection. Should work good.

Oi Dave, sou sua fã, dá um alô aqui pro Brasil. Abraço!

Hi Dave. Nice explanation on antenna tuning basics. I am an avid ham radio operator. I haven’t been too active in the last few years do to putting effort into my old school hifi system. I have organized and participated in a few Dxpeditions into the South and Central Pacific over the years and have experimented with all sorts of “packable” antenna systems. If you ever have a question or want to bounce ideas off me, feel free. Keep up the good work. 73 de Dean - KW7XX, T32RC, 3D2RJ, T2XX and team member of T2TT

Great video Dave. I am trying to tune my Shark stick package of 8 that also have the quick disconnect and due to Florida sun it is a bit tricky to do so with my NanoVNA. My package had longer whips and I need to test again seeing what you did. I do realize the higher Q limits bandwidth on the lower bands and I like your characterization of medium to full choke. All the best. 74 de KI5HXM

Dave welcome to another shared hobby. 73 Don QCWA

Dave, they make quick disconnects for the base of the antennas, quarter turn and your antenna is off. I use them on my 18 wheel mobile makes band switching easy. Hustler makes a heavy duty one but the common ones from MFJ ect. are fine also. 73 Donnie K0otp

Great video

You're entirely responsible for the sudden proliferation of radio kit in our offices...

Try using a ground wire from the frame of your jeep to a metal copper pipe and pound it directly into the ground toward the rear of the vehicle to balance out the ground plane. Also, it matters what bearing your jeep is parked in relation to magnetic north. This will alter the shape of the lobes of power as your entire system resonates at your selected frequency.

For HF and VHF/UHF, and inexpensive, easy to build portable directional antenna is the Moxon. The most important characteristic is it's very high F/B ratio. For VHF, it can be used vertically polarized, or better yet, horizontally polarized. Horizontally, the attenuation is on average 20dB, and out of the Moxon, another 30 dB (18 to 40 Db), and we have 50 dB's attenuation out the backside, if the receiving antenna is vertically polarized. This means that even if we transmit with 100 watts, only 0.001 watts goes out the back. There are many advantages to running a directional antenna. This is only one. Moxon's and OWA((Optimized Broad Band) yagi',s built with 1/2'' copper pipe have a very broad bandwidths. Both of these are my favorites, yet other antennas have their place.

Very cool 😎

All respect brother

I watched a couple amateur radio channels on KZfaq and a lot of them say if you put extra flat braid ground strap on your vehicle from the body to the frame on your doors from the fender to the hood just add ground it really helps your SWR and your antenna function

Outstanding

Great video David! Small chance that your mount proximity to the roof rack system may also effect swr. Coming soon the Self Reliance Outfitters backpack/bushcraft HE antenna?😎 N1TJA

In case repeaters go down, and to greatly improve COMSEC, learn about 'short skip', or NVIS propagation for regional, up to 300 miles in diameter. Local and regional comms will be more important than HF. Recommend learning about directional antennas for VHF/UHF.

Dave how much of the Stinger will go inside the Carbon Fiber Antenna. Enjoyed it

I have the same set of shorty Shark Sticks and I was suspicious that the wire part on my 40m was too short too. I'll try a longer rod.

Just an FYI, DX Engineering is owned by Summit Racing. They have a store in Ohio, but they are not really considered a local business

Dave, what program were you using?

Hey Dave I have a great idea for you it has nothing to do with the antenna commercial I just wanted to reach out there is a military mess kit from the Philippines that I think you can probably make even better they're made with aluminum but I'm sure you could come up with the stainless version with probably some upgrade I think it will be a big hit and a big seller

Dave, could you put a wire counterpoise on this antenna like I think I remember you showing with your baofeng?

I bought the 40 m shark never could tune it to 40 but it's 1to1 on 10m so I relabeled it.

Do you plan on doing any vids relating to what software you use? I'm working toward my General and know little about PC's.

If the manufacturer can't get you a longer whip, hit up your local junkyard and buy a few stainless car radio antennas to cut down. If that works out well, you'll have some spare parts for cheap.

Take care

Have you towed anything with ur truck like a boat

👍👍

Hey Dave, I’m a big fan. I didn’t know you are a ham. I hope to work you someday. 73 w9ntn

Did you buy the mini’s? De K2SCH

💪

do you still have the rokon?

✌️👊

Videos been out a while but my 40 meter shark ham stick whip is much longer than the one in your video by at least a foot. The one you have looks more re like the one for the 10 meter stick

👍❤🇺🇸

👍 and a comment

This ham stuff is interest but unfortunately out of my price range. I like what you're doing with the jeep. 6 years ago you did an intro to the Rokon and intended to do a series on it. Do you still have the Rokon and what modifications did you make on it? It would make a good hunting vehicle if you could quiet it down considerably. Nothing like announcing to your game, here I come, run from 5 miles away. And in an SHTF you don't want to announce where you're at. Same goes for gold prospecting, rock hounding, or your favorite fishing spot.

How hard was it to get your ham license I’m thinking about it

Did you lose some weight?

Thanks Dave 73 AB7RR Bob God Bless America Let's GO Brandon

I miss when you did dirt time videos 😢. Constant vids on obsolete technology is definitely not a direction I thought you’d go. Seriously no offense meant, just sad to see the change.

You still rubbing bacon grease on your old single shot or have you gone high tech? 👍🤣👍

Don’t forget, whilst a perfect SWR gives you maximum power transfer, you still have to worry about radiation efficiency, which a hamstick on HF bands doesn’t have much of once you go to lower frequencies. Also, with things like hamsticks, your grounding and groundplane will have an effect on your SWR….with insufficient ground, you’ll never get a good SWR. That may well be why you couldn’t tune with the short whip too.

when are you going to do more camping stuff without the radio? the radio stuff is kinda boring

Go back to DX Engineering and they'll take care of you, they're awesome folks.

They must have sent you the wrong whip for 40 meters, it should have been much longer that what you got

Want to know the measure of a man? Look at his hands

Oi Dave, sou sua fã, dá um alô aqui pro Brasil. Abraço!

👍👍