Amateur Radio

specs for the shelters

Thanks for the compliment. The S250 is mounted on a civilian trailer that is built to milspecs. A single axle, with brakes rated for 5500 pounds, weighs almost 1300 without the shelter on it. VERY HEAVY DUTY and has leveling jacks on the rear corners and sits 22 inches off the ground to the deck. Victory Industrial products is the manufacturer and the frame is a beast made from 2x6 square tube welded at 90 degrees to 2x4 square tubing making an L. All wall thicknesses are .25. The deck is diamond plate and is 4x10. The fenders are wide enough for the shelter to fit between, but the jacks on the back are exactly 48" apart, so the S250 had to be dropped in between the fenders instead of slid in.

You would not think a single axle trailer with the shelter on it would be heavy, but when I tow it with the deuce I know it is back there. I added a class IV receiver to the rear frame of the deuce and use a drop hitch of 6 inches to level the trailer behind the deuce.

I was extremely comfortable in the S280 shelter overnight this past weekend and look forward to camping again this weekend. I may omit hauling the trailer as I can operate from the shelter on the deuce if I want to.

I use an Icom 706 for hf and close range FM work. Antennas include a G5RV 102' and a T2FD folded dipole. I have 24 of the fiberglass poles and have various adaters I have made to mount antennas to them. The shelters on the deuce and the comm trailer have through bulkhead connectors for antennas so they are watertight and if closed up are still pretty EMP resistant.

You may find our "jump radios" interesting. We make these "jump radios" out of fat 50 ammo cans. Many of the 2 meter and 440 radios are 5.5 inches wide and fit inside the can accross the narrow portion. We add a 7-10 amp hour gel cell and a power supply to charge the battery when connected to shore power. The antenna runs through the can and allows the use of a 1/4 wave extendable antenna, or connection to a vehicle or mast mounted antenna. In my jump radio, I have two 7.2 amp hour batteries and a Kantronics TNC along with the power supply. These are waterproof when done and allow at least 4-6 hours of operation on a charge, oftentimes a lot more. MY 2 meter is an alinco DR 1200.

The batteries in the deuce shelter and on the comm trailer are Avialtion batteries for Business jets. They are replaced on a time basis and are still good when they are removed. They are originally 24 volts and a couple of jumper wires and the removal of one buss bar allows them to operate at 12 volts. The enclosures are waterproof and spill proof and are very tough aluminum. I estimate I have about 120 amp hours on each rig. That makes 240 amp hours total of reserve power for operations which is quite a bit. I have a 24 to 12 volt 35 amp inverter to install in the cab of the deuce to allow charging of the batteries from the truck power system. I also have a surplus aircraft 24 to 12 volt inverter rated at 55 amps continuous that I need to find a
use for that, which I am sure I will eventually find. Both the shelter on the deuce and the shelter on the trailer have smart battery charger/maintainers that are connected to the power buss so when the rigs are connected to 120 volts ac they are charging and are therefore always ready to go.

I have been lucky to have contacts in the avialtion industry as it has some neat equipment and accessories that are very useful in communications and military vehicle accessories.

73's

RL
W2WHT

That is sure a heavy trailer. My first shelter was nice and new with no holes and it was ,is sheilded somewhat but I did put a fan in the roof. I useally run my heavy go-kit which is also my home station which has a kenwood ts-480hx and a d700 mounted inside a 19" rack mount gator case along with a 35a switching pwr supply and ant tuner. Whats nice about this is that it takes me 5min. to disconnect and drag into the shelter. In the shelter I have two 100ah batts that connect to a 35a linear pwr supply which also runs all my lights and fan. I installed a 30amp twist-lock AC plug and wired that to a 2 ckt pnl which feeds the pwr strip. It is cosey and dry. I have taken it out Marthasvinyard for the NE qso party for a few yrs. in the past. Go to "hamcow.net" Rolland has done a lot of nice things in the cow. My plans for the truck is to make it primarily for camping with an ft-847 for a radio. Antenas will be a uick detach High-Q and probably some nmo fm ant. as well as wifi and pcs. Very good information here and good to see I'm not the only guy with a daul hobby.73 kb1tim

Wrench Wench said:

I'd love a Yaesu FT-8900R in an armature with a handle with a 12 VDC gel cell and a Diamond CR-8900 for mobile hamming, but I can dream. I've got three ideas for a mobile ham shack.

SMALL) S250 on a M200 trailer; welded and bolted; with undermounted water tanks and batteries for long duration "missions"; fold-down, triangular, telescoping antenna tower on the roof, along with a few solar panels to charge the batteries and for emergency backup; and a MEP-003 or MEP-002 stripped of batteries and fuel tank mounted under the passenger's side of the S250's truck bed lip, forward of the wheel well; the fuel tank can be undermounted elsewhere, or a safe diesel disconnect for it plumbed in from the towing vehicle; and the coup de grace, a small A/C to keep the air flowing in at the front and out at the back.

It would be something more than a ham shack with a cot, something less than a caravan camper with a bunch of radios.

MEDIUM) Similar to above only with an S280 on a M1061 with its flat bed removed and the S280 mounted directly to the trailer chassis. It would be much like the small version, only with a lot of stuff formerly hung on the outside and protected now mounted inside. Maybe the MEP-003 would have to be mounted on the tongue. With lots more room, there would be lots more options and supplies and food and water and comforts (bigger A/C). It would become both, more caravan camper and more ham shack.

GARGANTUAN) M129. Nuf sed.

Like I heard it said somewhere, prolly right here ITT, I'd rather convert the shelters to campers than the shop vans to campers due to the greater insulation in the walls.

The starter rack of ham radio equipment I'd want in the mobile ham shack would be a pair of FT-8900Rs and a Kenwood TS-2000X. Any other suggestions?

Click to expand...

That is a fine start. If you can get past the idea of never standing all the way up, an S-250 is low enough to easily stow or mount the mast/tower to its roof. If you can lay it on the top, hinged in place with reinforcing plates to spread the load, then it could be stood up (& cranked up?) for use.

I have two 40FT mast kits. They are compact when stowed but they require 2 people to set up so I don't like them very much.

I have used telescoping 35FT TV mast poles bought at Radio Shack, and put mounts for them on the sides of the M35 bed. They were easy to set up that way and I did not guy them for 25FT. I got around guys at that height by only extending each section about 5FT out from the previous one so the whole thing was more rigid. To make sure to have them secure, I drilled holes at the 5 FT mark and screwed the screws in there rather than at the full extended holes. Lazy but it works well.

You might consider a military FM radio in your MV.

There are several MV owners around here who are hams, plus a lot of other hams who don't own MVs. We use 51.0 MHz for comms during MVCC & MVPA events.

Lots of PRC-68s in use here, plus the usual RT-524s & PRC-77s. Myself, I use a PRC-68B or a PRC-124. Gotta go portable, as there is not much room in the M38A1 with the TRC-75 in the back seat...

73
Dave Ross N7EPI

rboltz said:

Is putting a shelter on a 2 wheel trailer a good idea? I suppose if empty but stock RTTY shelters are awfully top heavy and a two wheel trailer may be unstable? All the later commo trailers in the military are 4 wheel, maybe for a reason.

I know several people that have thought about it but all have decided against it. Maybe a good discussion topic.

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I have done it with an even heavier GRC-122 very successfully.
You take an M116 generator trailer that has the open frame, (no deck).
Remove the fender/ running boards from each side. Get square 1 1/2 inch tubing and 1/8" flat stock. Combine them to make 1 5/8 spacers and put the fender running boards back on the frame. Now they are spaced out wide enough to set the shelter on.
Place shelter on with forklift or other means. Pull shelter all the way even with rear. Make cable straps to hold in place from lift rings to trailer tie down points. Use former angle bar that was fender to fender horizantal stabilizer as forward brace, bolt to frame in front of shelter, place cut off 4"x4" beam in between bar and shelter as forward buffer to prevent forward movent during travel.
Works very well and is very stable on the road.

I use an m103a2 3/4t trailer with an s-250 shelter and it is a little top heavy,I am looking for an m105a3 to upgrade due to the shelter being a tad heavy on one side from the 1/4 in. plate I used for the tower. If I put the two 100ah batteries on the opposite side it levels out fine but still nerve racking going around corners. Plus with 105 I'get another 2ft of trailer to put extras in. I also built a bracket with leveling jacks to aid in stabilizing the mast. I was thinking of reversing the tire/wheels to give more stability on the road.

How did you deal with the wheel wells being too narrow for the S-250 to fit in between them. I dont know of any 3/4 ton trailer that has enough room between the wells.

Yes I meant 101a2 trailer. I used a 4.5in cutting wheel on my grinder and cut approx. 2ins in from the inside of the wheel well all in one piece, then I moved it inboard that same amount and riveted it to the remaining fender. It came out pretty clean and I have a 1.5in open slice where I cut it in the floor which works great for drainage.

I'm hoping to have my Technician license by New Year's. Maybe with luck (wife) I can justify gettng a PRC-25 or 77 for x-mas. But I do have a Kenwood TS-50 coming off a sailboat I forgot about.

i havnt got my license yet not enough time.... but my dads had his since high school....

The tech license is EASY. General took me a couple years on and off of studying for it before I was confident enough to take the exam, passed on the first try. I want to take the Extra Class license when I go to Frostfest in Richmond VA first weekend of February. THAT is going to be tough.

KI4JSC

Got my tech in july, and the general in october. I might move up later on, but the general gets me almost everything I want to mess with for now.

So far, I have an RCI 10m mobile, a Yaesu 2m HT, and an Icom 706. I'm waiting on a pair of green radios that I'll be trying out on loan. The M129A2C is getting a good start on becoming a radio shack, and I'm puttig the finishing touches on a screwdriver antenna for the 818 for mobile HF.

I'm licensed as an Extra Class W3TDH. Is there by any chance a net or military radio users group you folks could point me at.
--
Tom

Yes, there are THREE military nets that I am aware of. They are as follows:

Old Military Radio Net - East Coast, Saturday mornings starting 0500, 3885 KHz +/- QRM. QSX is Ted, W3PWW. It isn't necessary to check in with military gear, but that is what this net is all about.

Westcoast Military Radio Collectors Net - Meets Saturday @ 2100 Pacific Time on 3985 KHz +/- QRM. QSX is W7QHO.

Wireless Set No. 19 Net: Meets second Sunday, monthly. 7270 KHz (+/- 25 KHz) @ 1800 Zulu. Alternate 3760 KHz (+/- 25 KHz). QSX Dave VA3ORP.

there is an informal group that meets nightly on 3996 USB and most of the check ins are on mil radios, but all types are welcome. Look for them between 02:30 - 03:30 Z when the freq becomes available....