Any Ham Radio operators here?

I still have my Prius on order but have read various postings for 2m, 440, and HF in the Prius. HF has had drastic impact from what I understand, including power loss. Those that have put VHF and UHF in the car have had no problem.

I've used a Larson glass mount. Window tinting can have a big impact on SWR and antenna effectiveness. I stopped using mine. I still do not know where / how to install my Kenwood D700 when my car arrives later this month.

I will probably put the radio under the seat, speaker under the headrest behind my head, and put the faceplate on a gooseneck on that nice carpeted space on the floor between the front seats.

I was contemplating drilling a hole in the roof and using a short Diamond antenna. Not sure yet though. Let me know what you do.

 

P.S. Do a search of this site for "Ham Radio" and there is a bit of info out there for you to digest

 

try a 1/4 wave on hatchback...seems to do just as well as glass mount on vhf...HF seems to have too much RF floating around on 40 and 20...50w on vhf seems to do ok with the car...

 

The radio store here has done a few installs in Prius and claim no troubles. The Prius owners seem to agree. I think all have been VHF/UHF. 1 with 144, 220 and 440 Kenwood tribander - owners of Prius also own repeater in area and they are reasonably happy. They say there might be some desense on 2M, though - 220 and 440 fine. I haven't put a rig in my car yet, so can't say first hand.

GL

BillG, WW0J, MN

 

Holy Crap. Ham Radio and Prius in the same context. Wow. My grand dad is a big Ham radio guy. Has a huge antenna at the house and everything. Most of his ham radio buddies have passed away now so he doesn't talk on the radio very much any more. Is there a pretty healthy ham radio community out there still? I always associated it with "The Greatest Generation". Sorry to get OT but I was just curious.

 

Did you ever mount that faceplate on the gooseneck between the front seats? I'm thinking of putting something similar in that same area and I'd like to know if you had any problems before I go digging into the carpet and drilling holes just to find there isn't enough room because of cables or something.

Thanks.

 

Yep, there are still quite a few of us out there, but most people don't really notice us. If you go to the fcc.gov website, you can search on licenses by city name. My little town in Nevada has a population of a bit under 10,000 people, and has 92 currently licensed amateur radio operators in it. That is a little less than 1%... big number considering! The search also reveals four licenses on my street alone, and there are only about 15 houses. Do a search... you might be surprised!

There are a lot of 'old men' hams, of course, but a few of us are youngsters (in our 30's and 40's). The Internet has probably done a lot of damage to the amateur community, of course... why do you need an HF rig when you can e-mail someone?

One of the big fears for hams (other than BPL, which is a completely different topic) is that the government will take away our spectrum if there aren't enough of us using it. Hams tend to try to recruit people just to stave this off. Getting a technician license is really easy... you might consider doing it just to have it!

As for the Prius, I haven't gotten my dual-band mounted in it yet... mostly because I'm concerned about RF and don't feel like tackling the job myself. Very interested in hearing how other people accomplish it! A couple of questions, though. Has anyone considered mounting the transceiver in the hidden storage space under the hatchback, and running a remote head/microphone up to the driver's seat area? Seems like that would keep any RF at the back of the car and away from the operator. Would that location be more likely to interfere with the batteries, which are mostly under the rear seat? That would also have the advantage of reducing the amount of wire run to the antenna, which is best somewhere on the back of the vehicle anyway. I'm thinking of knocking a small hole in the roof just front of the AM/FM antenna. Any specific recommendations for a dual, tri, or quad band antenna for there (that will reduce interference and limit RF overflow into the cabin)?

Anyone know any good shops out on the west coast (I'm in the Reno area, but occasionally get to San Francisco) that has experience doing this?

Dan
W8KHU

 

I collected a few links on this topic. I haven't got around to installing my radio yet though.

http://www.priusonline.com/viewtopic.php?t=5340 - Dr600, FT-90

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=1541 - 706IIg, IC-2720, FT-8900R
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=6810 - FT 2600M, FT-90R
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=3959 - FT-100
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=14391 - questions

http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/ham-rad...ation.3878.html- IC-208H

 

Lido makes a mount that uses a bolt on the passenger seat. Just loosen the nut, slide the mount around the bolt and then tighten the nut. Using this on my 2015 Prius 2 with the body of the radio under the driver seat. Works great!

 

There are a few of us.

I've had no trouble with my 2M/440 using a magmount in my 2006 Prius .. it's my understanding that HF becomes a huge problem because of the noisy square waves coming from the electric motors and electrical system, with something like 'take a bucket of RF chokes and a lot of patience to get mobile HF operational.

 

KK6YB, NICE CALL.....

 

Hello,
I am mounting a dual bander and an FT-857D in my new 2011 Prius. My plan is to put it in the hole above the spare tire. Friends helped with mounts for the little tarheel II and the Triband Comet antenna. I have been running an HT with a window external antenna. I am also adding a cell amp with a glass mount antenna.
Does anyone know of a channel past the battery to run the mics and faceplate?

 

Tim, On the drivers side there is a big hole beside the battery. Just fold down the rear side and pull the Velcro trim carpet that goes from the seat to the cargo floor. I just installed a Icom 5100 dual band the other day works great no issues. I removed my FM radio antenna (who even listens it anyway) and installed a 19" roof mount in the same hole worked out perfect

 

Thank you that really helps! I will look and see if everything fits.

 

Also did you pull the coax through the headliner? If so how did you get it to the radio?

Thank you,
Tim

 

Yes I ran the coax behind the headliner and panel on drivers side rear. I mounted the radio standing up beside the big black tray and the drivers fender well there is a small empty space the radio fits perfect all of the trunk floo

 

Not ham, but when I got my very first car (old Toyota Corolla) I always kept my Sony ICF-2002 shortwave radio in the car, fed the audio into the car via the car's cassette player (by way of an 1/8" jack -> fake cassette adapter), put the wire through the cabin of the car, then would have it hang out the window so I could listen to shortwave while driving at night...