Amateur (Ham) Radio in a Leaf

[turbo2ltr]

Dude, really? This thing (http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1722s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false didn't even last an hour. Now I got to pull all the panels off again.

 

[DarkStar]

They don't call MFJ Mighty Fine Junk for no reason.

Got a MFJ-948 for a song since the owner stated it didn't work right. Ran home and opened it up and repaired the shorted inductor coil, now I finally have a decent antenna tuner!

 

[turbo2ltr]

I put a ticket in on the MFJ site and they are sending me a new one. Hopefully it will last longer than an hour. At least they are standing behind their product..

 

[mwalsh]

Hi all,
Just checking in here. Just found this thread by way of one I just started today. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=9586" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; If you have any ideas, let me know.

Tim
K6TW

That wasn't you on the 405 SB ahead of me yesterday (or was it Wednesday)? Sliver LEAF with a lip mount antenna on the right side of the hatch? Got in the HOV lane right around Torrance and out again in the South Bay/Long Beach?

 

[tgrich]

Hi all,
Just checking in here. Just found this thread by way of one I just started today. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=9586" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; If you have any ideas, let me know.

Tim
K6TW

That wasn't you on the 405 SB ahead of me yesterday (or was it Wednesday)? Sliver LEAF with a lip mount antenna on the right side of the hatch? Got in the HOV lane right around Torrance and out again in the South Bay/Long Beach?

Yes, as a matter of fact, it was. Good eyes! I was actually on my way to participate in some automotive research where I was able to take an extensive test drive of Chevy's upcoming EV.

 

[mwalsh]

Yes, as a matter of fact, it was. Good eyes! I was actually on my way to participate in some automotive research where I was able to take an extensive test drive of Chevy's upcoming EV.

How extensive? We're you able to make sure it will actually do 140 miles?

 

[tgrich]

Haha, no, but I did get about 30-40 minutes in it. I'd give some details, but I had to sign a non disclosure agreement.

 

[BobGeisel]

I'm also considering mounting my D-STAR radio (ID-880H) in the LEAF. In my last vehicle (Toyota FJ Cruiser), I had installed a secondary 12v battery to handle all the other 12V accessories (Lights, Two HAM radios, wench, etc.). I don't see much room under the hood of the leaf to mount an additional battery,

Any ideas? Is this even necessary?

Thanks in advance,

Bob in DFW Texas

 

[hill]

Think I want something like this.

http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1721" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Small, discreet..RG-174..

Somewhere in my ham pile I have an old MFJ 2 meter amp. Works great. IIRC, 10watts in gets you 160 out. even so - some ham radio folks say the company initials stand for mighty fine junk. I'm guessing they're just trying to be funny.
EDIT
Whoops - I see the MFJ joke was already submitted

 

[GlennD]

I had removed my FT-8800R since it did not decode DPL. I replaced it with a Chinese dual band Anytone radio. This radio had the features I wanted but some VHF stations were noisy.

I hauled out my service monitor and measured the effective sensitivity. I measured 8-10DB of de-sense. I had rearranged my SOC meter to mount the Anytone and it looked like my Yaesu FT-350R would fit on top. I tried it and it fit fine. The Yaesu has no degradation and it must have a better front end.

It was an easy change, Both use cat 5 cable. Both have the same mounitig bracket size, and both use the same power connector. All I needed to do was rewire the speaker connector.

 

[turbo2ltr]

In my 2011 I ran the Puxing 777 with a remote mic and finally upgraded to a decent diamond 1/2wave. Never liked the handheld. For repeaters it's fine, but I do a lot of simplex and it just wasn't cutting it. On top of that the 1/2 wave would drag on the garage door making a racket every time I pulled in or out of the garage.

So I finally got a radio in the 2013. I picked up one of the $300 Anytone AT5888 dual band radios and installed it yesterday. I really like how it came out. Though there is a noticeable problem of the serial data being coupled into the audio using their extension cable. The fact the mic comes out of the head makes the cable problem worse since I have to run it all the way back down. I may have to try using some individually shielded pair cable.

Head unit mounted in the sunglass holder. Two 1/16" holes were drilled in a spot that you won't see when you put the sunglass door back on. Cables exit a larger hole I had to make. but made it in a place you won't see unless you really get in there and look.

Main unit in the glove box.

Mic and in the upper right you can see the right angle 3.5mm plug that sends audio from the radio to the sound system.

I bought a lip mount to lower the antenna. Spent some $80 on it only to find it wouldn't fit. The design of the Diamond mount I bought is meant to be mounted on a lip where the non moving side of the two panels is flush with the moving side because it actually sticks out past the lip.

The hatch on the leaf is recessed below the taillights so the tab sticking out hit. I was impatient and just cut the offending part off. lol Though I feel that performance has suffered quite a bit between the new position and the RG174 instead of the 58 of my old mag mount. Not sure what I'm going to do.


BTW, there is a perfect spot to run wires into the engine bay (wait, is it still called that? ) right behind the glove box. If you look from under the hood, behind the passenger shock tower you will see a clear tube (I assume this is the rear windshield washer.) Right next to it I found an nice plugged 1/2" hole. I poked the power cables through and ran them to the battery. You have to work your way behind the thick insulation on the inside, but it was fairly easy to get to from the footwell.

 

[lemketron]

So I finally got a radio in the 2013. I picked up one of the $300 Anytone AT5888 dual band radios and installed it yesterday. I really like how it came out... Head unit mounted in the sunglass holder...

Nice job! Thanks for the pics and the hints. You can get a dual band mobile rig for $300 now? Amazing. I can't remember how much my Kenwood TM-741 was (over a grand, like 20+ years ago?) but I loved that rig in my old Integra.

I haven't done much radio stuff lately but it could be fun if I could get my kids into it -- especially since my wife has a Technician class license too. The kids could even get a couple of those $35 BaoFeng handhelds... Except that I'm sure they would prefer smartphones over ham radios.

 

[GlennD]

I thought I would update my radio in my new Leaf. I now have a Yaesu FTM-350R mounted in the car. Of course the antenna is roof mounted.

 

[hill]

Just a little update here. I have purchased a total of 4 amateur handheld radios. I bought the first pair off of ebay for about $50 each. They are Feidaxin FD-450A units and they only work on the UHF range from 430-470 Mhz. Since I did not have a HAM license, but did have a GMRS license I decided to program the 22 GMRS channels into these and test them. (Yes, I've heard this may technically be illegal, but I can't personally see anything wrong with it since I've set the radio to all of the correct settings for GMRS and I have a license.) So we took the radios out and tested them in some of the same places I tested the CB radios and the GMRS radios I bought at Wal-Mart that claimed "36 miles range." ..............snip ..........[*]The FD-450A's using GMRS frequencies - about 8 miles under best conditions.[/list]
........snip........
So it became pretty obvious to me that even with cheap $50 amateur radios, the quality was much better. I decided to start studying for my HAM license.
Anyway, I'm about to join the world of HAM!

Congrats!!
Our neighborhood has a small (maybe 100 foot) hill near our home / undeveloped / walking trails / scrub brush. I'd regularly take one of my Kenwood (yes, they're over priced, but have features that cheeper ones don't have) hand helds with me. I'd regularly talk with a fellow amateur that'd I'd have lunch with on occasion (kf6ops). He moves around a lot - but while he was living in L.A. (48 miles north east of us) - I'd have no problem yacking with him - even on low power (250 milliwatts - through the rubber antenna, that's less than 125 milliwatts after calculating loss), though he'll hear a bit of path noise. Granted that kf6opx's setup does have a nice verticle on it ... maybe 10db gain ... but still - it just goes to show you what the potential is with hand helds - which can utilize even nicer antennas than stock ones, and power up to 5 or 6 watts.
w6eeg

.

 

[keydiver]

In my 2011 I ran the Puxing 777 with a remote mic and finally upgraded to a decent diamond 1/2wave.

Nice writeup and pix! It seems that you and I now have one more thing in common. I took my Technician's Class exam a few weeks ago, aced it, so they asked me if I would want to take the General Class test. Although I had no idea what to expect, and had never studied for it, I passed! I'm taking the Extra Class exam this weekend at a Hamfest in Boca. I bought a Yaesu FT-897D for at home, but I'm still looking for something simpler and portable for the LEAF.

 

[DarkStar]

Opened my digital issue of the May 2014 QST this morning and saw a good article on the Nissan Leaf and amateur radio. I disagree that you would notice any significant range reduction when operating a 100 watt HF rig (unless you were operating for hours at a time), but hey - any publicity is good publicity!

Link: http://bayimg.com/eanojaAFg