Welcome Jerry

[4x4 Ham]

Everyone,
Please join me in welcoming Jerry to the 4x4 Ham group!

[Jerry]

Thanks for the welcome! My wife and I have been driving backroads throughout the Pacific Northwest for several years as well as designated 4x4 trails in central Washington State. We almost always travel with folks from other clubs or forums for fun, safety and security. Lately we find ourselves spending more time in the desert/shrub steppe of SE Oregon, SW Idaho and N Nevada so ham radio is not only a fun hobby, but the most logical form of communication in case of emergencies.

We drive a couple of small Ford SUV's (one modified, the other not) along with a well modified Jeep Wrangler, but our main off highway rig these days is a Ford F150 lightly modified with a short lift, 33" mud terrains, a second spare tire and gas containers on a swing-away carrier, a 12,000# winch and a Flip-Pac Canopy that opens into a double bed up and a single bed down. Built-in cabinets hold the usual assortment of camping gear, retrieval equipment, built-in air compressor, dual batteries etc, as well as a bunch of ham stuff.

In the cab is an Icom IC-706MKIIG, a Yaesu FT-7900R and an old Cobra 148GTL am/ssb CB radio. I don't usually work HF while moving as it is too rough on the Ham Stick and Hustler verticals, so the 706 becomes my primary VHF/UHF radio while the 7900 does scanning duty.

For navigation to the nearest restaurant I use a Garmin NUVI 5000 with a 5.2" screen and for the trails I track pre-designated routes via a HP Slate 500 tablet loaded with National Geographic TOPO! State Series maps tied to a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx.

VHF, UHF and CB antennas consist of short versions for the carport and long versions for the wide open spaces and are stored in PVC tubes on either side of the truck bed under the canopy. Besides the Ham Sticks and Hustlers previously mentioned I also carry a 66' wire for 75 meter NVIS, an off-center fed dipole on a 25' fiberglass extension pole and a little Elk 2M/440 beam.

I am looking forward to reading up on previous forum posts and hope to participate every once-in-a-while. Thanks again for the welcome.

Jerry, K7PNW

[N5MUD]

Welcome to the group!

[WB7X]

Howdy from AZ.

[K7AZS]

Glad you found us, welcome.