My Ham Shack- Yaesu FT-2900- Icom IC-7100, and a leap into the digital world of radio

[M Rose]

I just bought a used Yaesu FT-2900 2M Radio that I am going to hook up as a base station primarily. I live full time in a travel trailer in an RV park. My trailer is made of fiberglass and has a rubber roof, so I am going to be building a J-Pole antenna to mount on the retractable TV antenna post.
Since I live in a travel trailer and half the electrical system is 12 vdc and the other half is 110 vac, I was planning on just using an unused circuit from the Converter, but found out the converter is very noisy. My 110 Side is completely taxed out so without drilling holes, wiring in new circuit box and new outlets and adding another 30 amp feed to the power pole I am kind of stuck. Although the idea of wiring in new circuits does speak to me... I have another circuit box and a Inteli Power 9200 model PD9245C rates at 13.6 VDC and 45 amp that I might be able to use... looking at the info page on Progressive Dynamics website it says the 9200 is a computer controlled Power Inverter and claims to be clean dc Power.
how do I test the output of this Power Inverter to see if it is truly is a clean power inverter? (Or clean enough for Ham Use).

 

[Ubiety]

Can you run the radio Off of 12vdc? Then you could skip inverter loss and (likely) get cleaner power. I know Kenwood makes toroids and another noise reducer for use with Mobiles. Maybe something like that? I have an extra Kenwood toroid that you could have/use/try But you would need their adapters to connect to it.

Worked on a power line communications product many moons ago and we used a spectrum analyzer (very expensive) to look at noise on the power line. In this day of cheap imports you may be able to find something to do the job more cheaply.

Congrats on the new radio! Looks like a brute!

 

[Ubiety]

Or you could run it off of a completely separate battery/solar setup so it would be up during emergencies? Then you could call yourself a prepper!

 

[M Rose]

Can you run the radio Off of 12vdc? Then you could skip inverter loss and (likely) get cleaner power. I know Kenwood makes toroids and another noise reducer for use with Mobiles. Maybe something like that? I have an extra Kenwood toroid that you could have/use/try But you would need their adapters to connect to it.

That there relies in my dilemma... for 12 VDC without “house” power I would need a battery and charger... and again wire in another 110 VAC circuit powered directly off the pole because the house VAV system is taxed to the max. The 12 volt side is only running my lights and furnace blower motor with thermostat. So I have 50 amps to spare on the house 12 volt side. Unfortunately this 12 volt is unfiltered and can be heard with a high end CB radio... (tested in car and the noise goes away)

The solar idea is great, but big problem where I am parked... the tree in my front “yard” shades the East, South, and west sides of the trailer. the north side of my trailer is my parking spot and is already a tight squeeze to get between the car and the front of the trailer. I’ll look to see if there is a way for me to build a stand off the trailer tongue and the roof for a solar panel, but I think I have too many vents in that area... again I will look in the next day or so.

I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and add a second 110vac 30 amp distribution panel and hook up to the second RV 30 amp power receptacle on my power pole because I need more power for other things as well... like a second fridge and it would be nice to be able to run my AC and microwave at the same time.

 

[M Rose]

Another dumb question... shouldn’t DC voltage give me a 0 Hz reading on my multimeter set to Hz?

 

[Ubiety]

Don’t know your multimeter but that sounds right. DC follows a path, end to end. AC goes back and forth at a rate in HZ, 60Hz in America. But I am not an EE...

 

[M Rose]

Don’t know your multimeter but that sounds right. DC follows a path, end to end. AC goes back and forth at a rate in HZ, 60Hz in America. But I am not an EE...

With the furnace running I’m not able to get a steady Hz reading... I am however able to get 12.45 VDC
With furnace off i am getting 119.99 Hz and a steady 12.3VDC.

 

[M Rose]

 

[M Rose]

So from my digging I found that my “house” 12 volt converter is unfiltered DC voltage, and that is why my Hz is all over the place while under load, mixed with the fan motor running... I’m going to wire up a standard 3 prong 110 VAC plug on my “spare“ converter and see what it puts out without load... and test my CB on it to see what kind of noise I hear as well as see.

 

[RockyMountaineer]

Why not wire directly off the battery?

 

[M Rose]

Why not wire directly off the battery?

Park model RV... no battery

 

[Sparksalot]

Another dumb question... shouldn’t DC voltage give me a 0 Hz reading on my multimeter set to Hz?

Not a dumb question at all. That's another indication of poor output filtering on the power supply. You mentioned it was noisy. this is the same thing just measured on your meter.

 

[M Rose]

Not a dumb question at all. That's another indication of poor output filtering on the power supply. You mentioned it was noisy. this is the same thing just measured on your meter.

That’s what I thought... I need to test the Inteli Power 9200 for noise... I was hoping (and now confirmed) that my multimeter would show the noise level... the closer to 0 Hz the less noise... the 9200 is supposed to be a ”clean” switching converter, and I have seen it used with successful results in my searches this morning.

 

[RockyMountaineer]

Park model RV... no battery

OK so thinking of a simple solution here. Why not add a battery and a solar panel and call it good? Both are fairly inexpensive, easy to add it, and keep you up and operating no matter what.

 

[M Rose]

OK so thinking of a simple solution here. Why not add a battery and a solar panel and call it good? Both are fairly inexpensive, easy to add it, and keep you up and operating no matter what.

Could... but goes back to no sun where I can put a solar panel... battery= money: solar panel = money... power converter = free... I also need a power supply for my rc hobby, so goes back to still need a 50 amp power supply and I have 2 inverters one doing nothing and one running 25% of its load...

 

[J.W.]

Adding a common mode filter is a good solution when you are on dc battery. Would that work for your setup? It’s relatively inexpensive but I don’t know how well it would work off in inverter instead of a battery.

 

[M Rose]

Adding a common mode filter is a good solution when you are on dc battery. Would that work for your setup? It’s relatively inexpensive but I don’t know how well it would work off in inverter instead of a battery.

That’s my plan... IF I need it... I’m still researching this converter...

so let’s skip over the power supply issue for now. Besides building an antenna, what is some other diy ham projects that would be net in a ham shack?

 

[J.W.]

so let’s skip over the power supply issue for now. Besides building an antenna, what is some other diy ham projects that would be net in a ham shack?

You already said you have a JPole on your radar so get a hotspot and some cheap digital radio. Cheapest and fastest way to talk around the world. I was talking to Italy and Japan all night last night.

 

[M Rose]

You already said you have a JPole on your radar so get a hotspot and some cheap digital radio. Cheapest and fastest way to talk around the world. I was talking to Italy and Japan all night last night.

Is Wires still a thing? Or is it now only Wires-X? If wires is still a thing then the FT-2900 has wires capabilities... if not... then a digi radio is out for a month or two...

 

[J.W.]

Is Wires still a thing? Or is it now only Wires-X? If wires is still a thing then the FT-2900 has wires capabilities... if not... then a digi radio is out for a month or two...

Wires X is definitely the most prevelant but I don’t think wires was ever completely DC’d. WiresII was officially shut down. I think you would have an easier time just downloading EchoLink onto your phone or computer but wires nodes may be out there. I’m honestly not sure.