John's Toy's..... er,.... Radio's

John has been playing with radios since he was 10, starting with the CB day's in Flint Michigan KCX6033 (handle, "the Midnight Cowboy") Now that John's an Amateur Radio Operator (KG6ODI), the toys are more expensive than that first Lafayette CB Radio, but basically it can be said "some things never change"

Space, what space?

Living in suburban San Diego has its benefits, the weather is awesome year round, we are only five miles from the ocean, an hour and half from the deserts or mountains. All of this comes at the price a smaller suburban house in a nice neighborhood, where space for toys, antennas, etc., is not the same as back in the midwest. Well, just like the old days when John's mom and dad gave him a corner in the "basement" for his radios and he made it work, same applies today.

At Home

The corner of the living room is John's "Ham Shack", more like Ham Shelf. The home radios include a Yaesu VHF/UHF Ham radio, five Uniden and Radio Shack Scanners, a Shortwave radio, a PC (Sony Laptop) controlled Icom wide-band radio that can also be controlled remotely from any computer on the internet.

Antennas

Living in the city presents challenges for putting up antennas. A wide-band Discone solved a lot of the problems. For ham operation a VHF/UHF mobile antenna was used with a custom ground plane radiator and counterpoise added. The antennas are mounted so they are mostly hidden behind the trees. Also on the roof is a Direct TV HD satellite antenna, a long-wire shortwave antenna, a terrestrial amplified HDTV antenna and a second mobil VHF/UHF antenna when the ham radio is used in the family room.

From the office or any remote location

Some of the Radios at the house can be controlled by a computer that also allows these radios to be controlled from any computer in the house or anywhere in the world via the internet. Shown below the radio's controlled from the home office desk.

KG6ODI Mobile

Part of the fun of growing up is finding ways to play with your toy's without having them become the center of (everyone else's) attention. For mobile Ham operation this means finding ways to install the radios that do not "deface" the vehicles they are in, especially when you consider what cars cost these days!

Yaesu to the Rescue

Yaesu has a very nice two meter/70 Centimeter VHF/UHF radio that is very small and the control head separates from the radio. In addition to the ham frequencies the radio can monitor a wide band of VHF/UHF frequencies including FRS, Marine, Air and some public service bands. This radio was perfect, so much so John installed one in the families BMW 330i, the Jeep Wrangler and the GMC Danali. Other than a small antenna that looks like a Cell Phone antenna it's hard to tell these vehicles have Ham radio's.

The Jeep also has a Yaesu Ham Radio, with a bigger higher gain antenna. Check out the Garmin GPS on the dash for navigation. The BMW and the GMC have built in Factory GPS.

The Mobile Ham Shack

Our family likes to go to the desert, go camping and enjoy our motor home. Living in the city we bought a smaller Winebago Class A motorhome, one that would fit in a storage corral we made for it in the corner of our property. This gated storage area includes a 50A electrical service so we are good to go 24/7. I wanted to trick out the motorhome with my Radio's and electronics, but it was important to do so without taking up any space and with the goal of creating a high tech installation. The installation had to not only look good but had to cover a variety of frequencies for desert trips as well as be able to operate without shore power for extended periods of time for camping in the desert.

On the Water

Our family has a 30 foot Sea Ray we slip in San Diego's Mission Bay. The Sea Ray has its own set of electronics, GPS, Color Depth Plotter, Radar and VHF Marine Band Radios. The boat named "My Sanity" also has a Yaesu VHF/UHF Ham Radio in the cabin as well as a mount for a Uniden Trunking Scanner which monitors harbor police, San Diego lifegaurd, VHF Marine, Weather and other frequenices. A amplifier and speaker allow these radios to be monitored at the helm station also.

When all else fails!

Last but not least we have the handheld radios.

For Ham radio its a Yaesu VX7R, 4 band radio with wide-band receive. For the water toys including our Seadoo Jet Ski's, a Zodiac inflatable and as back-up to the installed radios, its two Standard Horizon 6W VHF Marine Radio's (these radios are also made by Yaesu). The VX7R and Hoizon handhelds are submergible and have rugged metal cases, to stand up to the extremes of boating, jet skiing and desert riding. We also use FRS radios for the kids and the campground. A Midland handheld CB Radio, that with a spotter along with the CB in the motorhome, comes in handy getting the motorhome with the trailer into and out of tight spots in the desert and camp grounds.

Some say the bigger the boy the bigger the toys!

Well with electronics, computers, and the like, today you can get a lot in a small package. Who knows maybe someday John and Patty will retire to the mountains where John can have a big ole Ham Shack, but for now as a late dear friend used to say "it is what it is" so we will keep being creative to find ways to accommodate the electronics with the space limitations of the California Lifestyle.

Until later and "73's" to my Ham Radio friends.....

Sincerely, John KG6ODI

One last thing, since this is somewhat "the My-Space"" for John, I wanted to take a second and acknowledge some important people in my life. Starting with Wayne Beingston, my Communications Electronics teacher who gave me the foundation I have been building on for 51 years now, to Fred Trudo and Robert Bekee who spent their valuable time to help me learn computers when I first started working, to Tony Thomas a former boss who taught me a lot about business and gave me a lot of opportunities, to Alan Adamson, Tom Lin and Joe Tosolini who were my partners in business for so many good years. And of course Patty, Connie and Garret who are my universe (and let me have these cool toys!)