VE6AB Mobile Ops

Wildfires Radio Ops

On a recent morning while out in the grasslands of southern AB, I was operating radio in the smoke, the smoke being generated from wildfires burning in California, Oregon and Washington state.
My high vantage point on this morning just after sunrise with commanding views on all points of the compass, made it hard to put down my camera and push on down the double track that my mobile is sitting on.

While going down the road, I have a full complement of antennas located in the cargo bay of my mobile at my disposal, and depending on my needs, I may be either running with one of my monobander coils mounted in place on the mast assembly I built for that purpose, or as seen in the photo on this morning, I'm running my 10-80 meter gearmotor antenna mounted in place on the rear 1/4 panel of my mobile.

I designed and built this gearmotor antenna expressly for my Avalanche, and they play extremely well together, along with the Kenwood TS-480HX mounted in the radio stack up front, walking the talk with 200 watts on tap.

On this morning, I'm running my skinny whip for working the high bands of 10-20 meters.
Stored in the cargo bay is my high-performance 304 stainless steel braid covered 1/2" OD fiberglass whip with included tophat, that I use when working 40 and 80 meters where bigger is better when it comes to getting out.

Its a tough job, but someone has to do it!

Click on the photo for a closer look.....