Driving up to my house 1-9-2016 in the afternoon, there it was on my front porch. On January 02, 2016 I ordered the CHA Hybrid-Mini and the CHA V1.
I have been looking for a mobile antenna for one of my new vehicles, a 2000 Chevrolet S-10 that has a turbocharged engine. I bought this one to be my daily driver and boat hauler.
Since it is going to be my main vehicle for trips to Land Between the Lakes and any other long drives I might be taking I want a radio in it. I contemplated a Uniden 980 and after a little thought why limit just to CB radio? I have radios that will receive but not transmit on 11 meter band and will work for receive and transmit on all of the other bands. The choice radio is going to be an Icom IC-7100 and with just a little finagling I can have everything from 160 meters to 2 meter bands. A couple of antenna switch boxes and I'm set go with this antenna and a couple quick Mag mounts and I have my total shack on the road. I have not worked amateur radio from a mobile yet, other than 10 meters.
First after unpacking I gave it a thorough inspection looking for shipping damage and found none because it comes well packaged. Next checked the contents against the order and it is all there.
The first and most impressive thing I noticed was that the CHA HYBRID-MINI is that it is a billet machined aluminum. For those who don't know what that means, it is made from solid aluminum bar stock and machined into the desired configuration. That means that there is a good deal precision involved in the manufacture of the case of the HYBRID-MINI Matching Unit Base. It takes a lot of design work to build anything from billet and end up with a good product. It's a lot more than generating a CNC program and tossing a chunk of metal into the vise, a lot more.
The vertical radiator is very typical of the fiber glass rod wound with magnet wire with traps wrapped in at various locations. It has six traps in the lower portion and the top section is wound in a helical fashion. The vertical radiator is l o n g and thick (106”+ 7”=113” Tall and .5“ thick) and I would think if you are not careful you will be thumping low overhanging tree limbs and utility wires. I would not mount this on the roof of a pickup or SUV for that reason. It is covered in a heavy thick heat shrink tubing which will make it easy to fix any minor dings in it. A dab of RTV Silicone and maybe a small section of heat shrink tubing should fix it right up.
I would also recommend using a reinforcement at the mounting point because the area that will be clamping against the metal in the vehicle is a little over 1” in diameter. I plan on using two steel washers welded to the sheet metal to help spread the load from the antenna and wind loading. This point also has to be a good electrical ground for the antennas because the outside of the machined case is the connection for the counterpoise.
As soon as weather and health permit I will install and perform electrical test. So if you guys hear me calling with my call sign and saying mobile call back and I will include it in a video for the review.
Pictures will be posted later.
I have been looking for a mobile antenna for one of my new vehicles, a 2000 Chevrolet S-10 that has a turbocharged engine. I bought this one to be my daily driver and boat hauler.
Since it is going to be my main vehicle for trips to Land Between the Lakes and any other long drives I might be taking I want a radio in it. I contemplated a Uniden 980 and after a little thought why limit just to CB radio? I have radios that will receive but not transmit on 11 meter band and will work for receive and transmit on all of the other bands. The choice radio is going to be an Icom IC-7100 and with just a little finagling I can have everything from 160 meters to 2 meter bands. A couple of antenna switch boxes and I'm set go with this antenna and a couple quick Mag mounts and I have my total shack on the road. I have not worked amateur radio from a mobile yet, other than 10 meters.
First after unpacking I gave it a thorough inspection looking for shipping damage and found none because it comes well packaged. Next checked the contents against the order and it is all there.
The first and most impressive thing I noticed was that the CHA HYBRID-MINI is that it is a billet machined aluminum. For those who don't know what that means, it is made from solid aluminum bar stock and machined into the desired configuration. That means that there is a good deal precision involved in the manufacture of the case of the HYBRID-MINI Matching Unit Base. It takes a lot of design work to build anything from billet and end up with a good product. It's a lot more than generating a CNC program and tossing a chunk of metal into the vise, a lot more.
The vertical radiator is very typical of the fiber glass rod wound with magnet wire with traps wrapped in at various locations. It has six traps in the lower portion and the top section is wound in a helical fashion. The vertical radiator is l o n g and thick (106”+ 7”=113” Tall and .5“ thick) and I would think if you are not careful you will be thumping low overhanging tree limbs and utility wires. I would not mount this on the roof of a pickup or SUV for that reason. It is covered in a heavy thick heat shrink tubing which will make it easy to fix any minor dings in it. A dab of RTV Silicone and maybe a small section of heat shrink tubing should fix it right up.
I would also recommend using a reinforcement at the mounting point because the area that will be clamping against the metal in the vehicle is a little over 1” in diameter. I plan on using two steel washers welded to the sheet metal to help spread the load from the antenna and wind loading. This point also has to be a good electrical ground for the antennas because the outside of the machined case is the connection for the counterpoise.
As soon as weather and health permit I will install and perform electrical test. So if you guys hear me calling with my call sign and saying mobile call back and I will include it in a video for the review.
Pictures will be posted later.
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