Improving my camper van install.

[Mentor3006]

So my camper van has a coach battery bank tied into its own fuse block not attached directly to the vehicle charging system, but rather via a DC to DC charger / MPPT charge controller, so no possibility of alternator / ignition system whine coming from the power source. However it is at the back of the camper. Where the radio stuff is at the front in the cab area.

Given that I will not now, nor do I have intention of running a big of fat multi pill amp, I was thinking of running an 8ga lead to the coach fuse panel, and to a small buss bar under dash to attach power to, grounding would stay grounded directly to chassis ground as the coach systems are grounded to chassis ground and I would prefer to save the wire...

This would allow me to play skip while I am in camp assuming I have line of sight to the sky and not just crowded with trees, and be able to run off of coach batteries which stay charged via solar when in camp, and the from the DC system / alternator indirectly while driving.

Anyone see any issues with this thought process?

[De_Wildfire]

Let me give it a whirl here. I am not familiar with mobile/camper setups but I will shed different light. First the 11 meter band is on fire with the sunspot cycle 25 heading up to the top. It doesn't take much to make a contact with a 100 watt mobile on let's say channel 38 LSB unless you want the AM challenge. I have a friend using a bumper mount antenna who talks to Alaska and other DX on channel 38 with his President Lincoln II running 45 watts. You mentioned that you wanted to use the amp while you were, "in camp only" Hold the thought.

Here is my understanding on a muliti pill amp. If I am wrong, please BOZO, anyone and MARV, correct me. A Texas Star 500 has 4 2SC2879 transistors, this makes it a multi pill amp, 120 watts x 4 pills = 480 watts. I could be wrong so please take this with a grain of salt.

What if there was a portable beam antenna out there with a portable crank up mast and utilize that? Some of these crank up masts have a flat square bottom where you drive right on it which secures the mast. Let's say the ERP of the beam is right near the 480 watt mark. You would achieve the same 480 watts unless you are talking way more power. The beam being horizontal, you would have line of site to the sky. That's another plus.

The reason I came to this conclusion is that I always ran 500 watts on an imax 2000 vertical antenna. When I got the two element Hex Beam, I stopped using the amp and was still talking DX all over the place just like I used to have the amp. I was "killing the DX". I think there is a Buddy Hex from Buddipoles company which is a Hex Beam in a bag for camping. The 10 meter two element wires, may have to be stretched. You could throw it out there with just 11/10 meters. There may be other portable beam antennas out there.

By taking the amp out of the equation eliminates many "unknowns" that may go wrong later. I hope that I've have shed some light on your situation.

[MDYoungblood]

I'll start off with the whine problem, it is usually caused by a mismatch of diodes in the regulator, I recently had to buy a rebuilt alternator from a local shop, we tried several until I found one that didn't whine.
Now for power to the radio, where is the battery located? Usually if it's not near the engine than it's in the back with a long positive run to the front connecting to a relay or fuse link then to the starter. I would connect the radio there.
I don't think a DC to DC converter would be necessary. To reduce noises like wipers, AC/heater fan, etc., look through the forum for suggestions on those.
Another thing is to have a tuned antenna, getting the right signal to the radio helps in reducing the wrong signals (noise).

3's

Greg