CQ CQ CQ - Company Drivers with Ham Radios

[TruckerMike]

Hello fellow Hams. I'm a company driver for Prime and will be finished with training in a few weeks here. I don't know exactly what kind of truck I'll have yet, but it'll most likely either be a Century or a Cascadia. I'm wondering if any of you who are company drivers have set up a 2M radio in your truck along with your CB and what your setup is like. I have an Icom dual band mobile radio, but I can't give you the model number at the moment as it's been collecting dust for a couple years. But I'd like to get it set back up in the truck once I go solo if at all possible. The reason I'm targeting company drivers is because this will need to be a temporary set up. Something I can change back to "stock" once I turn the truck in. But any advice from any of you would be appreciated. Is there any antennae out there that would adequately run both my CB and my Ham? Can I use a splitter and run off the same coax / antennae at the same time? I’m assuming the answer is no to both of these since the bands are so far apart, but thought I’d check. If you’re running a separate antennae for the Ham, where and how did you mount it? How do you get power to your radio?

Just wondering how you guys set these things up to run in conjunction with your CB. Unfortunately I never got real technical after I got my Ham license, so I'm far beyond the curve of most of you. I got my Ham Radio license primarily for storm spotting and have mostly only run the mobile in my personal car with a mag-mount antennae. Although I do have a 10m radio at home that I’ve used a bit and set up a base station from my house (ran the coax, set up the antennae on the roof, etc.) so with a bit of instruction I can learn to do it. Any tips?

73 de KB9TGV

[Phil1Fla]

Well I have run 2 meters in a truck and also have run HF, 6, 2, 220, 440 in the truck at the same time. your company will be your control. I worked for a company that the safety director was a ham. So I had a couple radio's in the truck.

run a very good 2 meter rig. I have a d700a and it gives me aprs plus 2 meters and 440. and I use to run a FT8900 and it gave me 10 meters, 6 meters, 2meters, and 440 FM. But buy a good 2 meter rig. besides you will spend most of your time on 2 meters.

73's
Phil ham&mars

[TruckerMike]

Appreciate the reply there Phil. I figured this thread was going to die a very lonely death. Pickin' up my truck next week. Hopefully they'll let me install a radio or two.

[geartow]

i just use a simple mirror mount with a 1/4 wave on it for 2 meters and a browning for 11 meters both on same mirror

pat n3idg

[Phil1Fla]

I'll tell you my company had a problem with two hf radios and a couple vhf/uhf radios.
So your choice for a radio will have to one that you can live with. Icom and Yeasu have HF, VHF, and UHF radios. If you like Icom buy that, and if you like kenwood. you get the idea. Buy what will make you the happy. You are the one who will spend your time in the truck.