Operating HF Radio AND Camping in an RV Ham Radio is a great hobby. Camping is a great adventure. Combining the two is really neat! With a few pointers you can be operating portable from campgrounds and having fun. I start with some general considerations and then describe my own RV station set-up.

Antenna Considerations Safety First and Always: When dealing with an antenna installation at your home location it is important to think about safety of yourself and anyone coming in contact with your antennas. Multiple that many, many times for the campground "installation." You will discover that lots of people enjoy camping but you can always count on a couple of groups: children running and playing and old geezers (like me) and you can only imagine the heartache if someone trips on your antenna or even worse gets an RF burn. Keep any and all antennas and guys and coax, etc. out of "tripping way." A 10 year old running after their beach ball will NOT be looking for your precious ground radials or antenna elements! And if they trip over something their parents will not be impressed with your radio ability - nor will be the Park Ranger (or lawyer) they call. Next think about the duration of your camping trip? If you are planning short trips of only a week or less you probably would be wise to deploy simple antennas that do not rob from your valuable family time on a camping trip. You can really spoil the trip for the non-ham family members if you spend the first day stringing an aerial - regardless of how much you might enjoy playing with antennas and wires even the most supportive family will get a bit miffed. Consider the following list from simplest to most complex and think about the time required to get the job done: A. Using something permanently in place on the RV (very nice option). This is listed as the simplest because although it is not simple to initially install it is simple to deploy once camping. I have seen some great screwdriver installations on RVs on the RV ladder or the roof. B. Using an antenna on the tow vehicle. If you have already been active on mobile HF radio you only like a few steps to make it camping friendly and effective. I particularly like this option because the work and maintenance of keeping that mobile antenna in top condition pays dividends on the camping trip - without extra work or time at the campground. C. Throwing a wire antenna into some nearby trees. This is simple enough but also needs some effort with ground radials and that can get messy and they are easy for folks to trip over them and get hurt. D. Assembly (and disassembly) of some sort of vertical antenna on the RV itself. Nice to have but the required work gets old quickly! A three hour assembly time is a breeze at the home QTH but doing that at every campground really doesn't sound fun. E. Assembly (and disassembly) of a small beam and rotator - field day style. Very nice but just too much work for the camping trip. Now, if you plan to be in one location a year or so this is a great option! F. Setting up multiple antennas to be competitive in the contest (Really? Don't mix that with a family camping trip.) You can bring along a prized high-end transceiver but without an effective antenna you will be disappointed - particularly when compared to a well built home station. If you plan to camp in one location for a few months then perhaps the effort to get a G5RV or Windom antenna into the trees is a good investment of a day but plan to spend some time looking for perfect trees! And you can be certain Mr. Murphy joins you at each location. It is hard to accept but campground staff just don't think about ham radio antennas when they plan the campsite. Hint: If you frequent campground locations near your home you can walk around and take note of sites that are "ham radio" friendly - perhaps on the end of the lane or with room for some antennas for future camping trips. An Important Caveat From My Near Disaster If you connect a coax to your tow vehicle be sure to disconnect before leaving the campground! I know, it sounds simple but let me assure you our last minute (after dark naturally) run to town for some "essential" item (like my must have nightly popcorn) almost turned into destruction. It happened in Indianola, Iowa. As I was pulling away from the RV I felt a "snap" and heard a noise and wondered what that could be and then that sick feeling in my gut told me I forgot to disconnect the coax! Yes, I was lucky - this time. The coax snapped instead of the side of the RV being pried open like a tin can! NOW, You will always find my coax weaved through the drivers mirror (see picture) in order to idiot proof departures! If you are done laughing about my silly mistake let's move onto rig options. Radio Choices Simple QRP operation. From homebrew to commercial you have lots of choices. The advantage is that you are operating QRP and of course the disadvantage is that you are operating QRP! Yes, fun for some and frustrating for some. I have made some very nice contacts operating QRP. And it is interesting that I seem to be hearing more and more hams answering my CQs that are operating QRP as well. If you do run QRP a major advantage is less power consumption (more on that in a minute). Basic 100 watt station. I prefer to run 100 watts and therefore can count on making some great contacts. With 100 watts I find that I can call CQ, work a bit in a contest and even work a little DX. When tuning up and down the dial and I hear a big pile up I usually just continue dialing but have indeed broken through some piles with my basic rig and mobile type antennas. Full power operation. OK - this would be a blast for sure but it would require more than most campgrounds offer in power availability. Connecting to multiple camp site power poles is not allowed and really takes away from the spirit of camping. Some campgrounds allow generators during certain hours but they tend to be noisy. Your family and fellow campground dwellers say things like, "Wow that thing sure is loud." Invest in an Antenna Tuner From campground to campground the trees, terrain, buildings, and other obstacles could make your favorite antenna have high SWR. This is true for any antenna you select. Remember that a lot of RVs are aluminum and you may have one sitting on both sides of you in a campground. A simple tuner (hopefully built into your rig) will be very, very useful. Power Consumption and RV Campgrounds Smaller travel trailers are normally wired for 30 amp service and larger trailers have 50 amp service. Campgrounds offer either 30 amp or 50 amp or both. So, when calculating your power need remember to include ALL electrical consumption of the RV. You may have a microwave, toaster, electric water heater, electric space heater, light bulbs, hair dryer and electric skillet (bacon aroma fills the air at campgrounds in the mornings) and perhaps others power hungry devices. A QRP rig will not take much power but a standard 100 watt rig adds about 20 amps to the list. Just be power conscious when running your radio. Perhaps turning off the electric water heater for a little radio time will do the trick. If you are in an RV with two air conditioners and both are running you probably need to crank down your power level a bit. Let me assure you that your radio fun is diminished if you keep tripping the breakers. Your normally understanding and supportive family will not be smiling. With QRP or basic barefoot 100 watts you can make lots of interesting contacts and have great fun. Just like fishing for bass you never know what will nibble on that CQ you throw into the ionosphere. Don't Forget Camping Well, if you are camping alone and just enjoy being outdoors and hamming you can skip this paragraph. But for the other ninety-nine percent remember that many of the joys of camping and RV'ing do not happen sitting at the radio. Fishing, hiking, playing cards, sight-seeing, bicycling, roasting marshmallows, assembling smores, campfires and a myriad of other activities make great camping memories. Remember that we ham radio ops tend to get a little (I know, just a wee bit) obsessed at times with this extremely fascinating hobby. If you let the radio time consume the camping time the family won't be so eager to hit the road again on future trips. The N5PHT RV Station Operating desk. This was an option I felt important on our last RV selection. I wanted a small place to call my radio home. It has a two drawer desk and I have two cabinets above the station dedicated to ham radio. Sitting outside making contacts can be great but not in the rain, wind, heat or other natural and unnatural (yipping dogs for example) distractions. Switching Power Supply. This is important because 20 amp switching supplies are readily available and take up only a few pounds of precious cargo allotment in an RV. Station Accessories. I have headphones, a paddle and extra coax, connectors and notebooks left in the RV. I keep a lightweight soldering iron handy and needed it in the middle of somewhere once when my cw paddle connector decided to come loose. Antenna Selection I have used several different antennas (G5RV, longwires, hamsticks) but have finally settled on using the screwdriver antenna on my tow vehicle. This makes the set up simple. See in the pictures that I have installed a coax connection on the rail of my truck. A simple HF antenna two position switch tucked out of the way under the driver's seat directs the screwdriver either to the rig mounted in my truck or to the connection mounted on the rail of the pickup bed. When setting up at the campground I run a 50 foot coax (RG8X) from the rail bed to the barrel mounted in an outer wall of the RV. Some campground layouts render the tow vehicle best parked alongside the RV and some in front or in rear of the RV so a 50 foot roll of coax allows all tow truck parking situations to work just dandy with needed flexibility. I had the coax barrel on the RV mounted at the dealer but DYI installation is really simple. Just use a 3 inch barrel mounted into a wall of your RV near the location you intend to operate. Be sure to use the appropriate nuts, washers and sealant. On the inside of the RV a short RG58 jumper completes the coax setup. Drilling a hole through your new RV does require a steady hand but take a deep breath, find a good location and all will be OK. Next, I use a remote screwdriver controller from inside the RV. Wireless is wonderful! I use a little bobble from "Hobby Gadgets" (http://hobbygadgets.biz/) and it has an A and B button that moves the screwdriver remotely up or down. Just listen for maximum noise and then tap the CW key until you see 100 watts output and you are ready for some great portable hamming. Some operators use automatic antenna controllers on screwdriver antennas and that is fine if the budget allows. Using your antenna on your tow vehicle as described in this article gives me the option of setting up my station on the campground picnic table for an afternoon of fun - with only a minimal amount of set up and lugging equipment time. Rig Choice I take my home station ICOM 746-PRO along on camping trips. I am familiar with the operation of the rig and don't have to spend time looking through a manual for a rig I only use now and then. Since a CW paddle, power supply and headphones are dedicated to the RV it takes only a little time to load my radio for the next adventure. Important caveat: If you stow your rig into the RV be certain to secure it well. I slide mine under a desk and put a chair in front of the rig. You don't want your radio moving around in the RV as you travel. Logging I have found it very nice to take my laptop computer along for the camping experience. I update the electronic log on the laptop with the home computer log. When I work a station while RV'ing it is great to have a computer log of all my contacts with that particular station. I have worked some stations from a half-dozen or more states and that is nice to know during the current chat. When I return home I simply import the current RV trip contacts into the station log so that everything stays up to date. Some Parting Points Well, combining RV'ing and Hamming is great fun and very rewarding. But don't expect to break through a pile up like you can at the home QTH. Don't expect to pull into a campground and be on the air in three or four minutes. Don't just sit on the radio and miss out on the camping experience. DO expect to have a blast combining two great endeavors. Questions – I will try to help with my limited experience and knowledge. Gary Stone, N5PHT. n5phtgs@gmail.com