Based upon over 40 years of HF mobile operation from tubes to solid
state (used about all of them). Smaller is better - modern cars offer
little space and cannot support heavy weight equipment.
I use a Kenwood TS-480 with the auto-tuner (100 Watt version) in my
Tahoe and find it does very well. I have a console unit that I built
that holds the face plate and the face plate for a 2-meter/440 rig also.
The antennas used are HamSticks - yes the $26 dollar antennas. They
really do work well and I can see no reason to have anything more
expensive. Notice, I did not say "better" - I said more expensive. I
have owned a few of the expensive well known HF antennas for mobile use
and found them to be unwieldy, touchy in the maintenance department, and
absurdly expensive.
I rag chew very successfully with my HamSticks - 40 and 80 meters. When
comparing them to the expensive all banders, they held their own. After
all, when using terribly inefficient antennas, a couple of percent
points difference one way or the other makes little difference.
On 75 meters the auto-tuner feature of the 480 allows the 80 meter
antenna to operate from 3900 to 4000 quite well. 40 meters is 7100 to
7300. By the way, 17 meters is a fine mobile band.
Would the K3 be a better mobile rig? Probably yes. A better tuner and
better abilities to handle noise. Would it be worth the additional
expense? Not to my thinking. The biggest drawback is the physical size
of the rig - even if you have a "removable" faceplate. Now, if you could
use the full K-Line in the car - well, that would be super!
To the other responder: Yes, I realize this is merely a K3/0 that
didn't get fed while it was growing up. Sometimes the runt of the litter
is the better choice. For physical reasons, having the ability to move
the faceplate around would be a real plus.
Bill W2BLC K-Line
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