The plastic bracket to mount the FT8900 head is a little flimsy and I’ll be removing it when I have the vehicle parked at home so I started looking for a more durable solution.  I ended up using a tripod ball head with a quick release shoe.  I found an inexpensive medium sized ball head from cowboystudio on amazon.  I purchased a pair so I can have one base installed in my car and one on my desk at home.

The head makes a solid mount that I can remove in about 10 seconds.

Ended up being a nice day for a drive.  I finished building and installing the removable bracket for my mobile and had a chance to get acquainted with the FT8900 on the road.  I had been practicing scanning and changing the main without having to glance at the radio. 

I realized that I had made a noob mistake when I tried to check in to the hamfest station.  I didn’t have the pl tone to access the repeater.  I had been wondering if the tones created after a transmission were a function of the radio or repeater.  The silence after my attempted call answered the question.

This was the first hamfest I’ve attended as a ham.  It was a small fest relative to Findlay but I did find a few treasures: 

1$ plastic parts bins – can you ever have too many?

Alesis Micorverb – I want to add reverb to a amp that I build a while ago and I think this will do nicely.

PL-259s and some other antenna building supplies

A 3$ mag mount CB radio antenna in great shape.

I have a new vehicle and a new radio.  The radio is a Yaesu 9800 and I’m working on an easily removable rig, as my urban location is prone to the occasional stolen stereo.  A local commercial radio vendor was able to provide an Archer CB removable plate (vintage radio shack – the instructions are dated 1979)  to mount the radio and the faceplate is held by a cell phone / GPS cup mount.  I’m looking at a ball head tripod mount with a shoe to replace it.  Coffee ranks higher than radio on road trips!

I had the idea a few weeks ago and administering semester exams gave me  time to develop the basic idea of the card using 3D Studio Max 2012.  Mental Ray rendering helps the glass materials pop.