posted 10/25/07
Charlie, WB8NSL, recently joined the 21st century by purchasing a Kenwood TM-D700A and a Garmin GPS for his daily driver which he affectionately calls, "Miss Daisy". He says now he is a "real" ham because the radio components are worth more than the car!
He accompanied WA8ZWJ to Michigan for a two week trip during which he ordered the equipment. The radio was delivered to the cottage in Michigan and programmed while there.
Charlie's "Hockey Puck" type Garmin GPS was back ordered, so it was decided to have it shipped to the Farley Flophouse South to prevent the chance of it arriving at the Farley Flophouse North after NSL and ZWJ returned to Dayton.
The GPS was waiting on the pair upon their arrival in Dayton. The first day's work was hampered by the car battery location and side type terminals. That was one of those 10 minute jobs that turned into two and a half hours!
Once the wiring harness was completed there was time for a quick game of Cribbage and then it was time to hit the sheets.
The next morning NSL and ZWJ installed the new wiring harness and began figuring out where the control head and so on could be placed. Then Lou, N8KXM, "The Master Installer" arrived on the scene!
Lou made short work of pulling the headliner and before long the hole for the antenna was drilled in the roof of "Miss Daisy". As soon as the antenna mount was in place Lou had the headline back up and went to work on installing the control head and hiding wires.
Care was taken to make sure that the control panel was in the right position so the driver can see what is going on and make the necessary changes as he motors the highway.
After a slight glitch was found in the wiring of the GPS to the radio, the unit worked flawlessly. As you can see below, WB8NSL-9 is now APRS radio active! This can be seen by going to the Findu.com web site at:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=wb8nsl-9&terra=4
By clicking on the link you can see where "Miss Daisy" is at this time!
Numerous other IOOK'ers are active on APRS and links to their APRS stations can be found on the IOOK web site by clicking on "APRS" and then clicking on the desired link.
Congratulations to Charlie, WB8NSL, on his new radio and installation. A special thanks goes to Lou, N8KXM, for his expert assistance!
