Fun / Projects / with my 1997 America Dream
Borrowed a trailer and getting ready for some fun in the sun (it's cold here now 30's again tonight) I went and bought a 8 inch drop hitch, the 6 inch had the deck at too much of an angle, and ...
Forum Discussion
So this might be a little off topic, but the Motor Home was purchased for pulling the dragster to the track.
When at the track announcements of when to come to the staging lanes is usually done three ways, none of which has proven to be totally reliable.
One is someone rides around in a golf cart announcing a class to the staging lanes. This is the lest reliable method of communication.
Two the PA system at the track is used to announce which class should be in the staging lanes. This is a little better, but has problems. The quality of the PA system is always a factor, echo / speed of sound from one speaker to the next, to the next sometimes makes announcements very hard to understand.
Three, most good tracks have a small FM station they broadcast on. The Motor Home radio usually does a good job of picking these broadcasts up, but means sitting inside the Motor Home.
Having a radio outside is probably the best method. Lots of racers mount a car radio in the trailer with speakers outside.
I bought a DeWalt work radio and found it to have very poor reception, but was convenient in that everything was contained in one unit.
If I sit the radio on top of the trailer it does a little better but still not great. I have tried rapping mechanics wire around the antenna and stretching it to the back latter on the Motor Home. This actually works pretty good so long as it does not touch any metal on the trailer.
According to Google a CB wave length is about 36 feet long so a 1/4 wave length is 108 inches. An FM wave length is supposed to be 120 inches.
So my idea is to take a CB antenna and add a little length of wire to it to approximate an FM wave length. The length of wire that I added was about 10 inches long so I'm close to a full FM wave length (I think).
I modified a CB antenna mount so I could screw a screw into the end making it a terminal(this was a cable connection that I cut the threads off so I could get to the antenna terminal).
I mounted the antenna mount to the door of the trailer.
The idea is when I set up I open the door and screw the CB antenna into the mount.
I tried finding a weak station and then clipped the extension onto the antenna for the radio and it seems to help.
We will see when we go to Norwalk next week.
Ok radio guys let me have it.
When at the track announcements of when to come to the staging lanes is usually done three ways, none of which has proven to be totally reliable.
One is someone rides around in a golf cart announcing a class to the staging lanes. This is the lest reliable method of communication.
Two the PA system at the track is used to announce which class should be in the staging lanes. This is a little better, but has problems. The quality of the PA system is always a factor, echo / speed of sound from one speaker to the next, to the next sometimes makes announcements very hard to understand.
Three, most good tracks have a small FM station they broadcast on. The Motor Home radio usually does a good job of picking these broadcasts up, but means sitting inside the Motor Home.
Having a radio outside is probably the best method. Lots of racers mount a car radio in the trailer with speakers outside.
I bought a DeWalt work radio and found it to have very poor reception, but was convenient in that everything was contained in one unit.
If I sit the radio on top of the trailer it does a little better but still not great. I have tried rapping mechanics wire around the antenna and stretching it to the back latter on the Motor Home. This actually works pretty good so long as it does not touch any metal on the trailer.
According to Google a CB wave length is about 36 feet long so a 1/4 wave length is 108 inches. An FM wave length is supposed to be 120 inches.
So my idea is to take a CB antenna and add a little length of wire to it to approximate an FM wave length. The length of wire that I added was about 10 inches long so I'm close to a full FM wave length (I think).
I modified a CB antenna mount so I could screw a screw into the end making it a terminal(this was a cable connection that I cut the threads off so I could get to the antenna terminal).
I mounted the antenna mount to the door of the trailer.
The idea is when I set up I open the door and screw the CB antenna into the mount.
I tried finding a weak station and then clipped the extension onto the antenna for the radio and it seems to help.
We will see when we go to Norwalk next week.
Ok radio guys let me have it.
