Family Adventure Van

The ladder paint is drying and will install in the morning, followed by a ton of electrical work installing radios, antennas and a bunch of relays, switches and wire to run the new lighting.

New shoes for the van showed up yesterday and the van now has a serious attitude and altitude improvement.
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Commo is in, testing reception with a NOAA broadcast before programming in the local 2-meter repeaters. The CB for the highway and for others in the group who may not be Hams. Boogie Wipes because I have young kids. I mean it *is* the Family Adventure Van.
 
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Went exploring for rural ex photos today...this van is heavier than my old Z71 was, but it did well in some much deeper thicker stuff around the curve in photo.
 
After the adventure over Christmas I realized that the rack needed decking so the gear sits better. All the Plano cases sat unevenly on the rack bars. Took about 30 minutes to completely install, the rack is easier to walk around on now too.

Used 4 sections, leaving about 20" of exposed rack at the rear.

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Thanks! Big steps accomplished and some more fabrication to go (bumpers) to be "done," but we all know that no vehicle is ever "done." Im already eying a quad band Yaesu to line up with my plan to test up in March. It isn't as cool as some of the pro-built E-Vans like are found on the portal, but I don't care, it's mine and I'm having fun!

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WUZombies said:
The ladder paint is drying and will install in the morning, followed by a ton of electrical work installing radios, antennas and a bunch of relays, switches and wire to run the new lighting.

New shoes for the van showed up yesterday and the van now has a serious attitude and altitude improvement.
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GSMNP Is awesome! I go over there every year. Even spent my 2 week honeymoon up there.
 

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That FarmTek decking made an awesome perch to stand on to photograph a Rod run this morning!

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Took the FT-2900r out and replaced it with a FT-7900r and ran new coax. Huge improvement and a much more capable radio.

Those green packages on the shelf? Boogie Wipes, that's the cool extra gear you carry when you have young kids. :D

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The FT-2900R is pushing 75 watts, how do you feel that the 7900 is more capable other than a detachable faceplate and dual band?

Me, I prefer the extra 25 watts for long distance.
 
Dave said:
The FT-2900R is pushing 75 watts, how do you feel that the 7900 is more capable other than a detachable faceplate and dual band?

Me, I prefer the extra 25 watts for long distance.
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I gave up 25 watts for 70cm transmitting ability and the ability to monitor the low AM bands (the local Unicoms at the airports in the area) and to scan the local SO which still uses non-APCO-25 radios on VHF (they're short on radios so even though I have a badge still, I don't have a radio assigned to me anymore that will hit the digital trunked comms). The extra power of the 2900 didn't really gain me much from what I can tell, since you still have to receive for it to matter. The big trip the summer will primarily be simplex between the three families / rigs in our group, since apparently there is a serious lack of repeaters in the Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier areas.

Big Bend has an awesome 2-meter repeater on Christmas mountain that I could hit with a 4-watt baefong handheld.
 
Attitude adjustment with some altitude adjustment. Really I was trying to fix some squatting while loaded issues, but the new stance looks nice.

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Standing on the massive roof rack getting the gear sorted before jetting out of town to be blessed by campfire smoke, the company of family and friends.

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WUZombies said:
The green ones are Plano 1818, the black on in the middle is a Plano 1919 (which has the kitchen gear).
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Awesome thanks. EBay here I come! I have a couple small ones, but I'm trying to get organization better than it is. In my drawers I bought canvas bags to store like items together, just waiting on them to get here. My mother in law said she can make my patches on her embroidery machine. There are a few guys on here that have packing and organization down to a science. The boxes you have look to be great for my roof storage.
 
TheCelt said:
Awesome thanks. EBay here I come! I have a couple small ones, but I'm trying to get organization better than it is. In my drawers I bought canvas bags to store like items together, just waiting on them to get here. My mother in law said she can make my patches on her embroidery machine. There are a few guys on here that have packing and organization down to a science. The boxes you have look to be great for my roof storage.
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They're not water proof, so that's a draw back, except for the price, which is quite nice. So gear that goes on top is gear that can get wet and not cause a catastrophic failure in our camp. With two little kids that gear is surprisingly high in bulk, with out the kids we wouldn't even need the roof rack to do more than hold antennas.
 
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