M0TMX-7 on the move......
I spend a lot of my time mobile so thought it might be of interest to others to see what my mobile setup looks like.
The equipment I have in the car as follows.........
Icom IC-£2820
Kenwood TM-D710
Avmap G5 GPS unit
IBS BM-3 Battery Management/ Dual Battery System
110ah Auxilliary Battery
2 x Rigrunner DC Distribution boards, with all equipment using Anderson Power Pole Plugs
In addition to the above I also run a Yaesu FT857 and a Yaesu FT8900 static mobile either for Portable Operation or Raynet use from time to time.
Icom IC-E2820
Icom IC-E2820
This radio is programmed with only Digital Repeaters and has Direct routing for most of the Gateway enabled repeaters worldwide. Also included is the ability to link to any Reflector or UK Repeater using DPlus. DPRS is inactive, as I'm more of an APRS fan, but the GPS is transmitting position data so you should be able to see that on your DStar radio when you transmit.
Kenwood TM-D710
Kenwood TM-D710
Although I can run DPRS using the IC-E2820, I prefer to use this radio and beacon to the APRS network when mobile. I find this to be a much more flexible solution, in comparison to using DPRS via a DStar Repeater. There are more Digipeaters available to support APRS and for proper Automatic Position Reporting you can set up either an Automatic Beacon or "Smartbeaconing" which is what I choose to use. The other nice thing about the Kenwood TM-D710 is that you can supress your speed and altitude if you choose to. I supress my speed data, unfortunately this is necessary as I'm afraid there are a couple of stations who have taken it upon themselves to become the "APRS Speed Police". I have no time for those people who clearly have nothing better to do with themselves accept sent me messages highlighting the fact that I'm doing 85mph in a 70mph zone while on the motorway.
Avmap G5 GPS Unit
Avmap G5
This is the perfect GPS companion to the TM-D710 radio. It has a large 5" touch screen display, and clearly displays all the UIView beacons on the GPS display itself. I bought mine from Italy and imported it to the UK, but since then it is available at leading Amateur Radio Emporiums in the UK. It's not cheap, and you can get many other much cheaper GPS units to work with your Kenwood radio, but this is the perfect mobile APRS setup.
Battery Management - Power while Mobile (Thanks to Matt, M1CMN, for his help installing this)
IBS BM-3 Battery Management System
I do some portable operation, and help the local RAYNET group out when necessary. This means that I've got several radios running for up to 8-10 hours at a time. For example I might use my Yaesu 8900 in Cross Band Repeater mode during a Raynet event, while powering my laptop, beaconing onto APRS with the Kenwood and chatting to my DStar friends all at the same time. This places a heavy drain on the car battery.
This picture shows the display when the engine is off, and the power is being drawn from the Auxilliary Battery, which shows the voltage in the led display on the left.
Engine Running Charging Voltage Display
I have installed an Auxilliary battery in the boot of the car which powers all Radios, GPS, Laptops and whatever else I want to connect. The power is managed through a Battery Management Unit which prevents the cars main battery from being drained. Once I start the engine the battery is then recharged automatically. If necessary once the Auxilliary battery is used up, I can use power from the main Car Battery, and still monitor the voltage to make sure the main battery does not drain so much that I can't start the car. In the event that very high power is needed I can, at the touch of a button, connect both the Main and Auxilliary Battery together. Although, I've never had the need to do this.
This picture shows the display when the engine is running and shows the voltage going to BOTH batteries as they are being charged. When the engine stops the batteries unlink from each other and run totally independently.
Engine Running Display fully activated
All of the radios are fed to a Power Distribution board. I use a West Mountain Radio Rigrunner. I have two in the car, one to power my day to day equipment and another in the boot to enable me to plug in any other radios etc if I'm out and about for the day/weekend, or whatever.
This picture shows the display fully active, the top half of the display just shows the charge in each battery and goes off after 45 seconds or so.