Extreme Bicycle Mobile

OK, so I went a little nuts with my ham radio hobby this weekend. It all started innocently enough, with a trip down to Ham Radio Outlet this past Friday afternoon, just before the first PAARA meeting, to purchase an antenna for my bicycle. I got a nice Diamond dual-band, fold-over antenna, an NMO 3-way mirror mount, and then attached the pair to a vertiacal support on the pannier.

I was somewhat pleased to get an S7 out of the local repeater, but when I finished my first ride and put the bike back, that’s when I noticed the unused fiberglass extension pole leaning up against the wall, and that’s when the insanity began. I spent about ½ hour mounting the pole to the bike at 22:00 on Saturday, and then on Sunday cut it down so the whole assembly would fit through the garage door and clear the ceiling when I store the bike on an elevated rack in the garage. You can see the gestation of my Bicycle Portable setup over the past several months, culminating in the Mark Ⅳ