I have only been active for just under two years and love getting out in the bush, in the parks, by the rivers and at the beaches, mostly at weekends. I’ve also done a lot of experimenting and think I have finally landed on a set-up that works for me.
In short, for antennas, I have a JPC-12 and 2.5 metre element and another base with no coil and a five metre element. This is my ‘quick’ set-up. I also travel with a 20 metre long EFHW and 20 metre HW dipole. I carry a 10 metre Spiderbeam for when trees aren’t possible. It’s taken me a while to get the Spiderbeam to work. The issue has been the base mount but, as you will see below, I think I have now cracked it. I use an Icom IC-7300, Ham 2K Polo and Greyline FT8 (with Digirig Lite) on my M4 iPad Pro 11 inch.
My second issue was getting to places. Beaches and parks are mostly fine. But some forests are hard to get to. I don’t have a ‘real’ 4WD. My Mitsubishi Outlander is good but not that good. I found Google Maps advertised “roads” in the bush that simply didn’t exist or they would barely pass as a grade five walking trail. I also found the iPhone of not much use when out of 4G/5G range. It would show me where I was without actually showing me where I was. I solved this two ways, getting an old style GPS and I have signed up with a specialist map service for off road driving in Australia and New Zealand. I’d think there would similar services that show drivable roads elsewhere.
A base for the Spiderbeam
I tried attaching the Spiderbeam to various parts of the car with bungee cords but due to its length and height, it was pretty unwieldy. I looked online and found a like this one and this one where operators have got a 90 cm long piece of PVC (or close to) and attached three or four guy wires to it. It works. I got the pipe and stainless steel rings at Bunnings and some ratcheting tensioners from Anaconda. You can secure the rings to the pipe with a hose clamp or cable ties. As an extra step making it even more secure, you can put a beach umbrella spike from Amazon in the ground and the pipe over the top of it.
A SatNav for when you are off 4G/5G
The last SatNav I purchased was when I moved to from Sydney to San Francisco in 2009. Seventeen years on, the user interface on Garmin SatNav hasn’t changed. But you know what, it just works. Better still, I can plan out where I want to go and send it from an app on the iPhone to the Sat Nav and it takes me there! And it only chooses drivable roads. The mapping has a few quirks but it’s generally good. I got the Garmin Drive 53 for AUD 230 (USD150) and it works just fine.
Maps that show you drivable roads in parks
I am not a “4WDer”. The only thing that takes me off road is POTA. My car is capable of good gravel roads but can’t do rough and tumble 4WD things. So, I am confined to roads in National Parks and State Forests. I found a service called Newtracs that shows drivable roads in parks and forests and rates them. It’s only for Australia and New Zealand. Now I can see roads that I can do. I have given it a few tests and it works pretty well. You can also download offline maps for the iPhone. This negates the need for a SatNav but having both is handy. I find I can do most things with the free Newtracs account but a paid annual account is only AUD100 (USD65).
ENDS
5 September 2026