After all the fun of using ham radio on a backpack and in a boat, I decided to see if I could mount my FT-817 to my old (1986) Miyata mountain bike. I wanted to operate QRP and knew I wanted a big antenna, but now I had legal regulations to follow. My trusty 20-foot shortened half wave would take me nine feet over the 13.5-foot limit for a vehicle on the road if I mounted it on the bike rack. With some calculating and some trial-and-error, I came up with a 13-foot, very shortened half wave vertical. Even this would be too tall when mounted 30" above ground on the end of the bike rack, so I tilted it back about 40 degrees.




I found the camera bag at a garage sale for two dollars. That's my FT-817, sitting on four inches of foam. Below that is the headset adapter. A pre-made six-foot BNC-BNC coax cable just reaches from the rig to the antenna in the back. The bag rests on a coated piece of 7" x 7" plywood, and that is mounted to the handlebars with aluminum brackets. Rubber from an old inner tube is sandwiched in between for more shock absorption.










In June, 2005, I temporarily replaced the radio with an IC-706. Running 20 watts I worked New Zealand from Golden, Colorado.
Here is a short report (with audio) on an amazing three-hour ride and my QSO with ZL1AIX.