AC4RD_mobie_mobile

I’ve moved to a “retirement community” lately and I can’t walk very far or stand very long, so I’m using a “mobility scooter.” (My wife dislikes the term “Geezer-Kart.” I haven’t yet let her hear the phrase “Using my cart before my hearse”–like so many women, she doesn’t have an appreciable sense of humor.)

As a ham from about 1990 until a few years ago, I mostly worked HF DX; never spent much time on repeaters. (Although I always try to belong to at least one local club, because it’s important to have a community. I’ve been a member of RARS and OCRA (NC) on and off for years, ARRL almost all the time. Now I”m a member of the Southwest Wake (county, NC) ARC, https://www.southwakearc.com/home )

I haven’t got an HF rig set up here at “Toetag Towers” yet (though I have a QRP rig I’ve had a lot of fun with in the past.) But I did wind up buying a super-cheap (<$50 on amazon) VHF/UHF rig, to put on my battery-powered “DIY EMS Gurney” (photos accompany.) This is all a work in progress, I’m fiddling–we grouchy bored misanthropic cripples need activities to keep us busy and I don’t like ‘bingo.’)

FIRST: I’m thinking about getting a Yaesu FTX whatever, the 10w allbander, from DX Engineering, and putting that on my scooter. I’m still not sure about HF from onboard this thing. (I *do* have a 5w QRP rig for it but antennas are a problem, and I say that as someone who worked 150 countries, some of them on CW, while mobile.) And I’ll add that I’ve been a customer of DX Engineering for years and love the company (there are TWO DXE stickers on that cart). But DXE doesn’t carry this level of … gear. This is NOT Yaesu-grade gear, no way.

Still, the radio was <$50 on amazon and coveres 2m and 440. It has 20w claimed, 200 channels, works with CHIRP (linux ver, anyway), and seems to work perfectly well. I get good audio reports on the local repeaters, and the QYT KT-8900D seems to be a bargain at the price. I’ll probably get a Yaesu or Icom if I wind up using repeaters from the kart regularly.

Antenna: 2m only for now, on a 3/8×24 mount, all on a mast held on the scooter basket with big zip-ties. The radio mount is a plastic screw-mount for cellphones, to which I have screwed the 8900’s included radio mount. (The ring terminals on all 4 mounting screws are not for ground leads, though that’s probably not a bad idea. I used them because the mounting screws looked a bit long to me but I didn’t have any washers.) The scooter has two swappable 24vdc 20ah packs and I rotate them: one powers the 330w motor and one has a 24-12v bunk convertor and powers the radio(s).

All of this is seriously jury-rigged in a remarkably temporary way. But I’m making improvements–dualband antenna on the way, and a new piece of RG-8x. If you want to fix up your grandfather’s scooter and want to ask something, ken@kuzenski.org. 73 GL! –ken ac4rd 10 sept 2026