Smart

Last week I finished up installing my FT-7800R dual band transceiver in my Smart. I installed the radio under the passenger seat held in place with "Industrial Strength" velcro. (Not K0BG approved!) Velcro sticks to the carpet in the Smart great! That location made for an easy route to the battery for power and to the antenna mounted on the rear spoiler.

I had the radio in the car for a couple of weeks before I settled on a mount for the control head. I finally decided on an LM300 floor mount from Lido Mounts. After ordering the LM300 I found a thread on eHam with lots of complaints about Lido Mounts. Fortunately I received the mount one week after ordering. The same type of mount is also available from mountguys.com.

For an antenna I purchased a Comet CP-5NMO lip mount and a Comet SBB-5NMO antenna. The SBB-5 is marketed as a "ground independent" antenna. I installed the mount on the rear spoiler, straddling one of the screws that holds the spoiler on. I had to reconfigure the mount slightly so the large wing nut doesn't hit the roof when the rear window is opened. The antenna works great! I did tilt it over at about a 45 degree angle so it wouldn't hit the garage door. I haven't had ANY RFI problems running the rig on high power.

Below are some pictures of my installation.

My long awaited Smart arrived in San Antonio on March 21. My wife and I made a quick one day trip to S.A. on Wednesday, March 25. The drive down only took 4-1/2 hours. You can make pretty good time when you can drive 80 MPH on I-10!

The salesman was waiting on us when we arrived and gave us both a short driving lesson to learn how to operate the manual automatic transmission. The purchase went pretty smooth since I had told the salesman ahead of time I didn't want the "anti-theft window etching" they had included in the TT&L total for only $97.50. I don't know why dealerships try to stick you with stuff like this. Turns out they did the glass etching anyway so I guess that was a freebie. I tried to get some free floor mats thrown in but couldn't talk them into that.

Next stop was the finance man. He did a really poor job trying to sell us an extended warranty. Maybe that's why he's the finance man and not a car salesman!

After giving the finance man our check we were ready to head back to Midland. We made a stop at the parts department to pick up some floor mats on the way out since I couldn't get them for free. Gotta have floor mats!

The little car is a blast to drive! On the way home I got it up to 80 MPH a couple of times but mostly drove between 65 and 70. It seems to be pretty wind sensitive. We drove into some heavy rain, wind, and hail near Junction. Fortunately the hail was small and the storm was short. It was clear sailing on home from there. We stopped in Ozona for gas since I was down to 1/2 tank at that point. It took 4.8 gallons to fill up which worked out to about 41 MPG. Hopefully I'll continue to see mileage in that range!

Next trick is to figure out how to mount an antenna!

I finally received word today from Smart Car in San Antonio that my car should be arriving around March 23. Juan at Smart Car said he expected it would actually be between March 15 and March 20. That makes it right at one year since I sent in my reservation.

Hope I like it!

I placed my reservation for a Smart car in March, 2008. In September I received the email to configure my Smart.

After configuring the Smart delivery date estimator (DDE) showed delivery between December, 2008, and February, 2009. Then after a couple of weeks it showed November, 2008, to January, 2009. Then the delivery date disappeared for a couple of weeks. Then it came back with a specific day interval. I can't remember what it said at that time but today it is showing February 17 to May 18, 2009. Every day it seems to move out another couple of days. It will look like the one in the photo, if I ever get it!

Of course, if I ever do get it the next challenge will be figuring out how to mount an antenna. The body is composed of plastic panels. The silver part in the photo is a Tridion safety cell made of steel. I really don't want to go drilling into that. I have seen some hams use some type of glass mounted VHF/UHF antenna so I'll have to check into that.