Ellis Hygema, N9EH, has been licensed since 1970 and a member of SATERN since 1998. He drives an 18 wheel truck for Shaffer Trucking out of New Kensington, PA, a temperature controlled trucking company. Ellis is on a dedicated Wal-Mart fleet hauling dry products West and produce East. The truck is a Freightliner with a 470 HP Detroit diesel engine. It has a gross weight of 80,000 pounds and carries a payload of 47,000 pounds. Ellis has a certificate for driving over 3 million miles with no accidents or traffic violations.

Following pictures will show why N9EH has an outstanding HF mobile signal and all of the communications systems available to him.

Freightliner Cab

Screwdriver antenna tuner on window and up/down switches on dash - Satellite Radio Receiver - Garmin GPS - Kenwood TS-2000 HF Transceiver - Cellular Telephone - 1000 Watt HF Amplifier behind seat

Kenwood TM-D700A transmits position, speed, direction provided by Garmin GPS unit and origin/destination every 5 minutes 144.390 MHz. Text messages can be sent and received using TCP/IP protocol. 146.520 MHz is monitored at all times. APRS identifier is N9EH-14.

To view present position click on: N9EH

VHF/UHF Transceiver for simplex and repeater contacts plus worldwide IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project) contacts - Cobra CB on channel 19

Qualcomm satellite communications unit. It is used by his Dispatcher in Bentonville, AR to send him a message. Note the instructions to pickup a load in Tipp City OH and deliver it to Porterville, CA. Keyboard is used to transmit a message when the truck is stopped.

Screwdriver HF antenna which covers 75 to 10 meters. 14165 KHz Primary listening frequency. Secondary frequency 14302.5 KHz

Antennas for VHF, UHF, CB, 10 meters and AM/FM radio.