NW5W // 1987 Land Rover Defender 110

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About My Defender

This is a 1987 Defender 110 that I imported myself from the U.K. in 2013. It was originally used by the British Army as a radio truck and was eventually sold as surplus, which is how I got it. I rebuilt it on a new galvanized chassis with a rebuilt Land Rover 300Tdi turbodiesel engine.

Ham Radio in the Truck

My Defender is equipped with a Yaesu FT-2900 75W 2-meter radio and a Byonics MTT4BT 8W APRS tracker. I run Diamond Antenna NR770HB antennas and Diamond's RG316 cable.

My tracker is hard-wired into an ignition-switched fuse panel and permanently mounted. If the truck is on, it is probably transmitting.

If I'm travelling cross-country, you might find me on 146.52 or a regional linked repeater system.  If I'm out in the desert with friends, I will be monitoring our truck-to-truck simplex frequency only.