My HAM Radio Install

Thanks, yup I was very pleased with the antenna setup's readings, because basically all my power is going into the antenna, with very little loss. Diamond does a great job tuning antennas so they work awesome out of the box.

 

Generally Tuning is not something that needs to be done on any VHF/UHF ham antenna. I havn't ever even seen one that can be tuned. The HF antennas are a different story though.

When i had my Tacoma I had my radio mounted behind the drivers side rear seat and a NMO mount in the middle of the roof.

You really should consider relocating your radio body. Sounds like you are used to CBs. They can only do 4W and therefore heat is not a big issue. Your Kenwood does 50W and needs room to breathe.

 

Well it would be possible to move it to behind my rear seats, but I'd have to shuffle around all my audio equipment. My dad has a 50 w ICOM mounted under his seat in the same location on his 2008 Tacoma, and he hasn't experienced any overheating issues. I'm thinking about relocating to the center console, though, and installing a 12v computer fan into the side of the console for ventilation.

 

under the seat is generally ok, It just looks like its wedged in there pretty tight. as long as there is come ventilation around it you should be ok. I have mine under my seat right now, but am relocating it some time to get it higher incase of water intrusion.

 

I think thats a bit of an optical illusion because it was hard to get a good angle to take a pic of it. Its actaully got a good bit of room around it, like maybe 2 inchs above it and a few inches around on either side.

 

I'm not too framiliar with HAM, but have the basics, but what is APRS reporting?

 

APRS is the Automatic Packet/Position Reporting System. Basically, if you hook a GPS unit up to your ham radio, you can have your radio send out your location coordinates through the radio. Its pretty cool, really, it basically uses your radio like its the internet. You can use software to track yours and other peoples location, see where you went on offroad excursions, track your route, etc. Pretty tight stuff

 

I see that you have an SR5 like I do. If you ever want to relocate the main body, there's a great spot under the center console where the 110v inverter goes in a TRD. It's right under the console storage compartment--and it even has flow-through ventilation built in.

If I ever get free time again that's where my TM-V7a main body will go.

 

I thought about that spot, since I don't have the inverter. My main concern there was with ventilation (which you just confirmed it has). Also, my data cord from the headunit would have to be extended, but its just RJ11 cable so that wouldn't be too hard i suppose.

 

Very nice on the install. Nice to see some fellow hams on here, KD8CED is my call sign.

On the TM-D700 I am a little jealous, I have wanted one of those for the longest time, just can't seem to find the extra $$$ these days, so I will have to stick with my Yaesu 1802m, 2 meter, which is a great radio btw.

 

Thanks man. I'm taking my test to get my license this weekend, so I'll report back in this thread with my callsign. My dad did test my setup though and he was easily hitting the lumberton repeater (about 55 miles away from here), so I think its working really great.

The TM-D700 is a pretty complex radio, its designed I think for APRS and other stuff like that, slow scan TV, you know all that. Its a little hard to figure out how to do some things, I realy need to study the manual. Yaesu makes good stuff my dad says, he owns quite a good bit of Yaesu gear, as well as Icom and Kenwood.

 

Ya my Yaesu 350AR is great. Got the GPS module in, and the radio is installed in the cubby forward of the shifter, and the GPS seems to have no trouble picking up signals in there.

Has crossband repeat and all that fun stuff.Just no digipeater which to me matters not at all. If I want portable APRS I'll just switch my radio to 440 and transmit on that and let the crossband repeat be the digipeater.

Really liking these new radios though!

 

Just got my license, call sign KK4BMG

 

Nice job man. Test not so hard hey ?

 

I was thinking of doing this myself with a CB antenna. How well does mount and antenna fit into the diamond plating?




What speakers are these? how did you install them?

 

It works really well. It should work great for your CB mount. I got lucky and the diamond plates had just about enough spacing between the diamond pieces to get a circle big enough for my UHF mount, although you can dremel them down a bit if necessary. I just dremelled myself a hole there and the UHF mount goes through to the inside of the box and screws down. The inside of the box is unfinished aluminum, which meant it worked perfectly as a ground plane and I get perfect SWR readings at all ranges of the 2m and 70 cm bands.

 

Test wasn't bad at all, I believe I got all 35 questions right. I used hamtestonline.com to study though, and had seen every question in the test bank at least once, so I was well prepared.

 

Congratulations to those of you that have gotten your licenses. Welcome to the world of Ham Radio. Now the key is to do some studying and upgrade to Gen or Extra Class. While VHF/UHF is fun for local reg chewing, the HF bands offer much more. I run a FT857D and was using a Tarheel Screrwdriver 10-80 mtr mobile. My commute to and from work is a hour each way, starting at 6am EST. I was a daily checkin on a HF net run from Florida, we had guys from Canada, Calif, S America, Maine and all areas in between almost every day. So talking around the US if fairly common. I have worked several stations in Europe, S Africa, New Zeland, while mobile so the scy or should I say ground wave is the limit. Tests aren't hard now that there is a study guide to follow and local testing. Back when I got licenses it was at a Federal Bldg, in front of FCC officers and NO study guides.
Hope to hear you guys one day
de WN4E

 

dang...this makes me want to go get a licensed and buy a HAM radio soooooo bad!!!

im so dang curious about all of it.

 

Thought of mounting my yaesu like that but where do you store your mic?