Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

These blocks are interesting. They seem to be for a solid landing for the sun shade on the other side. I am not sure as to what to do with them when I insulate.

 

I found this very impressive array of antennas over the weekend.

Sorry for the horrific picture quality.

 

Holy cow! Was that a residence? It looks like a news station or somethin'.

 

Yes it was a residence in a rural area.

 

Made radio contact on the 2m call with @bulhas somewhere in the vicinity of moab.

 

The head is mounted on a Tec Deck
Showing the mic cable coming from the console.
The unit mounted in place of the inverter.

 

Make sure it has enough airflow.... nothing worse then a fried radio...

 

Let's talk about DC power for a minute or two.

As it stands right now. I've got two runs of 10AWG into the cab from my aux deep cycle battery in the bed. Both runs come up through the grommet under the drivers seat. One run powers my Kenwood. The other run goes to a a dual anderson power pole socket, from there it splits off to 12 volt sockets to power a dual USB port, and the other powers my Garmin unit. It's okay, but I need to expand that to service more...

I am now thinking of using a Blue Sea 6-ciruit fuse block with cover under the drivers seat. That gives me a lot of options for wiring additional accessories.

Another thought was to wire all existing and future radios to a fuse block controlled by a relay. I saw this done in a Tacoma on Radioreference.com. Very slick to activate one relay and all radios go dark, or power up. I like that idea too.

Thoughts? Comments?

 

I made this mount awhile ago for a blue sea 12 circuit block. Relays are mounted next to it, though I don't have room for 12 of them... Only 6 will fit with this design. The whole block can be shut down with the breaker on the left. It's really easy to wire up accessories. I just got a CB a few days ago and instead of running the wires to the battery, the hot one will go to an empty slot on the fuse block and the ground goes to an empty slot on the ground bank of the fuse block. The whole block only is powered by one hot and one ground direct from the battery.



A pic with some wiring



I don't see any reason you couldn't do a similar setup under your seat. I'm not sure about using a relay to kill/activate the whole fuse block. Since it's a direct line from the battery would it have to be a fairly burly relay, like a big solenoid? If you use a relay to power many things simultaneously it would probably have to be a pretty heavy duty relay.

 

Mine is setup much likes this. I had to jump a car the other day, simple tripped the breaker to protect everything. Reset it when done. Although my relays are on a plate behind the battery. I have way less room under the hood than you.

Several 2nd gen guys have setup the fuse block, breakers, and relays behind the rear seat. Check out the dual battery thread for ideas.

Spend the extra money now and go with the 12-circuit fuse block, it is better to have some and not need them than to not have enough. Give it time, you will fill them. Inverter? Lights?

If you want to do all the radios on a switch/relay, that is very easy to do. In that case you would want a dedicated fuse block just for the radios, no lights or inverters or anything like that, just the radios. You can do the math on the radios power draw and the size relay you would need.

Say when.. sounds like I need to drop the family off at the beach and come help you do some wiring!

 

Blue Sea also makes a dual 6 circuit panel, basically the 12 circuit but each half of the panel needs a power feed. Something to consider if you wanted to have two main circuits, like the case where one relay de-energizes all the radios at once while still having another circuit not affected.

 

That's a super clean install!

If I went the relay route, I think I would use a Stinger 80 Amp relay. They sell for $15 and I've got one under the hood for my ARB twin compressor and I like it a lot.

And if I did relay then I'd probabkt do what Chip described... One fuse block for all radios and it would probably go on the back wall. I wouldn't want the relay under the seat.

Thanks

Thanks for the help offer.

You're very right my friend. I bought a 6-circuit Blue sea in 2013 for my aux battery and since then I've cheated and I tink I've doubled up wiring on every terminal. Hence, why there are no pics of mine in the forum!

I think for now I may just add the fuse block under the seat and see how I like it...

Thanks

Thanks. I'll check that out!

 

While I was searching for mounting ideas, I came across this impressive custom ceiling mount for Tacoma 2nd gen.

I think the owner said he paid ~$400 for custom made by Foothill Communication in Pasadena, CA

http://forums.radioreference.com/pictures-your-shack-mobile-setup/313112-2007-tacoma-install.html







http://forums.radioreference.com/pictures-your-shack-mobile-setup/313112-2007-tacoma-install.html

 

I found the other Tacoma I was searching for.

http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...92344-updates-2007-toyota-tacoma-install.html

He used a 60A relay to a RIGrunner. Very nice!

 

I have a http://www.hamsource.com/ezpowerstrip.html in the back with 4awg from battery to aft fire wall.... i need to set up on a switch still...

 

I have seen that before. I would use that one for the radios and a standard BS 12C for everything else.

 

Nice Ben! I hadn't seen that before. Thanks.

 

I think I know this guy.....That '07 went away due to terminal frame rust cancer and has been replaced with a 2011, I will try to get pictures of the new install up over the weekend.

 

Give him a big high five for me.

Thanks.

 

Hey guys, I have a CB related question. I know it's not quite the right thread but my question is kind of about antennas (antennae?) in general.

I would like to run a 102" whip for my CB radio as I've heard in general it's the best performing antenna. Even guys that mount to the rear bumper or tailgate claim better performance than other antennas they have tried.

So I'm planning to mount in on a tailgate mount with a heavy spring and lock it down when not in use like this:


Props to @MatthewMay1

I've heard these antennas can move around quite a lot either on the trail or in the wind on the highway so my question is this:

Is there any reason why I couldn't brace the antenna to the truck at some point above the mounting point to stabilize it? As long as there is no metal touching the antenna of course. This might keep it from being a danger to other cars/people since it would only be flexible from about 78" from the ground.

Here's what I'm thinking:



The green line would be the antenna and the blue line represents some kind of brace to the roof rack. I'd have to insulate the brace from the antenna with some kind of plastic bushing. I'm not sure just how flexible these whips are but I doubt I'd be able to lock it down like in MatthewMay1's picture while it was braced. Then I'd have to remove the antenna from the brace to lock it down.

What do you guys think? Is this a plausible idea? Or will a brace hinder performance, even if insulated?