Clean VHF/CB radio installs

Looks good. You like the display "upside down"?

 

Yes. Puts the volume/squelch to the right, easier for me when not looking and it puts the mic wire right in line with the wire notch in the front of the console box. Lastly the scanner buttons face forward.

You can imagine I tried many orientations everywhere in the cab to find a spot for a full DIN.

 

Okay, that makes sense. The channel display isn't as important as the switches/controls.

 

Looking good! Was it a pain to fasten it in the cubby ?

 

Thanks. Not to bad. I’ll pic it up when done. Hard part was making room underneath for the cables. Lots of measuring and dry fitting.

 

Good work, I like that you can hide it in the console. Well done.

 

Night 3 (Done):
Uniden Beartracker 885 mounted in center console box.

• Combo CB/Scanner.
• 25 watt amplified external speaker hidden mount under drivers seat such that volume control is accessible when console lid is shut.
• Small PC fan hidden under to vent heat to rear.
• Two antennas: [Updated this bullet based on discussion below]
  • The CB antenna is the Cobra HG A1000 mag mount which specs out in the 26-30 MHz range (should cover the 26.965-27.405)...but unlike the plethora of 1/2 and 1/4 wave (loaded or not) I pondered, I eventually realized I use the CB 95% of the time to roast my brothers and buddies to get the heck out of my way!
  • The Scanner antenna is a TRAM 1094 - that specs out to ranges: 30mhz-50mhz/144mhz-174mhz/430mhz-520mhz/800mhz-950mhz - nearly identical to the scanner.
  • Both tuned to perfection.
• All wiring is routed and hidden under all the console panels. I took all the console apart and scoped out the optimal location below (at unit back) so the wiring isn’t kinked etc.

Still leaves plenty of room for a J-Frame or general stash in the console.

Boxed up: (Normal operations)

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Box open: (Access controls etc.)

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Mic accessible:

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Ext. amplified speaker with volume easily reached tactically. Note: shown with seat all the way back. Virtually invisible when seat is in normal position.

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Cobra CB 1/4 wave antenna - mostly for trail use so 3-4 mile range of 1/4 wave is all I care about.

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Check out the SWR reading: 1.00 on the nose!

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Scanner is very cool, it follows GPS so scans local frequencies and alerts when airwave traffic is nearby. Lots of simple buttons, easy to operate without looking. Solid Uniden scanner. Some higher end features (named frequencies e.g.) are given up for auto features, very fair trade off as I don’t actually look at the unit to use it. I’m researching how to hack the frequencies list to make my own favs, shouldn’t be too hard as the upload software is dot net based.
CB is, well a CB. One cool feature is you can have CB in scan mode if desired. Good squelch and RF gain. I set the lcds to blue to match the dash motifs.

Overall I’m very pleased with the unit’s performance, and frankly with my successful install of a full DIN cleanly in a Taco!

 

Done yet? ;-)

 

Ha no. Nightshift worker here. Plus I ran into a connector puzzle

 

I know the rig has SWR meter, but I'd check it out with an external meter. I'm shocked that antenna gives you 1:1. Regardless of the name, it's definitely not a 1/4 wave for CB. As that would be approximately 102" long. It has to be loaded to be that short. It doesn't look like there's any appreciable loading coil in the base. Is it a mag mount? Antenna link?

 

I think he's using the pictured antenna dual band 2/70cm for the scanner part of the cb. My friend tried using one on his CB and fried the finals..Hopefully he has a loaded antenna for the cb..

 

Correct both my analog inline and the digital tuned to 1.

 

Lol, ok.

That antenna probably works great for Australian CB, which is UHF. But not stateside, where cb is 27 MHz.

Link?

 

Ok so I sobered up from my crack smoking, heroin injecting diet Pepsi drinking binge I was on while typing up my install - which I updated above. Hopefully world peace will be preserved now.

The CB antenna is the Cobra HG A1000 mag mount which specs out in the 26-30 MHz range (should cover the 26.965-27.405)...but unlike the plethora of 1/2 and 1/4 wave (loaded or not) I pondered (under similar meth snorting paint fume vaping conditions), I eventually realized I use the CB 95% of the time to roast my brothers and buddies for something equally as abhorrent on the trail as my erroneous review...usually when they are in line of sight and I'm YELLING at them to get the fuck out of my way!

The Scanner antenna is a TRAM 1094 - that specs out to ranges: 30mhz-50mhz/144mhz-174mhz/430mhz-520mhz/800mhz-950mhz - nearly identical to the scanner.

I shall bow my head to the antenna gurus and admit while my dick is clearly big, my antenna is not. One question to said gurus: I've tuned my antenna for 27.175 (Channel 18 which we use on the trail) and have always done so (as I monitor 19 of course and figure back to back channels are best) thus I'm figuring it should be tuned to my "favorite" channels. This puts the SWR in the low ranges ideal but at 40 can reach 1.50...is it better to tune to "all channels" or, as in my case where I use 18 primarily is there a disadvantage to "tune to it"?

Oh, missed a question: does the inline analog SWR meter introduce resistance or impedance or inductance changes that needs to be accounted for or are those meters calibrated to account for the added length/load?

 

You should tune the antenna for the frequency you use most. All antennas have an swr curve. And 1.5 at ch 40 is still pretty good. Sorry about your short antenna.

 

After all that abuse, like the thread says, I’m glad you’ve come clean.

 

I love my Beartracker 885! - evident by my multiple posts above! The Beartracker 885 is working great! The Tram antenna brings in signals from very far away (no idea how the included windshield mount suck-tion cup antenna works - I'd never have bothered with that kind of crap when even the install guide suggests not using it).

As an "easy to use" feature the unit has some trade offs of features. The main concern people have is saving channels to skip (avoid) can only be preserved until the next power off. I knew this going in, and figured I could hack the database to remove offending frequencies on channels I want. You can. The issue is from the unit controls you can toggle whole channels (Police/Fire/EMS/DOT etc) easily but if you want to block a specific channel "forever" you have to do it on each power cycle. However, you can edit the database stored on the memory stick...I'm sure you can use any number of tools, likely even Unidens editor, but I just wanted to prove it out in Notepad.

What I did:

1. Copy the HPDB database folder to your computer (windows below) from the memory card.
2. Locate your state file Id in the HPDB config file - mine (MA) was file 25 - detail not shown...just open up the index/config file hpdb.cfg and read it.
3. Open your actual state(s) file(s) (open in second image) and edit/remove/add the lines/frequencies you care about...in my case the tone-out signal for my local fire dept auxiliary frequency causes "always on" so scanning gets stuck on it, so I just deleted that line from my state file. (detail not shown - just figure it out).
4. Save it back to your mem card and put the card back in the scanner...your golden. (Hope you made a back up!)

I await Guru's Comments... ;-)



Example of actual config files...note the freq/community and agencies are easy to read/delete the line/group etc. In my case I just needed to remove one so I deleted that line and it works...so this means it is feasible to edit in your editor of choice for the Beartacker 885. Don't save as .txt file. Remember if you play you pay...if you fuck it up...oh well find someone whose curiosity in helping you extends beyond mild amusement.

 

Nice Work! Why can't you just run a ground strap off one of the fasteners to the frame. Is there any ill affects of using aluminum as a bracket? Looks like this is a great way to go.

 

Keep in mind that the term "ground" has several different meanings. When it comes to mobile antennas, there are two or three different types of grounds. A DC Ground is connection between the radio, the negative(typically) battery, and the antenna. An RF Ground allows RF current to travel. And the third grounding concept is the Ground Plane. In some cases one connection serves all three purposes. But when antennas get mounted in strange locations, it's easy to mess up. Whether your talking about ham or CB, this is a pretty good reference for mobile radio installation:
http://www.k0bg.com/ground.html

 

I’ll pretend I know what I’m talking about:
The purpose of a ground plane is to reflect and radiate the downward signals from the antenna (typically) up and out. That is why a shitty antenna centered on the cab roof can perform good enough, vs an off center, too short or irregular ground plane.

There are choices and options from “zero ground plane” where they use bases and even the cable itself as the ground plane.

In your setup the metal tonneau and the roof will both act as ground planes, with the tonneau reflecting back and right predictably and the roof forward for part of the signal exposed above it by your firestik. If this is a CB it’s going to likely be good enough as the signals bounce all over the place. Do more research as you can cook the transmitter in theory.