Kenwood Amateur Radio Install

In the process of coming up with a way to mount my Kenwood TM-V71A radio, I figured I wanted to accomplish a few things.

1) Be able to operate everything with my right hand, while keeping my eyes on the road for the most part.
2) Do things as modular as possible, so that re-doing a portion doesn't involve taking the truck completely apart again.
3) A very clean installation

What I came up with, I think meets all those needs pretty well.

First off, I ran 12ga power wires through the wiring harness grommet on the driver's side of the firewall


Then I bought a BlendMount designed to hold a Scangauge above the mirror. The velcro included was used to mount the head unit, as well as a single zip tie on the center post. I had to drill the back of the Kenwood head unit bracket to make the wire come out the back so it's not visible from the front.





The head unit RJ11 -> RJ45 cable is run down the A Pillar to the kick panel, where it meets an RJ45 coupler on the end of a Cat5 cable that runs down the door sills to behind the back seat. That cable is bright yellow.



I bought a 1/8" headphone extension cable from Radio Shack, and used it to extend the speaker outlet to the kick panel as well. There is also a black Cat5 cable run the same way for the microphone. However, it is run all the way to the center console just next to the shifter. The RJ45 coupler is right behind where I mounted the microphone. This allows for easy swapping or removal if necessary. I can just slide it to the front of the console. You can see the black Cat5 and the pretty thin extension speaker cable in this picture. The Cat5 is draped on the parking brake, and the speaker cable is the really thin one that is attached at the front of the console.

You can also see the female end of the 1/8" extension cable for the speaker sitting on the floor mat next to the pocket knife.



The extension speaker is mounted in the cubby down and to the right of the steering column. It is only about 1" thick, and sits almost totally against the back of the cubby, so I can still place random things there if need be. It is really loud and clear even at freeway speeds with the windows down. I didn't have a (non paddle bit) drill bit big enough to get a hole for the right angle 1/8" plug to pop through the back of the cubby, so it's not the best run. I may buy a bigger drill bit and get that neatened up if it really bugs me.



I had the microphone mounted in the exact same place in my old car, and I liked it there, so I decided to stick with it. It's out of the way, but if I need to move the seat all the way forward I do have to remove the mic. It's not a huge deal.



The antenna mount cost me $8 at a truck stop, and is designed for a CB antenna to mount to a mirror. I took it over to my father in law's shop and drilled out the stud mount to be large enough for a UHF connector, and used a MFJ mount and cable assembly. The mount is held to the bed rail by some fender washers that have the sides ground to the correct width to slide in the rail.



This mount is temporary for the time being. I'm going to go with an NMO roof mount and a Larsen whip. I anticipate a lot better performance out of that than where it is now. As for the drill work, the radio shop in town that does the public service vehicles wants about what the specialized drill bit costs to do the install, including the mount and coax assembly, so I'm going to let them do it.

Anyway, there it is. Hope the write up is helpful. I learned a lot by reading a few similar ones, and figured it was my turn to share some info.

 

I mounted my Icom Head just below the heater switches.

 

Looks good. good choice on radio. Wish the face for my radio would fit up there.

 

Yeah, I had the radio in my old Integra, and when I bought the truck almost a year ago I pulled it out. The antenna mount, antenna, radio, etc have been sitting on my workbench for about 9 months and I finally had time to get it mounted up and installed.

I had the idea to use the Blendmount for the head, and I finally figured out how I wanted to get it all installed. I'm happy with how it turned out, and glad I finally got around to doing it! I'll take more comprehensive pics this weekend and edit the original post with detailed installation information.

 

I've had the same thought, but the face for the 2820 is too big to fit up there with my homelink/autodimming mirror. Maybe it would fit with a factory mirror.

 

Updated with lots of pics!

 

Very nice dude. I like it. I been having the same idea to mount my kentwood d710A with the blendmount. when you get done with the final install of the antenna, post some pics pls.

 

nice beard haha

 

hahahaha.