Clean VHF/CB radio installs

Please refrain from sensible advice on TW. Oh, wait this is a comms thread...carry on my good man.

To the original question, I drill holes of the desired diameter and either paint or silicone both sides before putting in the grommets. There are a gazillion places you can safely and easily drill.

 

I still need to shorten my coax in my truck. I have about 7' too much.


What I really need to do is switch out the proprietary connections and get an nmo lip mount for the roof rack and then it'll all be dandy.


Then again I haven't even installed my remote mount kit haha

 

I move antennas about as often as I get my ass chewed for spending so much time in the garage. (Correlation?)

 

Can you recommend a good NMO mount for a gen 3? I am unsure of the depth of the screw on the mount itself for a gen 3 with a sunroof. I’m planning to do 2 of these on the top for GMRS and eventually ham or cb. Not sure which the locals are using more so I’m just trying to plan for the future.

 

why not just buy the xm cable adapter for the built I’m harness?

 

I removed my shark fin to accommodate my Northstar cab-over camper. The camper blocks the xm signal...

 

that makes way more sense now

 

This looks like a good setup. Did it work for you?

 

Hello.. I bought a Yaesu FTM-400XDR/DE and want to use the wireless charging little spot to install the radio face plate/controls, but not sure if this would be doable? anybody here installed the same radio? and if so, care for sharing how. i need ideas. thank you in advance
73's

 

Not on my Tacoma but on my GX I reinstalled the NMOs that were on my truck. The greenlee 3/4” chassis punch is the way to go. Used it on 4 holes now and it is clean as hell:

 

I ran the Laird MB8B and will add this to my previous post. I can't stress enough to use a dedicated NMO hole drill bit regardless of the cost, or @JdevTac's Greenlee suggestion looks good. If you screw it up anyway, you'll need to get a beefy mount one like this so water doesn't seep into your roof. Also keep your antennas as far apart as possible, minimum 20 inches. I'll let the real radio guys detail why...

 

Ran my CB antenna wire today. I used the A/C drain gasket as the access point for going through the firewall. I didn't want to cut anything so I routed the wire through the gasket next to the A/C drain hose.

I popped the gasket out and pulled it off the drain hose completely. Then I threaded the CB wire through the gasket:



When I reinstalled the gasket I put it around both the drain hose and the antenna wire and popped it back into the hole. Everything fits and seals as before. Here's what it looks like after install.

 

Suggestion: rotate the wire so that it comes out in the 12 o'clock position to prevent any water from running down the body. While you're at it, slip a piece of 5/8" heater hose over the condensate tube and route it so that it doesn't drip on the frame.

 

SWR’s are good but the impedance is low. Should be closer to 50 ohms but this is hard to achieve with where the antenna is mounted. You can also look into a ground independent antenna if the location has little to no ground plane.

 

I ended up with some browning through roof cable and antenna mounts. It turned out fairly well and looks clean. Not super excited about the location but the sunroof dictated where I could put it. Probably be swapping the antenna down the road with a larger whip for trail runs. This is my parking garage antenna but it was working fairly well as is so time will tell. Future HAM antenna will be opposite of this on the drivers side or on a tailgate corner mount from Rago. Haven’t decided yet...

 

Looking for some advice. I don't know much about HAM, CB or FRS radios other than what was required to get mine installed and tuned.

I run a Cobra C75WXST in my truck with a magnetic antenna mounted to my roof. It's tuned with an SWR and functions properly.

I recently went on a 2-day trail run with a good friend who has a really old CB set up in his rig. His setup never worked well and we couldn't communicate if we were more than 50 feet apart.

I want to pick up a handheld CB to help rectify future situations like this. If I had had a backup portable unit to give him we could have increased our communication distance easily.

Question is, what handheld CB should I look for? I see lots of two way radios that boast 30+ mile distances, but I want to be able to use the CB in my truck, which I went through the hassle of ordering and installing. I see one CB on Amazon, but it needs 9 AA batteries to function. Seems excessive. And reviews complain about the distance.

Am I out of luck with portable CB's? I see Baofeng's for sale for dirt cheap online, but I don't think those are compatible with the CB in my truck. Plus I don't have a HAM radio license (though one could probably be obtained).

Thanks for your help.

 

Always wanted one of these clean installs! Great stuff here.

 

It looks very clean. In that position you'll have less performance transmitting/receiving behind you, but excellent in front of you. There's a slight chance that the close proximity to the radio antenna could interfere at times, but not certain. I'm curious to hear how the setup performs going forward. Really impressed with how you dropped the headliner. I couldn't figure out how to do that without stripping down the entire interior.

 

https://sti-co.com/covert/

Anyone have any experience with these?

 

How much are you looking to spend?
I started out with this one. https://smile.amazon.com/Midland-Portable-Display-Construction-Channels/dp/B00LAHFKSE
You can get a magnet mount antenna and be able to use it as a hand held, or mobile unit.