Clean VHF/CB radio installs

Finished up my HAM and GMRS install today. More pics later on the antennas. The radios are mounted under the passenger seat. The GMRS antenna is in the roof and HAM is on a rago mount on the taillight.

 

Something wrong with your ftm-400 screen or just in the pic?

 

Those of you who are routing the coax cable from the cab to the bed mount, where are you running the cable through? Is there already a hole or are you drilling a new one?

 

Believe most are going through the grommet in the floor.

 

there's a grommet on each side, driver and passenger. i pull the rubber grommet, routed the coax through, and then cut a little slit into the grommet so i can still use it with the wire going through.

 

Just the pic. iPhone did a live image and somehow got a weird frame for the main photo

 

What radio is that?

 

Qyt 8900r

 

I see some Meso map lights in your future.....

 

I'm on vacation down south, and decided to put the GPS on my Uniden SDS 200. Thanks to the miracle of Amazon I was able to order that and have it shipped to my son's house so it was waiting for me when I got there. About a 5-minute quick and dirty install and setup and it's working great. When we get back home next week I'm going to install my new Icom 2730a and do a permanent install for the GPS. The goal will be to hide all wires.

I have a DSM from Taco Garage waiting for me at home as well and a short stubby mount with a 17 mm ball. Again the goal will be to get everything mounted with the minimal number of wires showing.

Obligatory photos of the finished product will be posted.

 

Hello I’m very new to radios and just upgraded from an antenna on a magnet to a 4’ Firestik antenna I mounted on my hood using the Relentless Fab mount. I have a 3.5in spring on as well, but am getting very high SWR readings, any ideas as to what I’m messing up?

 

What length coax cable did you go with?
Does the antenna have a tunable tip?

 

My coax cable is 18’, and yes it does have a tunable tip which I’ve played with and still have gotten high SWR, in the 3s.

 

Do you have any pics of the set up?
Is the CB grounded properly? How about the antenna? For the excess coax cable, it should be in a figure eight configuration. (just reading a few things about your issue)

 

Do you have bare metal from the bracket touching the body? And same for the antenna fitting to the bracket?

 

My set up is the same as the third assembly in the figure above, so the one to the far left. My extra coax cable which is not much is not coiled I read that coiling may cause feedback but I could be wrong. As for my ground the bracket attaches to the bolts which attach the hood to the hood hinges. I read somewhere that if the paint is too think then this could cause a poor ground to the frame of the truck, anyone know if this is true?

 

You may have to remove some paint and get to bare metal for good ground continuity. Bad grounds/grounding is the major cause of high VSWR.

 

where did you get those rj45 sockets for the small push button? All the ones I keep finding are the wrong size for that socket

 

Firestick also makes a 4 foot no ground plane antenna...... Before you start scraping paint off of everything.

 

Bad grounds can also cause great SWR. A dummy load is perfect 1:1 match.