Clean VHF/CB radio installs

I think a President McKinley would fit there? Great radios, if it does.

 

It's a holiday weekend and I'll be installing my Yaesu FTM-400 and FT-891.

It seems like there are "under the passenger or driver seat" people, and "in the cubby behind the rear seat, at the bottom" people, in terms of where to put the brain boxes.

Is it just a matter of personal preference, or is there a good reason to use the cubby behind the rear seat?

 

IMO under the seat is best because:

• Much better ventilation to dissipate heat
• Shorter wire lengths are always best
• Easier/quicker access
• You don't need an external speaker
• The rear is still available for storage.

 

FWIW, the RF grounding strap should be removed and connected to the hood mount on the other side of your hood. In these photos, you have made an RF ground into an electrical ground—no bueno!

 

Thank you. I have completely removed the strap at this point and ground down paint to try and make the ground correct. Still have 3+ SWR. Ordered a 4' wilson antenna to replace the 3' firestix. Hoping that helps my SWR.

 

You prob don't want to hear this, but #GoGMRS ;-)

 

My wheeling group uses GMRS handhelds. I have plans for a 15w truck mounted unit. Often when I lead bigger runs the rear trucks have issues hearing me from the handheld. That will fix that I believe.

The CB is primarily for the logging trucks we run into while out in the forest. They haul ass down hill and I have had a close calls with them before. Also planning on a dual band HAM with APRMS mounted in the truck. This will allow family to know where I have gotten off to when I go out solo and enable better emergency coms.

So eventually 3 truck mounted radios. Cover all the bases.

Rather annoying that the HAM radio will be perfectly capable of using the GMRS channels, but is not legal to do so. Resulting in 3 radios instead of 2. Oh well.

 

Get rid of the FIREWIRE!

 

I mounted my FTM-400 under the driver seat. I use my rear seat storage for other things so I didn't want to loose that space. One thing I don't like about the under seat mount is that I can't access the radio to reprogram it using SD cards. I have to unbolt the seat and lean it back to access the card slot.

 

Here's the @taco.nurse solution to that problem: Icom Id5100a Install

 

Thanks! I'll have to look at my setup again and see if I can do that. My truck is a 2020 with a power driver seat so I don't know if I have less space in that area or not. I also like where he mounted his external speaker, but I have a MT so I'd have to see if that would clear the clutch pedal.

 

I don't understand how the radio body is affixed to the carpet? Do people just count on the coax to keep it from sliding around?

 

I used heavy duty 3m Velcro to attached mine to the carpet.

I set my 100dr up with the SD slot facing backwards so I can slide the passenger seat all the way forward and have access to the card slot.

 

Antenna wire should be a short as possible it has nothing to do with tuning. The greater the length the greater the loss.

 

I agree and also coiling a cable up in this situation would have nearly no effect. Well from what I've gathered at least. There are a million differing thoughts on this subject.

 

I'm running a Cobra with a Wilson 1000 on the roof. Made a mount out of steel plate, painted and bolted it to the passenger side of the console. Looks bigger than it really is. Doesn't impede on passenger leg space. I was going to get a smaller unit (or a hidden one) but wanted to make a full size unit work; that's all I have ever been running.

 

Coiling up the cable can turn it into an inductor. When I have extra length, I run it around the interior. At the frequencies we’re using the loss difference between 10 to 20 feet is small if you have good quality coax.

 

For my radio i used the mobile mount velcroed to the carpet. That way there’s space all around the radio to avoid any heating related problems.

 

oh. Oh my. This opens a whole new world!!!!!! I’m perfectly fine with handhelds for GMRS and ham. Haven’t had any issues but I know if I want a CB setup, handheld is mediocre. I figured it was center stack where the charging pad is or center console but this opens up a whole new world of options. Including for head units. Now I need to decide how attached to the screen I am. I do use sat nav time to time and do have it set up for wireless car play so that’s a huge advantage. If I didn’t have the wireless adapter it would be a no brainer.

it’s not legal to go 26 in a 25. worse things have happened in the world - for me it’s mostly if you have a GMRS license. Stay on the non-repeater channels for wheeling and you’ll be fine. Not advocating breaking the law but .... I won’t say I don’t have the gmrs channels programmed into my HT.

 

Not nearly as fancy or high powered as what most of you are running, but I'm quite pleased with my GMRS install with a Retevis RT76P w/battery eliminator and a Commountain speaker mic. Used a Rugged Radio bracket fixed to a RAM Mount diamond mount (modified) into a DIMM mount. This setup gives me the ability to remove the whole setup easily when I don't need comms.

I figure further down the road if I find this setup doesn't have enough range for my needs I can invest in a Midland setup with an external antenna and make this my handheld/backup.