Amateur Radio / Ham Radio and antenna installs

Just seeing how other people have mounted radios in the second gen.

Kenwood D-700 in the well and a yeasu FTM-350



Hood antenna for the kenwood dual band



Rear antenna for yeasu dual band and forward antenna is for the Wilson cell booster

 

here's my icom. Permanent mount antenna is on the roof . Your install is way cleaner than mine, lol.

 

Any thing other then the center of the roof is compromise so be sure to make as good a ground you can. The mike wire is not really in the way I don't even notice it any more.

 

Remote Yaesu 8800 mounted just below the AC controls. Main unit is unit the passenger seat.



Larsen 2m/440 dual band antenna mounted forward of the Wilson CB antenna.

 

You got alot going on in there! Looks like a clean install though, you do it all yourself?

 

Yessir. I just added a 1000W in cab inverter with 4 plugs this past week. More switches just below the shifter are going in next along with a dual battery setup.

 

What kind of CB is that maineah?

 

Nice, good work. I like clean installs, I hate it when people leave wires running everywhere, I think these trucks are some of the easiest to run wires in.

 

It's not CB it's a Yeasu dual band 2 meter/70 CM 50 watt FM ham rig.

 

how large is the hole were the factory Sat radio antenna was?

 

That's a good question. I didn't have one. I drilled new

 

Anyone tried an HF install yet?

 

My buddy put am HF in a cruiser but was having some grounding issues with the antenna mount

 

Yes I just returned from Canada as a VE9/ and had excellent DX results with a Lil Tarheel and a 706G.

 

AJ1G, Chris, from Stonington CT checking in...just traded in our 98 Volvo V70XC (the one on my QRZ.com page) for a new 21012 Tacoma 4X4 Access Cab. Will be installing my Yaesu FT100D or maybe a new IC7000 HF/VHF/UHF transceiver with remote head soon (definitely before fall NEARFEST!). Interested in hearing how you have run DC from the battery into the cab and getting the coax feed lines out of the cab neatly. I am planning on making a mounting plate for my HF Hamsticks that will bolt to one of the adjustable tie down rings. Thinking of a plate drilled to receive a standard 3/8x 24 insulated female ferrule that the coax feed will attach to, and using one of the two bolts on the support pillar just inside the tail gate on the driver's side as the ground point for the shield of the feed line. Antenna will be located near the left rear corner of the cargo bay, as far back as the tie down will go on its track. VHF antenna will be a mag mount on the cab top.

Until I have a change to permanently mount a 100W multimode, will run an Elecraft K1 CW QRP rig powered from one of the 12V aux outlets, Should be able to strap down the CW paddles on the storage box/center armrest in a fairly comfortable location.

Considering the popularity of the Tacomas and Tundras, I'm wondering if anyone had come up with a commercially available antenna mounting bracket that will fit into the Toyota tie down ring rails?

Also interested in hearing about the EMI/RFI environment for radio operation in the Tacoma, and if any of the truck electronic systems are particularly susceptible to RFI, especially from HF operation at the 100W level.

73 DE AJ1G/M

 

I used a 1/4X2" aluminum angle bolted to the two pillar bolts by the tail gate with a 3/8X24 mounted to it, it's more then strong enough for my Lil Tarheel. I ran the wires thru the compartments in the back down the frame rails and thru the rubber plugs under the seats. I added a counterpoise under the bed and bonded the bed rails together. I have a 3 band (6,2,70CM) on one side and the HF on the other. My DC wiring comes from the fuse panel under the hood across the back along the stock wiring and thru a plug above the heater assembly down the kick panel and door sill then under the seat to the radio all covered in split loom. I do get a little spark noise but the NB takes care of that and no noise from the electronics and nothing has been effected by the radio RF at 100 watts. I did have to choke the control wire (remote head) for my Yaesu because of processor noise but other then that the truck is pretty quiet. Feel free to PM me and I'll be glad to send you some pictures DE N3LYT.

 

There are grommets along the floor of the cab you can pass the cables through. There are a couple in the back wall, too - but they are harder to get to as the box is in the way.

 

Pictures? I know this is old, but any pics of mounts would be GREATLY appreciated. (don't really need pics of mounts in rail system)

 

Most recent antenna setup. Front 2 are UHF, second row are 2 VHF, next is a cell booster antenna then finally is the APRS tuned to freq. I run 2 dual band Icom id880 d-star radios. They are run through duplexers to spilt the freq. I run special events with so so coverage so now I can run 5/8 wave antennas on each band



And the most recent control heads mount

 

Yaesu FT-7900R under the seat with the face in the console;






Larson NMO2/70B on a fender mount;