Ham radio antenna install location questions

How did you get your screen blue??????????????????????? Is that just a standard option on that model? I hate the ugly orange screen on my yeasu 7900 since I have the rest if my truck changed to blue

 

Changed out the LED's...

 

I picked up a piece of speaker cab carpet off of eBay for under $10 shipped.

 

No freakin way! Is it the same as doing a cluster led swap on 2nd gens?

 

:thumbup:

Making the abs plastic trim was the hardest part, but you can always just glue it to the console itself I suppose. Use 3M super 77+ spray adhesive

 

I actually have a can of that stuff and it was my plan to use it.

I have a saying for projects like this: "This will be epic!"

 

Don't use too much spray. Very important! That thin cheap carpet soaks up the glue quickly so if you apply too much it'll soak right through and ruin the carpet. The front side gets all crusty and white. Just a little tip but don't use too little either lol

 

Most of the modern Yaesu's had remote heads a standard 6 wire phone cable works fine both ends match (no twist) no need to buy the expensive kits. The top radio is a 8900 4 band Yeasu the one mounted in the cup holder is an Icom 706MKII G HF/6/VHF/UHF all mode. There is a controller in the center box to run the screw driver HF antenna. The HF works pretty good I have 67 countries confirmed so far mobile.

 

I received my order from gigaparts today and I could not wait to tear into it. So once I dug it out of the box and all the packing peanuts, I couldn't help but install it. So I spent a while trying to figure out where to send the cable through into the cab (mounted the antenna in the bed using a screw that holds the rail to the front of the bed). I pulled some trim and the panel away from the rear wall of the cab but couldn't find the elusive grommets. I decided to go through the bottom and had it come up in to the can from below the seat. I ran the antenna cable along the floor, behind the trim to behind the kick panel.

Worked great.

Then I dismantled the center console. This was pretty easy. I remembered what pro force said about putting the hole at where the bend in the bucket is. This was the best spot. I used a dremel with a cut off wheel. Then test fit and sized it using a sanding drum and a stone bit. When the hole was barely bigger than the radio, I stopped sanding and installed the radio.

Soldering the p259 end was easy. Running the power wires were simple and getting it hooked up was easy. I fired it up and easily hit a repeater about 25 miles away. I called cq (testing) on .520, but nothing. It did transmit to my HT that was inside the truck with me.

I'll get some pics tomorrow and get them posted. Next week, i'll put the carpet in the bucket.

Thanks everyone for the tips and suggestions. You all have me the confidence to try this. Next up, LED mod

 

Pics of how you mounted and installed the antenna?? If I remember correctly, ham antennas require a ground plane just like CB antenna. Without a solid ground plane, you tx/rx capabilities will be drastically hindered and may even damage the radio with continued use. From the description you gave, it sounds as if your antenna has no ground, which may explain your failure to connect to the repeater but not to your HT. Pics of the install would be great!

 

I hit the repeater and opened it, but due to the lack of 2m traffic around here, I got no responses. Pics of the whole set up are forth coming.

 

Your truck is the ground plane yes even the frame under the plastic bed. The antenna it's self is not grounded if it was it would not work. Now before you go grab an ohm meter and check a VHF antenna you need to understand the difference between a DC ground and an RF ground they are not the same there is a matching network inside the base of a VHF/UHF antenna with a capacitor and a coil. The bracket the antenna is fastened to needs to be grounded in order to ground the coax shield as does the radio generally the – power lead is sufficient. A bracket fastened to the body work, a clamp type mount attached to the hood or a hole in the roof is sufficient grounding adding a big ugly strap to the mount of a properly grounded system is just for looks. This used to be a problem with old cars because they were not well bonded together.

 

www.k0bg.com

 

Yes I understand the entire truck is the "ground plane" but doesn't the antenna mount still need to contact vehicle ground to operate correctly? I guess I used some wrong wording in me precious post but this is what I was trying to say

 

Yes the mount needs to be well grounded no matter what type it is. NMO,SO239,3/8 24 or a ball mount they need a good body ground. You can use angle brackets mounted to body parts (not your body parts) and then mount the NMO's etc. If you are in a winter salt area it is a good ideal to treat the aluminum brackets or at least clean them once a year (steel wool, scotch bright). It's all about grounding the coax at the feed point.

 

So, I've been at work since I installed the radio and since I'm not sure what kind of damage an ungrounded mount could have, I haven't been transmitting. Or really turning the radio on at all. The way the mount is attached is I loosened one of the bed rail bolts, slid the mount behind the rail, and then retightened everything down. I'm realizing now this may not be the best ground as the bed rail is metal but the bed is plastic.

That leaves me with few options: move the mount and put it somewhere where it screws into metal. In the bed area, there aren't a lot of good options. If I were to move it very far, I would be just as better off to drill the hole. This requires me to remove most everything, buy a new

$38 pl259 USA made PL-259 improved double shielded rg-58u for firestik antenna K-8A 18-foot single cb/ham coax cable

pl259 and start over. I want to avoid that. My second option is to ground the mount with a ground strap. Wont be as clean, but I won't have to move the mount.

 

It wont damage the radio to simply have it on and listen. Only transmitting can harm the radio I believe.

Your mount is no grounded at all where its at now. My mount for my CB anteanna is similar to what you're describing and I just used a 6" piece of wire, added a ring terminal to each end with some shrink tube, attached one end to the mount, the other end went underneath the plastic rail on he bedside and drilled into clean metal. Looks super clean still. See below:

 

Your bed rail is grounded it is not screwed into plastic. For you non believers get out your ohm meter. That may not be the best mounting option because of paint etc. but the rail is grounded.

 

Should I add a ground wire to the mount?

 

It won't hurt, as short as possible.