Communication Equipment [CB's, antennas, etc]

Well my 510 is dead, had the antenna unhooked and my 2 year old powered on while playing in the front seat and was just keying it up and talkin with no antenna, was my bad for sure. Oh well, tore into it and found some obvious blown area's charred on the board, so looking for a Weather capable, SSB, CB and leaning towards the Bearcat 880 can get a refurb for around 60 bucks so may go that route, if that's the case will change the mount from my center console under the lid to the little closable storage in the glovebox and will be eventually running my antenna to my rear tire carrier once completed, its funny to say but on the interstate that big antenna setup on the front has actually hurt my gas mileage, tried and tested it on same route with it in place and removed. Kinda ridiculous but hey, it's off and in the hatch area now till I get a new CB.

CAn't see MeefZah's pictures at work will take a look when I get home.

 

I was running a cobra 29 in my taco. I just picked up a president johnny 3 for my 4runner. Trying to run the wires behind the dash is a freakin nightmare with all the soundproofing.

 

So I was missing a CB on my recent 20 day, 9200 mile trip - especially on the Dalton because everyone has a CB up there.

Said fuck it, and got a President Johnny III. $114 at Right Channel Radios. Nice little radio. It has a scan feature, weather channels, a scanning weather alert that doesn't interfere with the CB use, interchangeable back-lighting colors, channel up / down on both the radio and on the mic, roger beep (cool!), RF gain, PA, memory channel, ASC - Auto squelch (works great!), and some other neat features. I like it so far.

If I didn't really want to have the scan feature I would have just used my Uniden 510 or gotten a 520. They are almost the same size as the Johnny, maybe a hair smaller.

I decided I was going to stuff that thing into the useless console pocket under the USB and cig lighter (5th gen). Hardly anyone has gotten that placement to work with a full size radio because there are heater ducts behind it so there is no room to go deeper. I decided I didn't care. This was happening one way or the other.

I removed that pocket, cut a portion of the back (matching the width of the radio) off it, chopped out the heater duct immediately behind it which provides air through the console to the vents on the back side of the console, and then dremeled out a chunk of the duct behind that one, which provides air to I don't know what. I damn near punched too far and hit the heater core which is behind THAT second duct, but it's behind a metal firewall of sorts and I stopped short of actually hitting anything that holds antifreeze. I felt sick the whole time, like I was doing something really awful.

But... everything still works (except the air ducts exiting out the back of the console), nothing leaks, and I have almost a flush fitting full size radio in that pocket.

Radio is held in with shelf liner wedged above and below it. Super solid. Antenna is routed to the radio via a 90 degree connector to save as much space as possible and I ran a jumper cable to the antenna connector so I can swap antennas, check SWR, etc., without removing the radio.

The other radio partially visible in the pics is my Icom remote head. CB mic is on the left of the two mics.

 

Where did you mount your antenna? I'm looking to put a HAM in my 5th gen soon and am trying to figure out a good option for the antenna.

 

NMO trunk lip mount on the hood:



^ is the mount, no antenna, with rain cap

v is the mount with a 1/4 wave VHF antenna (I moved it to the driver's side)

 

@MeefZah when you had the 510 mounted in the center console, did you just screw in to the sides with the mounting screws or did you fashion something else?

that setup looks like it would work for me. i am shopping around for radios now. the 510 is nice and compact. do you think that johnny III would work in the center console? I would like wx/alerts, and channel scanning capabilities. thanks!

 

I removed the center console from the truck and drilled all the way through the side, using a nut and bolt in conjunction with the Uniden bracket to mount the radio. I did not want to just use screws as the plastic could be easily stripped. I believe the bolts I used were Allen head bolts, and I mounted them bolt head facing out for the most flush look.

I believe the Johnny will fit in there, they're almost the same size.

I will caution you that it is incredibly aggravating to keep having to open the console lid to adjust squelch, change channel, etc. That was the main reason I ended up removing the CB from the console. Also the factory microphone doesn't have quite enough stretch in it to accommodate that many location, I switched over to an Astatic 636 microphone that has a much longer and more flexible cord which works a lot better for that application.

 

I guess I should update my Johnny post above, the Johnny lasted about eight months before it burned up in that location. I believe that the constant heat blowing directly on it from the ductwork caused it to fail. I would not recommend mounting a radio in-dash in that location for that reason.

 

right on, thanks for the info. dont know how confident i am about taking the whole console out, but i guess i would need to in order to wire it anyway...im mulling over a handheld as is, so i guess i have some thinking to do!

 

The console is kind of a pain in the ass to take out, but it's not hard to take out. It's just tedious. As far as handhelds go, as long as you're running an external antenna with it it'll provide acceptable performance. With just a rubber ducky antenna it's worthless. I've been on trail runs with guys that had those and you couldn't hear them inside their car more than a few hundred yards away.

 

oh yeah i definitely will be running an external antenna, for sure.

 

Ended up with a Cobra 57 WX ST. Not looking forward to the wiring attempt and may just buy and use a lighter plug adapter for the time being.

Do any of you use a magnet mount on the roof? If so, how did you route the antenna cable from there to where your CB is mounted? I currently own one of them, but picked up a 4' fiberglass one for free w the radio. I would need to buy the mount for it, which isn't a big deal. Just weighing pros and cons.

 

I have a magnet mount and actually prefer it even though hard wiring has some advantages (greater distance I think). I prefer the magnet mount due to easily parking in garages. I have a Wilson whip magnet mount. Has worked great on several vehicles after setting the optimum SWR with the vehicle.

 

Where do you run in to from the roof? Back hatch or side door? I think I will do a permanent install at some point with a fiberglass antenna that has a collapsible option, but will be using the magnet mount for the time being. I need to look into how to snake the coax from the back to the front and keep it mostly hidden if at all possible.

 

Since it's temporary I just run it into the side door. In @Watt maker 's build thread (I think it's him? tagged him to be sure) he mounted a magnet mount semi permanently with a quick disconnect antenna and went down the back hatch and into the truck through the back tail light. Real clean but he said he had to splice the cable to reach the radio.

 

I have used a Wilson 500 and I set it in the center of the roof and ran the coax through the passenger rear door. You can run it inside a rubber seal on the inside of the jamb and then under the rear passenger floor mat, under the passenger seat, and to the radio. Fairly clean for a magnet mount.

 

Cool, thank you! When I get some time I am gonna experiment with those ideas.

 

VA7YQQ (Mobile) Comox, BC just joined. Yaesu RT8900 installed in my 2015 4Runner Ltd

 

After reading the entire thread, and before anyone tells me to use the search function, lol, I’ve been researching this since last Wednesday and can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.

Transferred the CB setup from my Tacoma to the T4R. Bought new antenna and coax (fire ring). Mounted the antenna on the Rago mount and cut a piece of steel bar (1/8” thick) to use as a ground plate on the mount. Drilled a 1/2” hole for the stud to go through and verified the ground point on the fire ring mates to it. I also attached a ground wire (14ga) to the ground plate and ran it to the frame. Checked the SWR post install and got a 3.5. Twisted the tip on the 4’ firefly II antenna out about 1/2” and the SWR’s went to 4.0 on 1 and 40.

Anyone have any ideas? Ground AFU? I’m at a loss. Never had this problem with the taco.

 

Figured it out. Antenna was a springs length too long and the ground recommendation given to me by a CB shop was trash. He told me to daisy chain ground straps antenna-frame-body. Removed the frame-body strap and the spring and all is good.

 

Looking at getting a Midland mini GMRS soon and possibly doing the @WanderlostOverland mount inside the console. If you guys see this, how did you wire the external speaker up to the ceiling? Thanks!

 

We bolted the little speaker to the overhead console, ran the wire behind the headliner, pushed the wire behind the a-pillar molding, then under the dash.

 

thanks!!!

 

Bought the Midland 275 today. I did some more research and think i will mount it in the glovebox, since there is a cigarette plug in there. probably knock out the usb and route antenna wire through there. there is a usb on the radio unit so i dont lose one. looking forward to tackling the install!

 

What antenna you go with?

 

it comes in a bundle with a small mag mount so ill use that for now. I am going to upgrade to the 3db ghost antenna once i figure out which mount to buy. i want to mount it on the rail of the factory roof rack, but i have the pre facelift trail edition style rack and the rails are larger. nothing on the midland site seemed like it would fit properly.

 

That stock antenna works well for me.

https://youtu.be/GvWXJlJMhEg

 

I have been using GMRS as a way of comms between me and my kids when I pick them up from school.. no, I don't give them cell phones, except my teen daughter who now refuses to carry the radio and feels ashamed.

Anyway, I plan to put one of those "base" stations from walmart on my Runner. I find it better than the normal walkie talkie's as GMRS have more power output and still just buy cheap license. I plan on getting a ham license when I have the time.

 

@kmeeg cool video, thanks for posting!

 

Dragging up an old(er) but still pertinent thread.

I......I seem to like to complicate my life. I work 9 minutes from home. 11 minutes if I get hung up at one particular traffic light.
I don't off-road any more, haven't even checked the CB airwaves lately to see what shape they're in (skip is fun at the beginning, but having trouble talking to someone 10 miles away when skip is at it's best is kinda ridiculous).
Yet I still decided to install a 2-way radio in my baby. Go figure...

Problem? I wanted to go with the kind of radios I've run on and off for the last 30 yrs. Meaning, a bigass 10m rig modded for 11 metres (CB).
Do I always buy 10m rigs? Yes. Do I spend time squawking on 10m? Extremely rarely and only just above 27.405 in order to communicate with another vehicle/base station that's below the signal strength of skip on the CB frequencies. I mostly want the 10m rigs due to the higher power output, especially on SSB.

Radio selected: President Lincoln II with 11m mod (new)
Mike: Astatic 575-M6 (used)
Radio mount: Rago dash ledge mount (new)
Antenna mount: Existing driver's side hole on my Victory rear bumper with tire carrier (existing)
Antenna cable: 18' Firestick Fire-Ring (new)

So the plan is to mount the radio on top of the dash on the Rago mount. Run cable from antenna to radio. Relocate OEM 4-pin mike connector to the back of the unit. Install an extension 4-pin mike jack terminating .....somewhere LOL.

Leaving for our home in SW Florida on the 18th of December and none of my components are in yet. So this build will have to wait 'till I get back after the holidays. As they say in French here in Quebec, "A suivre".

PS: This thread has been invaluable for ideas, btw.