Electrical CB Radio Mounting
#1
05-08-2015, 05:02 PM
CB Radio Mounting
I know there are a few fellow radio nerds floating around on here...
I just recently picked up a CB radio (a Uniden 520) and I'm looking for a good location to mount it. I'm not against cutting, drilling, and generally mucking about to get a nice deep installation.
On that note, has anybody with a mobile radio setup noticed any noise off the ignition when running off of the cigarette lighter circuit? There's plenty of unused amperage on there, so I'm not worried about overloading the circuit. I'm not against wiring directly to the battery (I'll definitely be doing that when I do a 2m/70cm radio install later this year), but I like it to be as cleaned up as possible.
The rest of the install should be pretty straight forward. I've got a Comet trunk lid mount for a 4' Firestik... it's going to look like an awesome RC car. I also have a PA horn for... shenanigans. I couldn't resist.
I just recently picked up a CB radio (a Uniden 520) and I'm looking for a good location to mount it. I'm not against cutting, drilling, and generally mucking about to get a nice deep installation.
On that note, has anybody with a mobile radio setup noticed any noise off the ignition when running off of the cigarette lighter circuit? There's plenty of unused amperage on there, so I'm not worried about overloading the circuit. I'm not against wiring directly to the battery (I'll definitely be doing that when I do a 2m/70cm radio install later this year), but I like it to be as cleaned up as possible.
The rest of the install should be pretty straight forward. I've got a Comet trunk lid mount for a 4' Firestik... it's going to look like an awesome RC car. I also have a PA horn for... shenanigans. I couldn't resist.
#2
05-13-2015, 05:51 PM
So I settled on a mounting location for the head unit and installed the antenna and PA horn, then ran the cabling for both.
After a bunch of trial and error, I found that the head unit fits perfectly in the door. I'm going to run it directly off of the battery using some Anderson Powerpole connectors, making it easy to connect, disconnect, and wire additional items on. I'll be using 45-amp fuses on both the positive and negative leads, so there's a bit of overhead on the circuit to install some additional hardware.
Finding a good spot to mount the PA horn took some poking around, but l ultimately found a nice area behind the driver's side rear fender liner, up by the fuel port. I ran its cable just inside the lower plastic body cladding to the front of the door. It actually seats in there pretty nicely, but I'm going to go back in there with some epoxy to finish it up.
Finally, I got the antenna installed and tuned, which wasn't nearly as challenging as I expected. I used a Comet trunk lid mount, which seats perfectly on the base of the hatch and grounds off of the hatch's metal (the set screws should contact the metal directly). Adding a spring and a 4-foot Firestik antenna, I was surprised that it clears the garage and there's no interference with the hatch opening. The Comet mount has about 16 feet of RF cable attached; the first 18 inches are smaller in diameter to pass through the trunk opening. Using some adhesive cable hooks and zip ties, I ran the cable from the base of the hatch to the hinge. After that, it runs beside the seat cushions and down behind the driver's side lower trim. It pops out right next to the hood release. With some tuning, VSWR for CB frequencies is down between 1.1 and 1.3, with the best resonance right down the middle around channel 19; really impressive!
Next, I'll build and route the power cables and mount the head unit and hand controller!
Look at that VSWR!
After a bunch of trial and error, I found that the head unit fits perfectly in the door. I'm going to run it directly off of the battery using some Anderson Powerpole connectors, making it easy to connect, disconnect, and wire additional items on. I'll be using 45-amp fuses on both the positive and negative leads, so there's a bit of overhead on the circuit to install some additional hardware.
Finding a good spot to mount the PA horn took some poking around, but l ultimately found a nice area behind the driver's side rear fender liner, up by the fuel port. I ran its cable just inside the lower plastic body cladding to the front of the door. It actually seats in there pretty nicely, but I'm going to go back in there with some epoxy to finish it up.
Finally, I got the antenna installed and tuned, which wasn't nearly as challenging as I expected. I used a Comet trunk lid mount, which seats perfectly on the base of the hatch and grounds off of the hatch's metal (the set screws should contact the metal directly). Adding a spring and a 4-foot Firestik antenna, I was surprised that it clears the garage and there's no interference with the hatch opening. The Comet mount has about 16 feet of RF cable attached; the first 18 inches are smaller in diameter to pass through the trunk opening. Using some adhesive cable hooks and zip ties, I ran the cable from the base of the hatch to the hinge. After that, it runs beside the seat cushions and down behind the driver's side lower trim. It pops out right next to the hood release. With some tuning, VSWR for CB frequencies is down between 1.1 and 1.3, with the best resonance right down the middle around channel 19; really impressive!
Next, I'll build and route the power cables and mount the head unit and hand controller!
Look at that VSWR!
#3
05-19-2015, 08:00 PM
I finally got the power leads run and the head unit installed! I used two ten-foot runs of 10 gauge power cables mated to a pair of 40-amp inline fuses directly to the battery. I terminated all of my connections using Powerpole connectors, which will make it easier to to add additional hardware onto the circuit (I'm planning on also running a 2m/70cm in the near future).
I used the firewall access right next to the battery:
There's a set of Powerpole connectors splicing the two ten-foot leads together behind the center console with (surprisingly) only about a foot of slack. That'll make it easy to dovetail additional hardware later. I removed the door panel and derailed some grooves to run the cabling through. I also trimmed the head unit's power cord in order to have a Powerpole connection right inside of the door pocket; it'll make removal/upgrade/additional power connections a snap. I tried to loom and zip-tie (using UV-resistant ties for outdoor use) as much as possible to keep it cleaned up.
Finally, here's a pic of the head unit installed! It's extremely snug; it doesn't shift at all and shouldn't need any additional hardware to secure it. It works like a charm, though the PA speaker function isn't quite as loud as I would have hoped. I just drilled and screwed the mic holder right there on the door panel next to the head unit.
I used the firewall access right next to the battery:
There's a set of Powerpole connectors splicing the two ten-foot leads together behind the center console with (surprisingly) only about a foot of slack. That'll make it easy to dovetail additional hardware later. I removed the door panel and derailed some grooves to run the cabling through. I also trimmed the head unit's power cord in order to have a Powerpole connection right inside of the door pocket; it'll make removal/upgrade/additional power connections a snap. I tried to loom and zip-tie (using UV-resistant ties for outdoor use) as much as possible to keep it cleaned up.
Finally, here's a pic of the head unit installed! It's extremely snug; it doesn't shift at all and shouldn't need any additional hardware to secure it. It works like a charm, though the PA speaker function isn't quite as loud as I would have hoped. I just drilled and screwed the mic holder right there on the door panel next to the head unit.
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