CB install

[warrenpfo]

To those in the know and it might be a question for John as he has a 100 but my plan is to velcro it to the back of the centre console and was wondering if I could get juice to it from the "radio" controls in the centre console for the second row of seats?

My only concern in the wires are not very thick and although i will run an inline fuse would it be ok to run off the live to the rear radio controls as i cant see it drawing too much power?

The other thing to ask is does the neg have to run to a neg or can i ground it....depending on which is best i assume to find the neg to the rear radio controls i put the red prbe of the multimeter on the live and go through the wires till i get a 12.whatever reading.

Many thanks

 

[Steve Wright]

To those in the know and it might be a question for John as he has a 100 but my plan is to velcro it to the back of the centre console and was wondering if I could get juice to it from the "radio" controls in the centre console for the second row of seats?

My only concern in the wires are not very thick and although i will run an inline fuse would it be ok to run off the live to the rear radio controls as i cant see it drawing too much power?

The other thing to ask is does the neg have to run to a neg or can i ground it....depending on which is best i assume to find the neg to the rear radio controls i put the red prbe of the multimeter on the live and go through the wires till i get a 12.whatever reading.

Many thanks

Hi Warren

I would run dedicated cables direct from the battery(Pos and Neg) as you could pick up noise on the radio wires, plus depending on what radio you get, it might draw too much current for the radio wires.

also don't forget to fuse the live wire

 

[warrenpfo]

Thanks Steve, the radio is an Alan 78 and it has a fuse in the live already. Good point on the interference, as the radio is only going to be used on days out with the forum and then sold at the end of the year when I leave the country i think the best thing for me to do is run it off the fag lighter as I did for the last few weekends. Reason being as I am not keen to have to run wires from the engine bay just for a CB that is a temp install.

Thanks for helping me decide.

 

[chriscolleman]

Just out of interest, if you keep the cb running is there a lot of traffic in the air?

 

[Ecky Thump]

Just out of interest, if you keep the cb running is there a lot of traffic in the air?

Don't know about others Chris but these days it is almost dead here.
Back in the old days there were loads and then we went to legal FM rigs and it died a death.
On the M25 motorway around London there are a lot of truckers on but most of them speak Lithuanian or Polish

I only use mine for group runs off road or green laning now.

 

[Chas]

Out of interest, do truckers use a particular frequency channel?

 

[chriscolleman]

About 15 years ago I had a small rig off a boat we bought. Tried it a couple of times and the air was full of brainless "chatter".
Didn't really want to know when someone elses dinner was ready
I guess with cellphones becoming popular a lot of this "noise" has gone.

At the moment we live near Ostend harbour, would be great to know when a fishing vessel arrives and use the unit on a 4x4/atv run.

 

[chriscolleman]

Out of interest, do truckers use a particular frequency channel?

There is probably a universal call-up channel and if they want to have a long chatter diverting to an agreed upon channel.

CH19 for truckers?
CH21 for universal call-up?

Could have changed in the mean time. My CB skills are really rusty OVER!

 

[Chas]

Out of interest, do truckers use a particular frequency channel?

There is probably a universal call-up channel and if they want to have a long chatter diverting to an agreed upon channel.
CH19 for truckers?
CH21 for universal call-up?
Could have changed in the mean time. My CB skills are really rusty OVER!

10-4 good buddy

 

[Ecky Thump]

I believe it is still 19 for truckers and 14 for the great unwashed

Chris, Tommo will know more than me but I think the fishing boats are on marine channels that don't tally with the CB ones.

 

[chriscolleman]

Just realised the fishing vessels are indeed on a different frequency.
Sorry my bad.
CB is something like 27 Mhz
Maritime sits around 156 Mhz.

It was really my Dad who was into this CB, Ham radio stuff.
When he was up in his attick I often sneaked up as a teenage mutant.
Anything from trucks, farmers and fishing vessels came in through those speakers.
Amagine my wonder and amazement!!

Just like visiting the first website and receiving my first e-mail on a dial-up connection.
Narnia opening through the closet..

 

[Paul]

Civvy marine is on VHF and is going through a change over to VHF DSC (Digital)
Very cool as you can dial up people and even have a panic button if it is linked to a GPS which will send an emergency signal for you if you are busy trying not to stop the boat sinking etc or are one of those idiots that go out on the water not knowing what you are doing. Also sends a message to other boats in your area in case they can help too.
You can select the type of emergency as well which still includes piracy

 

[Tommo&Claire]

Civvy marine is on VHF and is going through a change over to VHF DSC (Digital)
Very cool as you can dial up people and even have a panic button if it is linked to a GPS which will send an emergency signal for you if you are busy trying not to stop the boat sinking etc or are one of those idiots that go out on the water not knowing what you are doing. Also sends a message to other boats in your area in case they can help too.
You can select the type of emergency as well which still includes piracy

 

[chriscolleman]

Off topic.

@Tommo, do you guys sweep mines?

 

[Ecky Thump]

Off topic.

@Tommo, do you guys sweep mines?

The Royal Navy do have sweepers but Tommo is doing bu**er all at the moment
He was supposed to be in Afghan

 

[Tommo&Claire]

Well, technically we don't sweep for mines any more. To sweep mines, one of the ship's has got to go ahead of the sweeping gear in the minefield (because they are towing it) which is clearly dangerous for the ship in question.

We do retain the capability and the gear but there are better ways of achieving it. We have two sorts of mine-countermeasures vessels (MCMs), the Hunt Class and the Sandown Class and using very high definition sonar we now 'hunt' mines rather than sweep them. Working on assumption that the mines have been layed in area denial mode i.e. stopping us getting to beach to land troops or blocking a shipping lane like the Straits of Hormuz, the big units tell us where they need to go and the MCMs sail down that route creating a channel of a designated width for the larger ship's to sail down themselves. When they find something, they launch a 'vehicle' which is basically a small remotely controlled submersible which goes down to the contact, confirms it is a mine (or not) and places a mine disposal charge on it. The aim is to blow the mine to pieces before it has chance to detonate.

If for whatever reason we can't employ a vehicle then we put Mine Clearance Divers in to do the same job.

Then at the end of the process, one of the MCMs will lead the bigger ship's through the cleared channel they have created, just in case they have missed one or there are floating mines in the area, which are almost impossible to defend against. Big ship's land troops, advancing up the beach covered by a creeping artillery barrage of naval gunfire, they kill everyone, we win, back home for tea and medals...any questions?

Point to note, we are now the only nation left who retains this capability in any credible form, even the Americans can't do this, which is why we have two MCM's permanently stationed in Bahrain under American control for minewarfare duties!

 

[chriscolleman]

Tea and medals,

Well, then some of your crewmembers or fellow officers have met my SWMBO. She works at www.eguermin.org, practicaly runs the place she proclaims. But we gents know better off course

So actually the US is still the fire and smoke breathing dragon you can stop in its tracks with a fire-cracker if it weren't for good old NATO. Nice to feel we're still needed


Anyway back on track, I phoned one of those CB places today and these days you can get scanners that have several bandwidths so you can listen to CB, maritime, sports frequencies, etc. Looks like great stuff.