Radio fitting.........

[Towpack]

Fitted the new radio today. The base unit is quite compact and would easily fit in a Din slot in the dash but I don't think the cooling would be adequate, especially in hot weather, so went for this.


I already have a decent (12 sq/mm I think) power feed to the rear luggage area fused at 30A which will make the power connection relatively easy but it would mean using the earth (body/chassis) for the -ve connection which can sometimes raise interference problems so I may end up running directly to the battery.

Mounted the head unit here:



Wanted to avoid butchering the dash or drilling holes everywhere if possible so mounted the bracket to the easily removable card slot/holder (or whatever you want to call it), strengthened it and fixed the bracket for the mike holder to the plastic cubby box. Not mounted the antenna(s) yet but it/they will be mounted on the factory roof bars, so they are good for something! Think I'm going for drilling the roof for cable feed and fitting a decent cable grommet or gland of some sort.

 

[StarCruiser]

Have a look at drilling a hole and fitting a grommet in the space alongside the tailgate top hinges, somewhat like the connection rubber to the tailgate. Then route the co ax to half way round the top corner where the tailgate just rolls around it and the cable can come out there for attachment to whatever mount you like. I have mine done that way to a Watson Mag mount and it works a treat. I can post pics if its of interest.

Looks like a neat radio and head unit. As it happens, I read somewhere that the 80s are designed with a fan up under the dash to aid cooling of communications equipment, so I've fitted my unit in above the stereo. I might consider a remote head type to give me back that space for a double din stereo with gps and hands free at some point. The compass altimeter roof mount might be the location for that as I've never used either.

 

[Towpack]

Have a look at drilling a hole and fitting a grommet (see what I did there!) in the space alongside the tailgate top hinges, somewhat like the connection rubber to the tailgate. Then route the co ax to half way round the top corner where the tailgate just rolls around it and the cable can come out there for attachment to whatever mount you like. I have mine done that way to a Watson Mag mount and it works a treat. I can post pics of its of interest.

Looks like a neat radio and head unit. As it happens, I read somewhere that the 80s are designed with a fan up under the dash to aid cooling of communications equipment, so I've fitted my unit in above the stereo. I might consider a remote head type to give me back that space for a double din stereo with gps and hands free at some point. The compass altimeter roof mount might be the location for that as I've never used either.

Yes, I like that idea for the cable exit! A hole and grommet for 'proper' cable feed but it's still hidden.

When you turn on the ign on an 80 with everything else switched off you can hear something running behind the dash, this must be the fan. Not sure where the fan is and where it draws air from to be honest so in hot weather you could just be getting very warm air circulating so I played safe and went for the centre console mount. I could fit the base unit in the rear as the ext cable for the head unit is 6m long but then I'd almost certainly need an ext speaker somewhere in the front.

 

[StarCruiser]

Yes, that's the fan. I always wondered what it was and it is there up under the dash. I guess temperature all depends on what power rig is run. I'm limited to 10 watts so there's not going to be much heat there. I'll post some photos when I get back home tomorrow or Monday. I have a few more ideas for using that area for connections to external equipment as there's a fair bit of room around there and on the uprights.

I fitted an extension speaker as they are peanuts for reasonable ones and with the radio in the dash the speaker is next to useless. Fitting a radio in the rear sounds like a neat idea.

 

[StarCruiser]

Photos of the rear cable exit as promised.


And of the hole in the hinge area.



Now it's been in a while it looks like it needs tying a bit closer to the grommet with the tie buckle below the sticky base. There just seems to be a tiny bit of rubbing going on…!

 

[Towpack]

That's neat, looks almost factory. I'm using RG mini 8 6mm low loss coax which isn't the most flexible but looks like it will just ​fit through the top tailgate gap without pinching so I'm going to try the same thing.

 

[StarCruiser]

Yes, that's around the same stuff for diameter. I tried going straight up in the centre but the tailgate pinches it badly so I opted for this route. I can imaging if it were going up to a roof rack it would look very neat indeed.

 

[StarCruiser]

Drilling the hole (20mm) in that area involved going through two or three layers of steel where it all joins. I then ran the coax above the headlining but I can imagine with a set up like yours with the rig in the back, you could probably run the remote and the power along the cable channel in the floor much easier as it wasn't easy getting down the A pillar without taking the trim material off.

 

[Towpack]

Well, in the end went for a roof cable exit via a decent (chromed brass) cable gland rated at IP65. Experimented with the exit grommet in tailgate hinge area but didn't like the look of the cable sticking up through the gap. It just looked too obvious and tempting for some scrote to cut/pull it so went with partially hidden exit behind the roof bar mount so not too obvious. With a mag mount I guess it's not much of an issue 'cos you can just take the thing down and chuck it in the back of the car but the rail mount is going to be (semi) permanent.Had VSWR problems initially which turned out to be poor grounding of the roof rails and mounts (150ohms>) so run a grounding wire to the mounting bolts behind the headlining.

 

[StarCruiser]

That's nice 'n' neat TP. Just watch that grounding wire you've attached. That could very well become an internal antenna within your vehicle. Far better to ground around the attachment bolt of the roof rail with a large fan disc washer around any sealing rubber and large penny washer to make contact with it from the bolt. That way you form an RF 'seal' around the water sealing rubber.

Nice colour truck BTW. [emoji6]

 

[Towpack]

I did actually ground the fixing bolts directly by scraping the paint off and using some serrated washers. The bolts weren't that tight and can't be tightened excessively as they would probably pull out of the cast alloy rail mounts so the strap was just some 'insurance' if you like and is of sufficiently heavy gauge so as not to be an issue. Also did a bit of fine tuning with the antenna length, around 12mm. The SWR across the 2m/70cm bands went from 2.2:1 @ 5w and almost 4:1 @ 20 watts (didn't dare try it at 50w) to a max of 1.2:1 anywhere on any power output so job's a good'un as they say.

 

[StarCruiser]

That sounds just fine TP. You shouldn't get any issues doing it that way.

 

[Towpack]

Finally got round to tuning in the quad band antenna today. 70cm, 2 and 6m all fine and dandy with good impedance match and SWR readings but the white noise/interference on 10m receive is S8-9 on the meter, the squelch can barely cope. I'm sat in the driver's seat with the door open and and it's feeling cool so I shut it and the RFI disappears completely. Turns out it's the LED bulbs I fitted in the interior/puddle light some time ago. I have a really bright LED bulb in the map reading light in the roof above the front seats and also 4 lights mounted on the upper tailgate but nothing from these. I'm also getting some RFI on 10m when sat on the drive from the 2 LED floodlights mounted either side of the garage door but this must be the 12v psu in the units as the actual bulb is the same as in the map light. I also get a little RFI (S1-2) from the LED/HID headlamp drivers but the level of noise from the interior LED's is astonishing. May have to fit some sort of choke or just remember to keep the doors shut when using 10M!!!

 

[StarCruiser]

I've had this with my LED headlights on FM radio with a weak station. Steve at Woodypeck had heard of it only on a certain few cars before, he sent replacements next day without question. The replacements were better but not completely free of it. A ferrite didn't seem to solve it for me but the lamp swap cured it on a pal's Mitsi Shogun Sport. Nothing else around including my mains and 12v house lights seemed to give the same trouble. They'll be a reason for it, I just haven't found it yet. Haven't had any RFI on 2m from them though.

 

[alfa]

gefahlt mir

 

[StarCruiser]

Pleases me too Alfa, and I'm learning a bit more German as we go…I think. [emoji4]

 

[Towpack]

Decided to fit HF in the car so a had a bit of a rethink with the base units and wiring. Wanted them out of harms way but easy to get to and remove if required. I 'discovered' a bit of dead storage space between the rear storage unit I put together a while ago and the 2nd row seats.

So..fitted both base units to a removable panel and fitted it to front of the storage unit.
Just unplug a few connections and the whole thing can be removed in a couple of minutes....




With the seats back it's all hidden from view, well almost....

VHF/UHF on the centre console above.........



HF on the dash within easy reach....