Yaesu FT-8800R Install

[alvarorb]

I've decided to upgrade my radio on my 80. I'd been wanting a dual bander for a while, plus the location where the FT-2800 was installed was not very "Poquita" friendly. She would step over the controls and change the frequency or turn the radio off completely. Plus the sound coming from the back is not always the best to understand.

With inspiration from FirstToy and Rick's installs. And the help of Ken Dean, I pull it off.
Here are some pics of the install:

FT-8800 Install

I used one of the factory worthless tweeters as a speaker. I removed the capacitor on the speaker to increase the audio range (not limit it to high frequencies). I'm really surprised with the quality of the sound coming from the little speaker. Good for HAM, bad for HI-FI audio.

Now I can take full use of my dual band antennas. Here's a write up of that install:

Mobile Radio Antenna Install

Regards

Alvaro

[e9999]

linky no worky ... must be an apple thing...

looking forward to seeing that, sure it's a great job as usual...

[alvarorb]

Eric,

Fixed. It was the copy and paste between forums that does not work.
I had to redo the links.

Thanks for letting me know.

Alvaro

Originally Posted by e9999

linky no worky ... must be an apple thing...

looking forward to seeing that, sure it's a great job as usual...

[CaliCruiser]

Is the 2800 available for sale?

Dylan

[alvarorb]

Dylan,

Not yet. I'm thinking of setting a base station at home. That way my wife can talk to me when I'm on the Sierra.

Regards

Alvaro

Originally Posted by CaliCruiser

Is the 2800 available for sale?

Dylan

[450 DUDE]

Looks super nice!!!!

I really like that radio or should I say radios ? and Im still kinda jealous about the nice clear output from the stock speaker.

Thanks again for programing the 7800 ....

ken

[CaliCruiser]

Well if you want to sell it, lemme know!
Nice install dudes. . .


Dylan

[Beowulf]

Nice job Alvaro. I thought there was an impedance issue with the stock speaker 4ohm or something like that. Did you do anything other than removing a (the?) capacitor?

I also mounted my FT-7800 under the driver seat. I used plastic wire ties instead of the metal bracket because I was worried about clearance with the seat. Is the metal bracket on top of or underneath the carpet?

I am jealous of your radio. The FT-8800 is nice because of the dual VFOs built-in.

-B-

[mrlocksmith]

Nice Install.... I took an MFJ speaker and put it with two tie wraps between the headrest posts on the drivers side of my FJ60. Cheap.... and now me deaf ears can hear

The wife thinks I am deaf still though..... OOPPSS she see's me on IHMUD again gotta go....


Mark

[alvarorb]

B,

Thanks.
No mods on the stock speaker, besides the removal of the capacitor. I thought about the 4/8Ω issue. But the sound quality is super good. What are your thoughts on this?

The metal bracket is under the radio. And the radio's heat sink is on top side of the radio. The radio is not much taller than the factory alarm. So I don't think on a stock seat setup it would touch. I have 4x4 Labs' one off seat extender brakett. So the front part of my seat is maybe 1/2 higher than stock.

I used 2 zip ties to hold the radio bracket unit to the carpet. We contemplated making an aluminium base. But after looking at the factory alarm. And how it's been attached for years. We figured, if it's good enough for Toyota, it's gotta be good enough for me. The zip ties keep the radio bracket immobilized.

Having the bracket holding the radio, keeps the radio about 1/2" off the carpet. I think that will provide better cooling for it. And it's still about 3" away from the bottom of the seat.

Regards

Alvaro

Originally Posted by Beowulf

Nice job Alvaro. I thought there was an impedance issue with the stock speaker 4ohm or something like that. Did you do anything other than removing a (the?) capacitor?

I also mounted my FT-7800 under the driver seat. I used plastic wire ties instead of the metal bracket because I was worried about clearance with the seat. Is the metal bracket on top of or underneath the carpet?

I am jealous of your radio. The FT-8800 is nice because of the dual VFOs built-in.

-B-

[Brentbba]

Nice Job Alvaro!!!

[ginericLC]

Alvaro,

You can get around the 4ohm 8ohm problem by wiring both of the dash speakers in a series. The two 4 ohm speakers will create a 8 ohm load that way. That is how I dealt with it in my old 80. The positive radio goes to positive DS speaker and negative DS speaker runs to positive on PS speaker and then the negative from PS speaker runs to the negative radio.

Truthfully though I don't think the impedance is that important on the little amp in your Ham radio and unless your are really overdriving the speaker and it is distorting it probably isn't going to damage that little speaker either.

Eric V.

[alvarorb]

Eric,

Thanks for the suggestion.
I thought about running both speakers. But my wife would be much happier if I kept the HAMtalk to myself. She's not very found of the noises radios make at the end of each transmission. Nor the white noise sound.

I'll keep looking for a solutions (other than using two speakers or adding a 4Ω load)

Regards

Alvaro

Originally Posted by ginericLC

Alvaro,

You can get around the 4ohm 8ohm problem by wiring both of the dash speakers in a series. The two 4 ohm speakers will create a 8 ohm load that way. That is how I dealt with it in my old 80. The positive radio goes to positive DS speaker and negative DS speaker runs to positive on PS speaker and then the negative from PS speaker runs to the negative radio.

Truthfully though I don't think the impedance is that important on the little amp in your Ham radio and unless your are really overdriving the speaker and it is distorting it probably isn't going to damage that little speaker either.

Eric V.

[Azrocks]

Originally Posted by alvarorb

I thought about running both speakers. But my wife would be much happier if I kept the HAMtalk to myself.

Easy fix. I have a splitter I installed on the back of the radio. One goes to the external speaker and the other I can plug in a set of earbud headphones that I cut the inactive side off.

You don't really even need the splitter. Just unplug your external speaker when the wife is in the vehicle and plug in the earbud. She might look at you strange while you are talking to yourself! You will need to disable the "beep" because there is no volume control on that and it too loud on the earbuds.

I used a 10' extension to get the length I needed.

Anyway, just another idea.

[PabloVTA]

can you disable the beep on any yaesu model? or just this one?

I'd like to see how you have the grounding strap routed to the lip mount, and can you describe where you patched in for power?

thanks

[alvarorb]

Pablo,

I'll take more pics in the next few days. To do so, I need to let LaCabra out of the garage.

Yes, you can disable the beep. I think the earbud idea is not a bad one. However, headphones would be better....

Regards

Alvaro

[Azrocks]

Originally Posted by alvarorb

I think the earbud idea is not a bad one. However, headphones would be better....

Regards

Alvaro

I've tried both. For driving, especially with other people in the car the earbuds worked better for me because I could still hear what was going on around me. Here's a picture of my temporary setup I have in my FJ showing the external speaker with the splitter next to it.

[Cabrito]

If you have a beep you might have the "wires" function enabled - it's real easy to accidentally hit on the FT-8800's - You push the left volume knob in for a second and it will display "wires on" or off - Menu #17 (i think) will disable it for good. It can be annoying to others you are talking to. It's also annoying because you can accidentally turn it on without noticing.
-mg

[Azrocks]

We're just talking about the beep that happens when the radio is scanning, changing freq., etc. It is not tied to the volume control at all. So....even when the volume is lower for headphone use, the beeps the radio puts out are mega loud.

I know the beep you are talking about. When accidentally on, the only ones that can hear it are on the transmission recieve side. It took a little bit at the start to figure out what was going on with the Wires stuff.

[alvarorb]

I noticed that that beep is played on the radio's built in speaker as well as the remote speaker.

Alvaro

[Cabrito]

Originally Posted by Azrocks

We're just talking about the beep that happens when the radio is scanning, changing freq., etc. It is not tied to the volume control at all. So....even when the volume is lower for headphone use, the beeps the radio puts out are mega loud.

I know the beep you are talking about. When accidentally on, the only ones that can hear it are on the transmission recieve side. It took a little bit at the start to figure out what was going on with the Wires stuff.

Originally Posted by alvarorb

I noticed that that beep is played on the radio's built in speaker as well as the remote speaker.

Alvaro

There must be a menu feature for the scan beep because on my 8800 there is no scan beep and that means I must have disabled it from day one.

-mg

[alvarorb]

About two weeks ago, I installed a Yaesu FT-8800 radio on my Cruiser. One of the nice things about the install is that the head unit of the radio is up by the rearview mirror. While the radio itself it’s under the driver’s seat. To make the radio audible, I used the left factory dash speaker as the FT-8000 speaker. It sounded great.... Until I was driving down the road and the little speaker could not overcome the road noise. Specially my tires. The faster I went, the less I could hear.
The little speaker is 4Ω. The radio calls for a 8Ω speaker.


The solution was pretty simple. Get a good 8Ω speaker 4” or less in diameter.
So I looked online and found this speaker at All Electronics Corp - Parts, Supplies and Components. A couple of days latter it came in the mail and I tried to install it. The speaker was too big.
The metal plate behind the dashboard needed to be modified so that the speaker would fit. I removed the plate and yesterday I took it to the office. Gene, my coworker looked at it and said no problem. Today, Genes showed up with the modified metal plate. He had to grind off about 1/8 of an inch around. Plus he drilled additional holes, so I could secure the new speaker with nuts and bolts.


This evening all I did was assemble. It went in really easy.
Then I tuned to some repeaters. Now it sounds like it always should. Nice, clear and crisp. But must important, it sounds natural.


More pics of the radio install and new speaker here

[PabloVTA]

Are there good quick connects for 2M antennas? or would you just unscrew it and cap it when you don't want it on?

As I understand it, the K400 lets the antenna just screw into it, what is the security of that ? Reefing it super tight? Wondering if anyone has a Quick COnnect in between the mount and the antenna so it doesn't dissappear mysteriously. (I don't have a garage that accepts the girth of my rig)

[alvarorb]

Paul,

I have a little rubber antenna (SBB1) on. People are not generally attracted to it. But if I feel that it would not be safe, I'd just unscrew it and store it inside the car.
It takes about 20 seconds to screw/unscrew.

Regards

Alvaro

Originally Posted by PabloVTA

Are there good quick connects for 2M antennas? or would you just unscrew it and cap it when you don't want it on?

As I understand it, the K400 lets the antenna just screw into it, what is the security of that ? Reefing it super tight? Wondering if anyone has a Quick COnnect in between the mount and the antenna so it doesn't dissappear mysteriously. (I don't have a garage that accepts the girth of my rig)

[Azrocks]

I don't think there's a huge market for stolen ham radio antennas. I'm sure it happens but I haven't heard of any antennas walking away. You wouldn't want to tighen it too much as you will damage the threads before you got it tight enough to do any good. As Alvarorb stated it takes no time at all to just unscrew the antenna itself. They do have quick fold down antennas but it's only for laying down the antenna to fit in a garage or other low hanging place.
With the NMO mount, which is what I use whenever possible you do need to cap the base when not in use in inclement weather, especially if a through the roof mount. The center of the mount is not weather rated. Caps are cheap to buy. I'm in AZ so it's not a big deal. I kind of use my SBB-1 as a cap. I usually swap it out for my larger antenna when going on longer trips/outings. I like having the SBB-1 as a "cap" as transmitting without an antenna (if done accidentally) can do damage to your radio. I know a couple people who have burned out their finals when they transmitted thinking the antenna was installed when only a cap was on.

The SBB-1 is only a 1/4 wave on 2 meter and therefore has issues with ground plane (or the lack thereof) using the K400 (which I use on the FJ40). There is quite a big d