Overhead 2m Ham Radio Install (1 Viewer)

[TrickyT]

My FJ Cruiser has the overhead crawl control console. And while I’ve seen many threads about ham radio installations, I’ve not seen any done on vehicles that have the crawl console. So here’s one.

First, the finished result:

That’s a Kenwood TM-281A. It’s a compact, rugged, light weight, quiet (no fan) 2m only transceiver with 65W / 25W output. It’s got a front-facing speaker and the microphone cable can be extended using a standard ethernet cable. So a perfect candidate for overhead mounting.

 

[TrickyT]

First step is to remove the crawl console (it’s just held in place in the corners using plastic snap fasteners) and mark the perimeter of the opening in the headliner on the mounting bracket. Here’s a shot looking straight up after the console was popped out:

Then you need to drop the headliner down (no need to completely remove). For this you remove the rear view mirror, sun visors, A-pillar grab handles and moldings, roof grab handles, door latch moldings, front and rear head rests, and loosen the “roof side inner garnish” (FSM lingo). It’s a bunch of stuff, but is straightforward to remove and the details are covered in the FSM and in threads on fjcruiserforums.com. The very rear of the headliner next to the cargo door can stay attached.

 

[TrickyT]

Now you can see the crawl console mounting bracket. Unbolt this, remove it through the opening in the headliner, and decide where the mounting bracket for the radio will attach to the console bracket.

(this photo by Wikid)

The X’s are where all the wires run for the rear view mirror and crawl console, so you need to avoid those areas.

Here’s a shot through the windshield looking at the top of the headliner with the factory wiring in place. (It’s a bit hard to make out because of the reflections from the windshield.)

 

[TrickyT]

The top of the headliner is about 7/8” - 1” below the crawl console mounting bracket, so you’ll need to fabricate a spacer of that thickness. I used pieces of 1/2” plywood glued together and then screwed to the bracket. This gave the radio mounting bracket something solid to rest on and I could then just use wood screws through the headliner into the wood blocks. It makes for a rock-solid mount for the radio.

At this point I bolted the crawl console bracket back in and turned my attention to wiring. No pictures of that, since it’s straightforward. But to summarize I ran ground and +12v power directly from the battery, the antenna wire from the Diamond K400 mount on the rear cargo door, and an ethernet cable I had previously installed in the center console for the microphone. All of these went up through the DS A-pillar following the factory wiring path. I ran them laterally straight past the crawl console bracket and then looped around above the headliner over the passenger seat so they could all exit through a 1” hole I cut in the headliner just forward of the plywood spacers. Norm Abram would have approved: I measured the location for the radio mounting bracket, plywood spacers and wire hole about 10 times from several directions and then “cut once.” It all turned out great.

 

[TrickyT]

Just a few more photos - one of the Diamond K400 NMO antenna mount and Comet SBB-1 antenna, and a couple of the microphone in the center console. I also needed to purchase a 3m SMA male to SMA female RG316 coax jumper cable ($15 on eBay) because the coax that came with the K400 wasn’t long enough to reach the radio. As a final step in the installation I measured the SWR at the radio and it was 1.1, so nearly all the RF is going to the antenna.

 

[1911]

Nice job!

 

[TrickyT]

Nice job!

Thanks! Took longer to do then I first estimated, but I could likely do it half the time second time around.

 

[Mtbcoach]

Nice write up, thanks for documenting this modification, installing what I believe is an essential tool...

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Wow. Super clean install. Now we need to talk about getting the FJC dirty. I have a plan...for October.

See you tomorrow in Seattle.

 

[BigSwede]

Nice. I didn't know they made a front speaker model...wonder if that would work in-dash. I'm thinking of replacing the factory base stereo anyway, maybe I could fit this Kenwood and a single DIN stereo in the opening.

Too bad it doesn't have a 5W mode, that would cut down on heat concerns in-dash.

 

[Mr45]

That looks great. I love the remote mic plug-in

 

[TrickyT]

That looks great. I love the remote mic plug-in

For the remote mic I used an ethernet cable and a 8-pin female-to-female modular adapter, like this:

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=SAM8629-ND


EDIT: fixed broken link

 

[BMThiker]

^^^link broken
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[TrickyT]

^^^link broken
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Sorry about that. I just fixed it.