Well, I know some folks are planning radion installs soon, so I don't have time to write it all up at the moment, but I'll at least post pictures to help with ideas and edit later.
Cheers fellow Hams.
THe radio programmed on the bench
The basic parts and tools
The face to main unit cable face side note the color orientation
The main unit side, note the space and color orientation of the wires. Also note that this is a standard cat5 cable end.
I really wanted the radio face above the mirror, so I carefully took apart the sunglass holder and then took a simple piece of stainless 3/16 steel and bent it at an angle I liked, then pop riveted it to the top of the housing. I put some good velcro on there and drilled a little hole in the drivers side of the housing so I could run the cable through. I used some 4 conductor (22gauge?) shielded security wire from Home depot and left a few feet hanging out for later. I then was exceptionally careful to run the cable down the drivers A-pillar BEHIND the airbag with the factory wire loom then down to the floor panel.
Then I took a standard 4 pin phone cord (I'll look up the connector type and post it with a parts list later) and crimped it on matching it to the factory wire pattern in the above photos.
You will notice that I pretty much gutted the entire center console, I did this because I wanted the MIC to go in here, and planned to add another radio later, and so ran 2 mic cables. For the wiring I bought some basic cat5e or cat6 cables (I forget, but the shielded ones) and cut the ends off of one side and ran them from the center console area to the drivers sill area, leaving enough room to manipulate them later. I came out with the cables about where the blue plug is in the middle.
I used a small dremel tool and cut some plug jacks into the back side of the center console pocket (this area is a tight fit, so measure carefully to avoid nicking anything else.) I plugged the CAT cables in here and reassembled the center console.
This lets me plug in the mic cords for most modern radios and remove them at will for theft deterrence or replacement. Note that I used a megnetic rf isolator clipped around the cable at both ends to shed rf interference on the line. (Cheap and easy to find online)
Then I gutted the back for a few reasons. I was running the fuse box and power cables in my batter writeup, but also because I needed to access the roof for mounting my antenna, and I just wanted to have lots of room to work to get things right (like the much larger power inverter that lives near the subwoofer now. I also wanted to make sure that there were no sensitive vehicle electronics close enough to get fried or tripped up by a radio transmitting close by. I wanted my radio higher up as well in case I ever take a swim and forget to roll up the windows
I chose this pocket for several reasons, mainly ease of removal in case of issues, replacement, programming, cooling by opening the cubby if I TX a lot, and the easy space for adding another radio later. While I had this all apart, I also ran some 4 conductor wire (same stuff I used for the control unit, but soldered some speaker connectors to it so I could mount some speakers in the front of the cab so I can hear the audio.
Now, antenna placement is huge on a HAM rig, and so I deliberated a lot, and decided that I'll likely make a cutout in my roof rack for this one. The best place would have been the center of the roof, but I just couldn't bear to do it, so I figured the least loss with the best ground plane would be about 6 inches forward from where this image shows the antenna. I did a Larson NMO mount, and drilled through my roof. Now, I am not going to get into a how to for that part except on a case by case basis, simply because if you mess this up, there is no coming back from it. If you want an antenna like this and have not done them before, I'd recommend taking it to a HAM radio shop and paying to have them drop the antenna lead for you. It just isn't worth the risk to "try it out".
Now, I got a little excited and forgot to take lots of pictures, but I cut a small slot in the pop out tray that goes in the side, and I removed the sound deadening from the bottom of it, match marked my holes with a spring punch, and drilled them. I bought some longer m8 screws with wide washers and used the factory bracket to screw through the bottom into the radio, and then added 2 more screws that go through the plastic into the metal bracket in the space away from the radio body to provide side to side support. I ran all my cables into the cubby, and mounted it in place, and then screwed everything in. Not pictured I also put those same clip on magnetic isolators over the speaker, mic, and power lines. Here in the back I also had to crimp on an end for the mic wire that matches the wide end of the factory extension cable. It was kind of a pain to line up, but once it did, it was perfect. Note, that I am not sure if this helped or not, but some people report noise on the mic line when they make their own cables, I do not have any, and I think it is because I used the shielding wire (drain wire) that runs in the shielded CAT cable and I connected only one side of it to ground to help reject RF interference. Whether that did it or not, no idea, but I have a clean mic line.
That is the gist of it. I will try to track down a parts and tools list. I bought and returned several tools because they sucked, so hopefully what I used it still available.
The last thing I did was use some non-powered cell phone hands free speakers I had in the shed (cb radio ones work too, match the rated impedence on the radio though) and mounted them between the factory radio amplifier, and the transmission hump under the drivers seat. This creates a horn loading effect in the footwell that brings the audio up pretty darn clear with no speakers cluttering up your dash space. I connected those to the speaker cables I ran earlier and then fired it up and made my first contact. IT was pretty cool to have it work out of the gate.
I'm no elmer, but I know a little bit about setting up a ham rig in a modern car if anyone is new to the idea and wants to ask a question here an there. I'll know, or I wont, but I know I wont lie to ya. Good luck Y'all.
'73
... God bless you my good man ... you are thorough and thank you for taking the time to document it the way you did ... Im sure it took you much longer to do that than it did for me to read and comprehend it...
Thanks for the kudos, and cheers!
