ghillie

Any fellow ham operators out there with xB's?

I installed a 2 meter/70 cm radio in ours about a week ago. I did put the antenna at the rear hatch door to move the RF field as far away from the engine/ECU. And I have yet to run high power with the motor running.

If you have a similar set up, what is the highest power you have ran? Have you cooked the electronics in the car? Any problems at all?

Thanks,

kzhorse

When I picked mine up the "Salesman" told me it will have no effect but the Presus
will have Ill effects.
But all I have to install is a 50 watt dual band just dont want to drill a hole yet.

Let us know what you find out.


Scott
W3KZH

crayonBOX

^ Same here, i have yet to install my setup, but i've never heard of frying any electoronics w/the ham

i do plan to set the antenna on the back/hatch bumper, but im also trying to find a way to do so without drilling (maybe an interior bracket)

~tesh

KE6CKN

kzhorse

I havent drilled any holes but I did mount a CB antenna on a gas door that someone was nice enough to give me.
Was even thinking of going mag mount and bringing the wire out the rear spitter hole,
No rear wipper anymore.




Scott

ghillie

Thanks for the input guys.

I've been running high power now for a few days, 75w and no problems.

SuperToaster

I dont think we would have any problems until you get up to well over 100 watts. Most mobile HF/VHF/UHF rigs max out at 100W. My problem is I dont want to put an antenna on my rig yet!

When I was a lowly CBer I had a cougar that had a complete digital dash. I ran a 450 and didnt get any problems until I was on SSB. Then my RPM gauge became my mod meter! LOL

At any rate from an installers standpoint 50W should cause no problems and I wouldnt have any problems installing it in my own xB.


Oh by the way kzhorse- that CB antenna might not be working that well.
The gas door doesnt offer enough of a ground and having the whip that close to the body the reflection has got to be massive. Have you checked the SWRs on it?


N7CCR

George

I've had a Icom 901 in my box for two years running on 6m/2m/440 at 50 watts or so. No effect.

The radio warning in the manual is just a CYA on Toyota's part in case someone decides to run a Henry 3K with an in-cabin antenna. Japan has to be the most RF-dense environment in the world and all of their cars are well-hardened against RF.

Now Fords, that's another story.

For mag mount antennas, there is plenty of room in the rear hatch seal to run RG-58 or even RG-8x past the seal for a no-holes installation. Don't forget to put a drip loop in the coax and just run it up past the air spring and out the gap at the corner of the rear hatch opening. I'm using a Larson NMO mag mount with an Austin Antennas tri-band antenna. The height is quite small and the efficiency is surprisingly good for such a small radiator.

Inside the car, the coax runs across the spare tire area and then up under the kick trim below the doors. The radio is under the right seat and the control head is in the little shelf forward of the steering wheel.

George

George

I don't know about that install. That lid and hinge are made of beer-can-thick material and must flex all over the place from the forces of the antenna. The antenna ground won't be good and you'll get lousy pattern with the body so close by.

CB is a bit of a joke as far as range goes, but if you move that antenna to the top of the car it will work a lot better.

George

kzhorse

The antenna is only used for local traffic jams ,I have added a braided ground to the seat bolt and SWR'r are below 2:1 safe enough for the Rat Shack radio attached to it.
Believe it or not it has very little flex we will see when I change it out for a 102" whip with a spring.
But untill I can get a 200 watt alternator the Galaxy and sweet 16 will stay in storage.


Scott

SuperToaster

Sweet 16? You want to kill that box? All I can say is Leece-Neville.

Have a great time trying to wedge that thing in there.

Putting a 102 on that door will rip it clean off. Not to mention it will look god awful.
The only clean solution would be a decent antenna in the roof. The length of the box is a problem because you can use any sticks.

Lets see some pics when you get it all done.......

SuperToaster

That is funny as hell!

Fords are REALLY bad about RF. Every Ford I have ever owned had noise that would not go away. Wipers, heater motor, windows- you name it. Didnt matter how well you grounded or where you drew power from. No amount of filters helps either.

They dont like RF either. That same cougar I had to take the door dinger out becuase everytime I tried to talk it would ding.

RF will also tear up your cruise control. Seen it happen more than once.

George

My Dad ran both HF and VHF in a Taurus and, oddly enough, had almost no problems. The only effect the radios had on the car was that the turn signals flashed double speed when he hit the xmit button on 440MHz!

There was a bit of alternator noise on HF, but nothing out of the ordinary. A doorknob capacitor across the alternator output reduced the noise markedly.

I'm not running HF in my Scion, so I cannot speak to any low band problems bands. VHF/UHF have been trouble-free.

George

SuperToaster

That is good to know. Maybe in a couple of years I might put a radio in it but not now.....

93Rubz

Need to know where you all put your radio's. I have a 2m/440 radio with remote mounting. I think that I'll put it under the pass seat. and go with 2 hatch back mounts. please advise and send photos so I can see what you all have done. We should set up a talk group on Ham radio/scanners or something just a thought.

Kurt
KB9RTO

George

With my Icom 901, I put the radio under the passenger seat, on the transverse hump just below the forward edge of the seat. This keeps it away from the rear seat passenger's feet and pretty much out of sight, as well as away from the under-seat heater/AC duct. The mounting bracket is kind of cantelevered out into space aft of the hump, but has the strength to handle it.

The microphone is connected directly to the radio.

The control head is located on the little shelf in front of the steering wheel. The height of the control head matched the shelf almost exactly, so I could just put some felt on the top and bottom of the head and push it into the opening, held by friction. The control head wire goes into the steering wheel/dash gap, down behind the radio facia, under the center console, and out the right side to the radio.

The antenna is an Austin Antenna tri-band, on a Larson NMO magnetic mount attached just forward of the left side of the hatch. The coax [RG-58] runs through the hatch/body crack, down outboard of the gas spring, through a drip loop at the lower left corner of the door, and in through the seal. It goes under the spare tire cover, diagonally across the spare tire/treasure chest area, then under the plastic kick trim beneath the right rear and right front doors to the radio.

10 ga power wires are attached directly to the battery and body ground, with a fuse on both wires. They pass through the left firewall grommet, across under the dash, under the console, and out to the radio. 10ga is plenty for such a short run if output power is kept down to 100W or so..

I'll take some photos and put them here when I get a chance.

George, N7TN

trikkonceptz

As an antenna mount suggestion, you guys could buy the trailer hitch and then mount whatever size antenna to the reciever. At least that way you wouldn't have to open any holes in the box.

Or just fabricate some bracket off the hitch to hold what ever array you guys use.

George

The problem with hitch-mounted antennas is that they are too close to the body sheet metal (if HF) or too low to the ground (UHF, VHF). There's also the problem of interfering with the operation of the hatch!

Now, if you're running a big screwdriver antenna or Texas Bugcatcher then the hitch is a great solution. Strong enough to take the load of the tall antenna, and the antenna itself is long enough to get the radiator over the top of the roof. You'd still want to have a long hitch to get the coil away from the body.

Anyway, Real Hams aren't afraid of punching holes in the body The problem is that the tinfoil they call sheet metal these days doesn't really support the old style ball mounts very well.

George

George

Here are the pix of my IC-901 installation

Mag mount antenna.


Coax path through hatch.


Drip loop in coax to keep water from passing through seal.


Duplexer under passenger seat.


Radio mounted under passenger seat on "hump". Note Icom speaker to right. It is attached with velcro to carpet.


Control head in dash in front of steering wheel. It is held in place by friction.


Microphone comes from radio under seat and lives in the tray next to the emergency brake.


Power wiring goes straight to battery. Positive goes direct to bolt on positive terminal. Negative goes to chassis ground on strut tower. Both leads are fused (note white fues holders).


Power wires punch through left electrical firewall grommet.

jaloi

Great information. Nice job with the install.

Thanks for the nice writeup.

John
WB3HPE

ashorn

I have a Kenwood TS2000 installed in my XB, no problems so far. 2 years and going strong. Perth outbacker mounted to a trailer hitch, bracket bolted to the cross bar
of the hitch and comes out under the taillight on the driver side. 2/70 mounted on
the center of the roof. If you get fuel pump wine, get some snap on chokes from dx engineering and put them on the fuel pump wires. If you pull the back seat out, or just pop it up it is the cable in the center. I put 4 chokes on, the wires went from s5 to s0.
TS2000 is mounted under the rear cover next to the spair tire.

Will post some pictures.

Andy
KA3ODJ