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Old 05-25-2009, 12:26 AM   #26
Subiebobby
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bnr34rb26dett, i like the out side of your car . . clean on the outside but holy cow cluttered on the inside lol i feel like need i piolets license just to look at all the equipment in the pict . . .lol i'm just sad i don't have any thing fancy in my car like that good lookin car and nice job on the installs inside
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Old 05-25-2009, 12:39 AM   #27
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Last edited by White out; 05-12-2022 at 02:37 PM.
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Old 05-25-2009, 01:53 AM   #28
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Larsen NMO2/70B in front and Larsen NMO27B in rear. The 2/70 does 2m, 70cm, and GMRS/FRS. The 27 takes care of 11m (CB). Both are mounted into the roof with NMO mounts. The cabling is run between the headliner and the roof to the B-pillars and then down the B-pillars behind the trim pieces. The cables run under the carpet and pop out under each seat through the holes where the rear foot heat ducts come out.

NMO mounts through the roof are the only non-sissy way to mount antennas. First of all, mag mounts and clamp mounts aren't considered part of the car by your insurance. If they pop off an injure someone during an accident, you'll be liable and your insurance won't pay. Through-metal mounts are considered a permanent part of the car. Second, antenna performance is incredibly better with a through-metal mount. All the antennas we use on are cars are quarter-wave monopoles. They rely on a large, flat sheet of metal to act like a mirror and create the "other half" of the dipole. When you mount it to the rack, or the bumper, or whatever, there's no plane to act like a mirror, dropping efficiency hugely. I went from an improperly mounted antenna to these and the amount that my working range increased was staggering.

As you can see, through-metal mounts are also bomb proof.

The front antenna (2/70) is hooked to an Icom IC-208H 50W mobile VHF/UHF radio. The rear antenna (27B) is hooked to a Midland 1001Z CB radio. I'll try to remember to grab pictures of the interior mountings tomorrow.


I'll be glad to answer an questions you have as well, it's about time I put my Extra Class Radio Operator's license to use
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Old 05-25-2009, 11:04 AM   #29
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took a bit of work to fit it in there....but it was worth it. I also need to get a better antenna, I have a through glass antenna mounted on my passenger side tiny window(WRX wagon) and it has very limited range.
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Old 05-25-2009, 11:52 AM   #30
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here was my old setup:


might be a bit of overkill on a subie though. I used that bad boy to tow a trailer from NH to alaska and then from AK to florida, so I wanted a good setup. seeing this thread is making me want to put a cb into my subie, but if I did, I would go with an antenna that looks like a cell antenna. just for subtlety.
like this:
http://www.universal-radio.com/CATALOG/cbants/3522.html
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Old 05-25-2009, 03:05 PM   #31
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I had a Cobra 18 WXST2 in my old RS. Still have the radio/antenna and was trying to figure out how/where to mount on my wagon. This thread helped big time! Thanks.
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Old 05-25-2009, 03:11 PM   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Subiebobby View Post
bnr34rb26dett, i like the out side of your car . . clean on the outside but holy cow cluttered on the inside lol i feel like need i piolets license just to look at all the equipment in the pict . . .lol i'm just sad i don't have any thing fancy in my car like that good lookin car and nice job on the installs inside
haha thanks. it used to be just a radar detector. now its this...
white out, whats going on with the microphone there? is it coming from cigarette lighter??
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Old 05-25-2009, 05:10 PM   #33
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Last edited by White out; 05-12-2022 at 02:38 PM.
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Old 05-25-2009, 06:13 PM   #34
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Glad to see another ham with real antenna mounts...looks good.
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Old 05-25-2009, 09:18 PM   #35
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To avoid scratches with a mag mount just put a piece of kleenex or paper towel underneath. Put the kleenex down, stick the mag mount on top and rip away the kleenex sticking out so you're left with a perfect circle. I've never lost my antenna other than when it's been knocked off by a low branch.

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Old 05-25-2009, 09:31 PM   #36
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OK, here are some better pictures of my radio setup.

This is the through-metal mount I was talking about. Specifically, this is a Larsen NMO mount. I would stick to US-brands like Larsen. Some of the cheap Chinese knockoffs aren't quite up to spec and turn out not to work with NMO-mount antennas. Another advantage is that the Larsen NMO is waterproof even in the bare configuration like this. If you go through a car wash or whatever, just unscrew the antenna and don't worry about it.


If you're going to leave your antenna unmounted for a long time, it's a good idea to cover the NMO mount with its little cap. The cap is just a black piece of plastic that's really small. I put a quarter in front of it for a size reference.


When you mount the antenna, the base of the antenna just screws down onto the NMO mount by hand, no tools required. It's VERY solid. As you can see from the rallycross pictures above, they can take a hell of a beating. I've also run the antenna into a deer at 100+MPH when a deer jumped my car but didn't clear the antenna one night. I'm sure the deer was unhappy.


One thing to watch out for is that many antennas will have an open coil somewhere on the whip. I kept catching mine in brush and trees. So I covered it with a bit of heat-shrink tubing to prevent it from being able to snag.


When mounting the radio, it's VERY important to consider where the pieces of the radio will go in a crash. Just sitting the radio somewhere or velcroing it to the dash is NOT safe. Most high-quality radios will allow you to remote-mount the control panel, allowing you to put the bulk of the radio in one place and the display/control in another. In my case, the body of the radio is under my driver's seat while the display is above the rear-view mirror. I made a small bracket out of aluminum flat stock and screwed it to the ceiling where there's normally a push-clip to hold the headliner up. The head unit is NOT going anywhere unless the whole roof comes off the car. The wiring then runs over the headliner and down the B-Pillar before coming out under the seat where the radio is.




Finally, the microphone cable connects to the radio under the driver's seat. It then runs out beside the seat (routed between the rail and the tranny tunnel to make it impossible to pinch the cord when adjusting the seat). I've put a large patch of velcro down on the center console so that I can just set the mic down and it'll stay where I put it.
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Old 05-25-2009, 10:37 PM   #37
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Great minds think alike...I was going to mount my IC-208H in the same spot before I mounted the commercial radios. I still might mount it there, as I'm starting to miss a VFO.
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Old 05-25-2009, 10:46 PM   #38
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It's really a great spot. Both the navi and I can see it (though since it's angled at me, it's a fair bit harder to read from the right seat) and reach it to adjust it. It's easy to find and look at but absolutely not in the way of driving. It's almost invisible from the outside due to the speckling on the windshield in that area.

Made of win, one might say.
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Old 05-26-2009, 12:37 AM   #39
573
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Just out of curiosity, would running a chassis grounded wire to a clamp style mount work as well as a through-metal mount? It seems like it should, but if it does, I'd expect people to be doing it so I may be overlooking something.
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Old 05-26-2009, 12:47 AM   #40
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Originally Posted by 573 View Post
Just out of curiosity, would running a chassis grounded wire to a clamp style mount work as well as a through-metal mount? It seems like it should, but if it does, I'd expect people to be doing it so I may be overlooking something.
No, it doesn't work the same, but that's a very common misconception. Sadly, we don't have enough words in English that mean "ground" so the fact that a grounding strap/cable provides an electrical ground but not a radio frequency ground gets lost in translation.

To get an antenna to work properly, you need both an electrical ground and a RF ground. The thing is, if you don't give the antenna a good RF ground, physics WILL win. It'll use the coax braid, the circuits in the radio, the braid of the mic wire, and even your body as the RF ground if it has to. Run enough power into an antenna without a good RF ground and the mic will electrocute your lips every time you key it up. While this "pulling ground from where ever it can" thing sounds good, it's hideously inefficient and will cause your antenna to suck.

The biggest single limiting factor in a mobile radio install is the RF ground of the antenna. At Ultra-High Frequencies (UHF, such as 70cm ARS, FRS, or GMRS), it's easy to provide the "other half" to the antenna because the "half" is quite short. The lower the frequency, the harder it gets (for packaging reasons). If you've ever seen a CBer run around with a looooong steel whip sticking 10 feet above their car, that's a 1/4 wavelength whip. Technically, they need a disc of metal twice that far across to have a efficient RF ground. The less metal you have at the base of the antenna, the more your efficiency drops. That's why it's important to stick the antenna into the sheet metal of the car as close to the center of the biggest panel as you can.
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Old 05-26-2009, 11:24 AM   #41
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wow, great info. That helps explain why my buddy and i have had some problems getting good usage out of our small set-ups.
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Old 05-26-2009, 12:41 PM   #42
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Yup, antenna performance is everything. You can literally talk around the world on milliwatts with a good antenna but a crap antenna and a thousand watts won't make it out of the ZIP code.
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Old 05-26-2009, 04:11 PM   #43
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Whats the best non destructive solution to that? At this point I'm not sure how long I want to use my radio in my current car.
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Old 05-26-2009, 04:40 PM   #44
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no body has even answered the guy that asked this on the first page

what is even the point of having that


especially on the gauged out 2.5 rs???? seems completly over kill, especially the interior on that car.
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Old 05-26-2009, 04:43 PM   #45
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Originally Posted by SedonaScooby View Post
no body has even answered the guy that asked this on the first page what is even the point of having that especially on the gauged out 2.5 rs???? seems completly over kill, especially the interior on that car.


He asked to see pictures of antenna installations and radio installations. What part of that has this thread failed to address?
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Old 05-26-2009, 06:35 PM   #46
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He asked to see pictures of antenna installations and radio installations. What part of that has this thread failed to address?

never said he failed to do THAT, but it was asked of the OP why he wanted it, which is relevant to the thread

it seems like a lot of bulk and a eyesore on the outside of your car for "just" a cb (as i'd say it). Were as you would not say its not "just" a cb. Just trying to see the use of it is all, I am sure they are very usefull, right?
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Old 05-26-2009, 07:14 PM   #47
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They're useful for all kinds of things. Talking to the other guys in your convoy (you do go on big group Subie drives, don't you?), finding out where all the cops are, finding out where traffic is, asking about road or weather conditions, asking where the next gas/food/bathroom/hooker is, getting help from other motorists, and getting in contact with emergency services.

Plus, they're just a damned good way not to get bored on a long trip.
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Old 05-26-2009, 08:14 PM   #48
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Originally Posted by williaty View Post
They're useful for all kinds of things. Talking to the other guys in your convoy (you do go on big group Subie drives, don't you?), finding out where all the cops are, finding out where traffic is, asking about road or weather conditions, asking where the next gas/food/bathroom/hooker is, getting help from other motorists, and getting in contact with emergency services.

Plus, they're just a damned good way not to get bored on a long trip.
Don't forget about the blow!
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Old 05-26-2009, 09:35 PM   #49
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so basically you can be on the same frequency of cops? they actually say where they stop and clock people at over the CB?
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Old 05-26-2009, 09:39 PM   #50
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so basically you can be on the same frequency of cops? they actually say where they stop and clock people at over the CB?
Yes, it's possible to monitor police radio frequencies, assuming the police haven't gone to an encrypted radio system in the area you're interested in. Very old school departments will have simple channelized radios that are easy to monitor. Most departments have moved to a digital trunking system that requires very specialized, and quite expensive, scanners to monitor. However, that's not what I'm talking about. In the Citizen's Band, Channel 19 is commonly used for general communications on the road. If you monitor Ch19, you will almost never pass a cop that you didn't hear someone else talking about before you got within a mile of it. In fact, when I ran the CB all the time for about 6 months, I think I literally never once passed a cop I hadn't heard about before hand.

Last edited by williaty; 09-08-2014 at 12:11 AM. Reason: Big correction about cop technology.
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