The big project. Installing in my 2007 Toyota Tacoma. Why? Because I can.The real reason is because I have high hopes of spending a lot of time in the mountains this summer. If something goes wrong, I want to be able to reach someone…anyone.
UPS delivered the radio monday afternoon and I started working right away since I had to go out of town the following day.
First order of business was getting the power leads and coax through the firewall. This proved to be a little more difficult than expected. The main grommet already had a big fat 4AWG wire running through it for the AC inverter. I found another grommet that would barely fit 2 power leads and coax inside of the power loom.
I ran the coax into a duplexer and then two seperate runs of coax to the radio. One for VHF/UHF and the other for HF+50. On the HF side, I had to run into a 9:1 UNUN and I grounded its input.
The antenna is mounted with a hood channel mount I picked up from a local CB shop. I ran a flat braded grounding strap to a bolt to ensure a good ground. Also, I ran grounding straps from the body to the frame and ground the exhaust to the frame, Not much noise, but still a little that I need to hunt down.
The 2 coax runs make their way by different paths to the radio and tuner which I mounted under the front passenger seat. From under the seat, I ran the head control cable and a CAT5 cable to a coupler so I could use the microphone jack on the radio body instead of the one on the head unit. I did this simply for looks. All cables run under/behind panels so they are out of sight. I was looking for a clean install and I think I did pretty good.
I mounted the head unit with heavy duty fastener (thick plastic velcro like stuff).
I mounted the microphone in an open spot near the panel.
Here are a couple completed pictures of the install.
