Mounting location for amateur radio?

[fillmoreranger]

I am soon to purchase a dual band for the Raptor (once I pass the test). I too, was wondering where to mount the radio. With the removable faceplate radios, the sunglasses holder overhead sounds like a great spot.

I also have a CB radio that I want to install. Maybe inside the center console will be my only option?

Troy Products makes a nice setup for multiple radios that fit nicely inside the center console. The only thing is that it requires the removal of the lid, which I am not very keen on doing.

Those with ideas, solutions, pictures... please share!!!

 

[SPRSNK]

I've been using a HAMM radio for my race radio since 09. It is primarily used for the weather on my road trips. In my F350 I made a bracket and mounted it to the middle of the dash. In the Raptor it would be above that ledge that is above the stereo. In my Raptor I have the race radio in that ledge above the Radio. In the Raptor running the cables for the antenna's is easy. Pull down the headliner and put em wherever you want.

 

[cthomaschase]

I was able to get my radio and antenna installed last weekend and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I mounted the antenna on the rear of the cab near the light above the rear window. I used a permanent mount rather than a mag mount, and it has a nice cover to screw on when the antenna if off the truck. I snaked my antenna wires around the head liner, down the frame, behind the glove box and up to the center speaker console on the dash.

It's really nice how easy the Raptor is to get behind the dash, but I have to say that they could have left the auxiliary wire stubs a little longer...it's friggin' hard working with them under the glove box.

I used two of the 12 gauge pass-through wires to power the radio directly off the battery, as the radio already has fuses built in and the manuf recommends going direct to the battery. I also didn't think I needed to have a power switch on the unit and on the dash.

As far as the radio mount, I ended up using the plastic center speaker plate. It's pretty study and has plenty of surface area for mounting the radio bracket. I like this method because when I take the radio out of the truck, I can take the bracket mount off the speaker cover, put the rubber "mat" down over the holes and it'll look brand new. I also like the location of the radio, as it feels very sturdy.

I havent yet figured out a location for mounting the handset, for now it's sitting in the speaker tray next to the radio.

Here are some pics.

 

[BigJ]

I did a writeup on my install at SVTO, but I'll repost it here:

I bit the bullet and installed a mobile rig in my Raptor today. I'd been running with a handheld (HT) but ended up wanting more range, so I stepped up to a mobile rig; the ICOM IC-208h

I chose this for a handful of reasons, but the main one was its very small remote mountable faceplate / readout. This feature allowed me to mount the actual radio hidden away, and yet still have full access to all readouts and buttons. Pretty trick.

After digging around online to see what others have done (surprisingly very few seem to have installed a dual bander in an 09+ F150; I did see one very clean install where the guy installed the radio under the seat zipped tied to the coils. I looked into that, but I didn't see near enough room, especially for cooling or ventilation. I wonder if he didn't have power seats?). I looked at what options I had for power accessibility, speaker / fan / heatsync clearance, dataport access... I ended up deciding to install the radio on the rear of the center console, just under the 12v power adapter and AC vents.

I installed it backwards to allow for access to the power, antenna and dataports with little trouble (I left the speaker facing down).


For now, I'm using a cheepie cig adapter to power the radio. I might go hardwired at some point, but for now this works just fine.

(using the cig adapter for a radio like this is generally frowned upon since they rarely supply enough juice. I checked and ours are 20amp fused. This radio comes with 15amp fusing, so a circuit designed and wired to pop at 20 is plenty good. I replaced the stock 20amp with an OEM 15amp to keep things consistent.)

I chose to intall the head unit right above the upfitter switches and just below the sync ports. I have full access to everything this way, as does my passenger. Here's how I made it happen...

I started by lifting out the hill decent/Off Road mode/upfitter switch panel. Pulling straight up (gentle slight barely rock back and forth) on this will release the small clips and out it comes. There are three press-to-disconnect connectors; take a pic of them or make a note of which goes where, since two of them can fit in eachother's slot.

There's a plastic trim panel that will need to come out next. Its the small strip maybe 1.5in tall located just under Sync. It also just pulls out as its only held on by two clips. Here's a crappy pic of part of it:


I then pulled out the trim piece that covers the shifter box. This comes out surprising easily, just by lifting up on it and working around the shifter lever. If you need some extra space, you can fire the truck up, engage the parking brake, apply the brake, shift to drive and lift the panel straight up and out.


I popped a hole in the bottom of the trim piece for the head unit and mic wires. This hole is completely hidden if I ever decide to remove this stuff



(By the way, the ICOM uses an ethernet cable to connect to the mic. I was able to extend the included cable just by adding another ethernet cable and a coupler.)

For the head unit mount, I fabbed up a bracket out of some scrap metal. This took some tweaking to get right; I forgot to take a pic of the final product, but here it is mid way. (The final version ended up in a stick figure lightening bolt sort of shape, jutting toward the upfitters before going up vertically)






Here I cut a little channel for the mic and head unit wires


(Again both holes are totally out of sight if I ever decide to undo all this.)

And here's everything put back together




It really looks nice and clean in there. Almost like that area was designed for it.

The antenna install was completed last month, but here's those pics and notes again as well:



These two set screws and pressure plate are amazing. These are the only things holding the mount in place (no holes drilled anywhere). Once installed and cinched down, I was able to grab the base of the antenna and rock the truck back and forth a bit. That's how secure this mount is.










Here's the parts list for the antenna setup:

Antenna: Comet SBB-7NMO
Mount: Diamond K412SNMO

Note; The mount comes with a 13.5ft lead which turns out to be around 3 feet too short to reach the radio as installed in this location. You'll need a jumper / extension cable if you plan to install your radio in a similar location.

As for the routing, I took a pretty straight forward approach; I went down under the truck, up and over the gas tank, tied to the diff breather tube then came into the cab thru a pressure relief grommet hidden under the kick plate, back behind the driver seat. Then it was a simple matter of connecting my extension cable, hiding the extra under my WeatherTech floor mats, and bringing the lead up along side the center console.

The whole install for both antenna and radio took maybe 4 hours, with two of those hours tied up in just staring at things, trying to figure out how to do this cleanly and minimize holes.. Now to figure out how to use the damn thing... :doh: :spinning:

73s

 

[BigJ]

And just to update:

My dog ended up chewing the wire between the HU and base, so after deciding I didn't want to replace another $60 cable, I actually wired it under the console. It ended up being easier than I thought it would be; probably should have just done it that way in the first place.

The radio I chose can be very easily be hacked to allow talking over the GMRS/FRS frequencies. Making this mod is illegal since it allows you to talk over those frequencies at 50w (where they're limited by law to 5w/.5w respectively). But if you did make this mod in theory (cough cough) it would allow you to hit from much greater distances your wheelin boneheaded buddies who refuse to use anything but those silly FRS's.

That antenna mount continues to impress. I've got over 1.5k hard offroad miles on it at this point (as well as 20k pavement miles) and it hasn't budged. I can't recommend it more if you don't want to drill holes.

 

[JP7]

Very neat, it does look like it belongs in that spot. And the antennae mount is pretty unique as well. Nice work!
I keep a handheld unit in the back of the passenger seat just for wheeling. Range is only a mile or so but that works for me when out with the club - as we're all following each other anyways.

 

[DubbsFaris]

This is why I carry a sat phone...no need to cut...fits into the pocket behind the seat.