When I first bought my TJ, means again when….and I hadn’t but began crawling round on large rocks, I put in fairly a little bit of the ham radio gear that I had been working in my ’89 XJ. Here are some images and feedback concerning what I used to be utilizing again then. They had been beforehand posted on the QSL.internet web site however I’ve since moved them right here. While Jeep HF/weak sign cell installations are all the time a compromise (noisy RF working atmosphere, small antennas, street/wind noise, and so on.), my gear labored fairly nicely whereas cell and fairly good as soon as I used to be parked out in the course of nowhere.
One of the radios I put in was the Icom 706, a HF/VHF transceiver that I used for HF SSB and a couple of meter SSB work. The 706’s management head matches very properly between the 2 solar visors. Gee, you nearly would suppose that Jeep was considering forward on this one. I actually favored the management panel on this location, primarily as a result of the solar doesn’t shine immediately on it and so no glare or washout. I routed the separation cable to the left and down the driving force’s facet of the sprint (truly, it could possibly go behind the sprint whereas going from high to backside) after which alongside the decrease door space to the radio which was positioned behind the driving force’s seat (extra on that arising). The exterior speaker was hooked up to the roll bar and was positioned simply over my left shoulder. This offered loads of quantity since it’s only about 8″ from my ear.
I assumed significantly about mounting the entrance panel only a bit larger, on the vanguard of the roof, proper the place the WARNING sticker is. However, I knew that if I did that, once I wanted to take the hardtop roof off, it might be a trouble attempting to then do one thing with the management panel. So, it bought hooked up to the windshield body which leaves the highest free for a neater removing.
The major physique of the radio was mounted on a small wood shelf (it hung from beneath the shelf through the cell mounting bracket). The shelf was produced from 3/4″ plywood and was held about 4 inches off the ground by a coupler of items of two×4. The finish consequence was just a little platform you could stand on which sat on the ground behind the driving force’s seat with the 706 radio snuggled underneath it for optimum safety. I had initially constructed this and had it (with a 100W 2 meter amp alongside facet) within the rear ground board of my Cherokee. With a hand full of youngsters typically instances occupying the rear seat space, this was a just about bullet-proof technique of conserving the radio secure and sound. Since I had eliminated the rear seat within the Wrangler, there was little probability of somebody stepping on the radio any extra. However, with the potential shifting of issues that get tossed into the rear of the Wrangler, I assumed it might be good insurance coverage to guard the radio from an unintentional mishap.
I went about 6 months with my Wrangler earlier than I made a decision to place a 2 meter horizontal loop in it. Part of the explanation I waited that lengthy was the storage was simply too darn sizzling throughout the summer time to work on this challenge. The loop is mounted to a 1″x4″ pine board which is painted black. It is minimize to size (and formed on the ends) in order that it simply matches on high of the roll bar. The hardtop curves down across the roll bar making the antenna bracket a cosy match. This retains it from transferring vertically. So that it doesn’t slide backwards, I took a 1″ nylon strap and secured it to the Sound Bar which is mounted simply ahead of the antenna bracket. This image is taken wanting again from the driving force’s seat. I used a 100 watt amp to feed it which did a fairly good job. I labored 2 meter weak sign SSB from a couple of mountain tops and had fairly good outcomes. It labored very nicely when the opposite station was utilizing a beam which was pointed my route.
Here is a pic of the SG-230 antenna tuner I used once I was working the HF bands. With a 102″ CB whip because the antenna, I’d work right down to 40 meters albeit it wasn’t all that nice. It would load up fairly nicely nevertheless it was one heck of a compromise regarding the antenna. 10 meter SSB labored simply tremendous. I used the middle conductor from a piece of RG-214 coax for the insulated wire that feeds the ball mount (largely hidden behind the roll bar). The ebook says that very excessive RF voltages can exist at this level so ensure nobody will get close to this when you find yourself transmitting.
As beforehand talked about, I used a full size CB whip antenna hooked up to the SG-230. A number of the sheet metallic in automobiles will flex an excessive amount of to deal with this Hustler stainless-steel mount topped with a 102″ whip. By fastidiously deciding on the mounting location for the mount, I used the sting of the physique panel to strengthen the higher portion of the mount. Two of the mounting bolts had been positioned above the purpose the place the physique panel is welded to the fender nicely. The third mounting bolt was drilled under the weld line, which put all the mount over this very robust seam. There was nearly NO flexing on this mount.
The final radio I ran, means again then, was a Kenwood TM-742 3-band FM rig. The microphone extension cable connector is tucked in behind the entrance panel. I nearly didn’t set up it this fashion because the major radio was mounted within the cell bracket which was bolted to the ground, underneath the driving force’s seat. When the mic was hooked up to the radio itself, the driving force had no drawback with it, however stretching it over to the passenger’s space was a bit troublesome, particularly should you wanted to shift gears, and so on. So, I went forward and put the mic connection up on the sprint, making the mic simply accessible from both entrance seat. The cables had been routed off to the driving force’s facet and dropped down behind the sprint and adopted the identical path as did the IC-706 cable. The 742 cable popped out from beneath the carpet proper on the entrance of the driving force’s seat mount and hooked up to the principle radio. I used an antenna mount that I placed on the driving force’s facet entrance fender, which remains to be in use on one other VHF/UHF FM radio.