CB Radio in 3rd gen Runner.

4-Ripcord said:
I will, won't be until February or April though.

My father has a 2m ham is his F-150, same unit as I plan to get. I mess with it sometimes when I see him. With the geography of the Albuquerque area (5k-6k ft. elevation city on the foothills of a 13k ft. mountain). That mountain is the radio antenna mecca for central and northern NM. So, as you can imagine, he gets fairly decent reception in the city, haha.
But we did take a camping/hunting trip about 300 miles southwest of Abq a few months back, and while still linked to one of the Sandia mountain repeaters, we heard people way up in Colorado springs clear as day.
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yeah the Xmeter (2,4,6,10,11,12 ect) radio's are nice and if you know what your doing you will never be out of reception from someone, not to mention if you really need help you could theoretically just break the law and broadcast on pretty much any frequency, i wouldn't mind the ticket if it was life and death situation.

i'm really interested in seeing how this goes down, i know this may ruffle some feathers but for the most part cb's are just glorified walkie talkies,

most cb's are only good with-in ranges of 10-20 miles and even modified cb's can only hope to reach around 155 miles in the best of conditions.
the ham radio's though are what you need for really remote sort of thing and makes me glad to see someone going down this path, keep us informed!
 
COB, that mic is HUGE!! Also, good choice on the PA speaker, they are so fun. haha!
If the mic ever gets in the way, you can get a little metal mic mount for like $5 and mount it in the spot where Brian2sun has his CB unit located, next to the steering column. That is where my mic is and it works great, never gets in the way.
 
Pikeman said:
I have the Cobra 18 right under the stereo. It is a DIN size and the speaker is on the front of it so you can hear it just fine. Will try to find some pictures i have of the install.
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i found this using google images and i absolutely love this idea.

frontview.jpg



ChildrenOfBodom said:
Screw the ashtray! :D
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i also love how this radio is small and out of the way, i have no use for the ashtray at all and use the empty space under my radio to keep my iphone when plugged into the radio. how do you go about wiring this and what speaker is involved?
 
michael833 said:
i found this using google images and i absolutely love this idea.
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that is a nice clean set-up, problem is it's not the 1980's any more and i don;t have my jon-bon jovi casset tape collection anymore....boo! lol

just kidding that would be a slick set-up for a single din cd player or maybe flip out screen, either way the cb mount is nice,efficient and my favorite "clean"
very nice!:hungry:
 
4-Ripcord said:
COB, that mic is HUGE!! Also, good choice on the PA speaker, they are so fun. haha!
If the mic ever gets in the way, you can get a little metal mic mount for like $5 and mount it in the spot where Brian2sun has his CB unit located, next to the steering column. That is where my mic is and it works great, never gets in the way.
Click to expand...

I hear ya. The mount that came with it and the location it's on, doesn't interfere with anything, looks good, and is very easily accessible.

Thanks for the tip :thumb3:

michael833 said:
i found this using google images and i absolutely love this idea.

frontview.jpg





i also love how this radio is small and out of the way, i have no use for the ashtray at all and use the empty space under my radio to keep my iphone when plugged into the radio. how do you go about wiring this and what speaker is involved?
Click to expand...

There is a small built in speaker on the bottom of the CB that is not obstructed at all when mounted this way. Works great, looks great, and keeps your second DIN open in case you want to install a touch screen radio.

I had installed T-Taps to power for the previous iPod connection which I have since changed. I installed the little spade tips on the ends of the CB power wires and plugged them in. Before, I had it wired to the 4WD power at the fuseblock since I don't have 4WD.

I just went to radioshack for the speaker, costs all of $20. Also pocketed a mono 3.5mm jack plug while I was there lol.

Some solder, some wire, and some crimp connectors, voila.
 
There's just a positive, negative, the cable that connects the antenna, and the handset mic. Pretty straight-forward.
 
theizzardking said:
yeah the Xmeter (2,4,6,10,11,12 ect) radio's are nice and if you know what your doing you will never be out of reception from someone, not to mention if you really need help you could theoretically just break the law and broadcast on pretty much any frequency, i wouldn't mind the ticket if it was life and death situation.

i'm really interested in seeing how this goes down, i know this may ruffle some feathers but for the most part cb's are just glorified walkie talkies,

most cb's are only good with-in ranges of 10-20 miles and even modified cb's can only hope to reach around 155 miles in the best of conditions.
the ham radio's though are what you need for really remote sort of thing and makes me glad to see someone going down this path, keep us informed!
Click to expand...

The nice thing is, The FCC says if it is a life threatening emergency, you can use ANY means of communication at your disposal. That means if you can X-mit on police frequency, if it's an emergency, you won't get in trouble.

I will say that most ham radios including mine won't transmit out of our bands unless modified. Mine is a quad band, 10m (almost the same as CB) 6m, 2m, and 70cm.

I will say 2m isn't very good for DXing, it is local talk mostly aside from an occasional band opening that will allow a Georgian to talk to California hehe.

Maxil
 
Maxil said:
The nice thing is, The FCC says if it is a life threatening emergency, you can use ANY means of communication at your disposal. That means if you can X-mit on police frequency, if it's an emergency, you won't get in trouble.
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Well isn't that thoughtful of them, haha. I guess it's illegal to shoot bears without a hunting license too, but if I was about to get mauled, I wouldn't be calling my lawyer trying to get his opinion on it. :)
 
brian2sun said:
Well isn't that thoughtful of them, haha. I guess it's illegal to shoot bears without a hunting license too, but if I was about to get mauled, I wouldn't be calling my lawyer trying to get his opinion on it. :)
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Lol. Yeah with a properly adjusted unit you can take over drive thru speakers peoples radios in their car and a bunch of others, and don't it make you smile that it's pretty much the sane mod that let's you talk on cop bands and drive thrus lol you'd think that the police band would be open and punish the ones who abuse it,

I'm a bit rusty but i think 11 & 12 is the preferred choice of dxers, ham can be a lot of fun and it's not bad to have a setup at home for disaster scenarios , i never got as deep as i would have liked but as it can get expensive quickly but on the other hand once you got the equipment you got it.. the hardest part i had was finding someone to give me the test.
 
4-Ripcord said:
Here is my Uniden Pro 520 XL. It fits in the lower DIN slot that you have available, But I plan to move it to the ashtray spot when I get my 2m Ham radio.




100_0533.jpg~original
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We have the same head unit...How do you like it? Hmmm I like the CB setup...I have one laying in my garage from my brothers old trailblazer...I might have to mash it in there.
 
KeatonMP said:
We have the same head unit...How do you like it?
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It's decent, amazing sound for a unamplified and subwoofer-ed system. I don't like the interface very much though. Mainly the way the stock stereo could scroll through preset favorites with the 1-6 buttons, this one just has 1 FAV button then you use the wheel to scroll through the favs list to the station you want. It gets tedious.. I know, I'm lazy.

As far as putting a compact CB unit in the lower 1DIN slot, I wouldn't. Don't get me wrong, it's very accessible where it is and doesn't get in the way. But it looks tacky and amateur the way I have mine setup. Like I said, its going in the ash tray spot when I get my ham, the ham will go in the lower DIN slot and I will get something to cover the gap and make it look decent.
 
4-Ripcord said:
It's decent, amazing sound for a unamplified and subwoofer-ed system. I don't like the interface very much though. Mainly the way the stock stereo could scroll through preset favorites with the 1-6 buttons, this one just has 1 FAV button then you use the wheel to scroll through the favs list to the station you want. It gets tedious.. I know, I'm lazy.

As far as putting a compact CB unit in the lower 1DIN slot, I wouldn't. Don't get me wrong, it's very accessible where it is and doesn't get in the way. But it looks tacky and amateur the way I have mine setup. Like I said, its going in the ash tray spot when I get my ham, the ham will go in the lower DIN slot and I will get something to cover the gap and make it look decent.
Click to expand...


Yeah I have a 10" sub hooked up through it and it all sounds amazing....so much better than the stock head unit...I just have my iPod on shuffle and thats all I listen to so I dont have to do with the favorites thing. I know what your talking about though...

So put in in the ashtray? Wheres a good spot for the antenna? Not very many people have posted pics of the antenna location.
 
KeatonMP said:
So put in in the ashtray? Wheres a good spot for the antenna? Not very many people have posted pics of the antenna location.
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Oh yeah, antenna.


Mine is a 4' firestick firefly. Mount is permanent, 2 bolts that go through the body panel and are the + and - for the antenna.
100_0537.jpg~original
 
Just wanted to add a note on tuning your antenna--gotta do it! I installed my CB yesterday and checked the SWR on channels 1 / 19 / 40...all were 3+. Not good.

After some wire clipping (I have a Firestik with the tip that you cut at the top to tune), I was able to get the numbers down to 1.15 / 1.2 / 1.6. Under 2 is good!
 
Here's a question for all you guys with the antenna mounted by the drivers rear taillight. What exactly about the Firestik mount makes the rear door unable to open? I think I am going to fab up my own mount to circumvent this issue but I need to know what the actual issue is! Thanks :lasercannon:
 
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