I'm back.. 2005 Grand Cherokee

[bnoland]

Antenna envy got the best of me. I ordered a Diamond K515SNMO luggage rack mount and a Larsen tri-band antenna for my scanner. I will get a couple more of those bases if I like the one I have ordered.

[gr8rcall]

Nice setup!
Looks great!

Cool!

[k2radio]

Get an under dash mount car stereo mount and cut the top of that off,spray paint it the color of the dash.The rounded look could clean it up a bit flip it upsidedown.ya?Hot glue and some vinyl wrapping
could make it look stock,just an idea.

The scanner will go right in,get an FM modulator or use an auxillary jack for scanner audio!
get a Motorola to F connector adapter for your car stereo antenna and use a 1-1000MHZ cable TV 3 way splitter,split the two wires coming out of the splitter from the car stereo antenna you then have a scanner and a car stereo antenna and NO HOLES!The splitter mess will go into the dash.

SCOSCHE UDEB Under Dash Car Stereo Enclosure


http://www.partsguysusa.com/uploaded...se/SISUDEB.jpg

Scosche

[bnoland]

That is an awesome idea! I wish I had found that earlier. I may still do this and just get another stock bezel for mine. Thanks!!

[bnoland]

My mount and antenna got here today. I am pleased with it. Very solid feeling mount and the install was a breeze.

[N1RGR]

Great little antenna...I have one on a mag mount. The only question I have is would the antenna perform better grounded to the car roof rather than side mounted on the luggage rack?

Also im not sure I would have hacked up the dash like that. That might be a tough sell when the time comes. You may have to sell the scanner with the car just to cover the hole. lol.

[bnoland]

Originally Posted by N1RGR

Great little antenna...I have one on a mag mount. The only question I have is would the antenna perform better grounded to the car roof rather than side mounted on the luggage rack?

Also im not sure I would have hacked up the dash like that. That might be a tough sell when the time comes. You may have to sell the scanner with the car just to cover the hole. lol.

It might perform a bit better mounted directly to the roof. I listened a bit after I installed the antenna and it sounds much better than it did but considering I was running the antenna it came with not extended and inside the dash that is not a shock. I went with this mount because at this point I am not willing to drill holes.

The dash itself is not hacked. The part I hacked is the radio bezel which is removable so it can be replaced. A new panel like this one is about $50-100 on ebay. What I will likely do in the future is get the true double din bezel from the in dash navigation model and replace the crummy factory CD player with a nice single din and put this in the other half of the din area.

[03msc]

Originally Posted by bnoland

Antenna envy got the best of me. I ordered a Diamond K515SNMO luggage rack mount and a Larsen tri-band antenna for my scanner. I will get a couple more of those bases if I like the one I have ordered.

How well does this antenna perform as far as receive on the various bands. I know the bands it is advertised for but I know I've read before that antennas will receive beyond those ranges. Like, I monitor air (120MHz range), VHF for public safety, and 800MHz for the statewide P25 system. And occasionally UHF.

Had enough experience with it yet to give a summary?

[bnoland]

Originally Posted by 03msc

How well does this antenna perform as far as receive on the various bands. I know the bands it is advertised for but I know I've read before that antennas will receive beyond those ranges. Like, I monitor air (120MHz range), VHF for public safety, and 800MHz for the statewide P25 system. And occasionally UHF.

Had enough experience with it yet to give a summary?

No, I only used it for a few minutes while my daughter was asleep and I got to sneak in installing it and listening a few minutes. It was very clear though.. I was listening to 2m that was coming out of a repeater about 10 miles away from me. I will try to listen a bit over the next few days to the stated bands though I don't have much to compare it with other than when I had it in my Tahoe with a Maxrad MAX7603 800 MHz and the Uniden base antenna.

[Nozzleman71]

Good looking truck !! Glad to see you back and I have to say one thing about people questioning how and where you put things. . . It's YOUR truck and he can put stuff wherever he wants to people, you aren't going to ride with him so don't worry about it !!! I'm sure he has checked into the safety of his passengers !! Ok I'm off my soap box now!!

[bnoland]

Originally Posted by Nozzleman71

Good looking truck !! Glad to see you back and I have to say one thing about people questioning how and where you put things. . . It's YOUR truck and he can put stuff wherever he wants to people, you aren't going to ride with him so don't worry about it !!! I'm sure he has checked into the safety of his passengers !! Ok I'm off my soap box now!!

Thanks, how have you been? My heath seems to be getting back on track. I am now a stay at home dad..I love getting to spend so much time with my daughter. I finally got my ham license test passed last Monday! Missed general by 4 questions.Waiting on my call now. I took Kieths advice and went with the Kenwood TH-D72A for my first radio. It is scheduled to be delivered this coming Monday. I will be studying and probably retake for general around January.

[Nozzleman71]

I'm good. Glad to hear you are doing good! I haven't got my ham yet, my ham trainer left me to go start a ambulance company or something!!! Lol Jk WX4EMT !!! Stay safe in the 901 pal !!

[bnoland]

Originally Posted by Nozzleman71

I'm good. Glad to hear you are doing good! I haven't got my ham yet, my ham trainer left me to go start a ambulance company or something!!! Lol Jk WX4EMT !!! Stay safe in the 901 pal !!

Lol, I saw he moved. I have been using hamtestonline.com and I recommend it. It has done great for me, I upgraded my account to use it for general last week. I had about 15 hours of study when I tested and missed two on tech.. I shouldn't have missed those but I rushed myself.

[Rt169Radio]

The antenna setup looks good, nice job.

[bnoland]

Should I ground the antenna base to the chassis somewhere?

[GrumpyGuard]

Congratulations on getting your ticket. Welcome to the fold.

[bnoland]

I did a little more listening this morning to get an idea of the range. I used HAM stations so it is a bit easier to figure out distances. I am in south east Shelby County in Memphis and was able to hear the Holly Springs, MS (about 35 miles from me to the south east) repeater on 2m and West Memphis, AR on 2m (about 30 miles from me to the west) coming in very clear. The local PD come in much better, it has about cut out all of the breaking up I was getting before. It is a P25 system. I also picked up a bit from EMS to hospital and hospital to hospital communications on 155.280 and 155.340 that was very clear as well.

[Nozzleman71]

Pick up MPD and MFD ok ?

[bnoland]

Originally Posted by Nozzleman71

Pick up MPD and MFD ok ?

It picks up MPD/MFD and Shelby County great. It comes through as clear as it did for me when I was still working for MPD on the in car radios.

[bnoland]

Small update. No pictures at this point.. sorry. My Kenwood TH-D72A finally came in and it working properly. I have ordered a Scosche "Under dash kit" which I am going to use to make an over head console for my 996XT. Considering pulling the headliner and cutting a hole to drop it through to make a clean factory-ish look. If I do that I will try to find some material to match the head liner or just paint it to match the other plastic pieces. I also ordered a Kenwood TM-281A, Larsen NMO mag mount and a diamond 5/8 wave 2m antenna. I ordered this one to hold me over till I can afford the TM-D710A. Once I get the 710 I will set this up in what will be my shack or set it up in a go box.

Pictures to come!