NOOB 06 Trailblazer mobile install

[KC9ZNV]

I have a brief hault for a few minutes so I'll start.



I decided to use Anderson Power poles for this install.

I needed a crimper so I purchased this one as the kit from powerwerx.

It works well but changing the dies isn't a treat as the bottom jaw is a little sprung and restricts the die.

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[KC9ZNV]

I was in a lot of pain Thursday after work. I still wanted to get something done. So while I waited for for my pain relievers to kick in I started making harnesses.

I knew I needed to seperate the power feed line in at the radio accessory outlet. The comercial made breakout was around $17 so.... Yeah not happening. I took 4 strands of 14 gage wire, two 45 amp conductors, and four 30 amp conductors and built this.



I did check the resistance of the harness and was actually impressed. I didn't solder them and the resistance on my Fluke read out at .1 ohms or less. On all connectors.

The ends are just connected together for the picture. I have no intentions of wasting fuses.

Some folks brought up to me that these could easily pull apart.



They make locks for these which are spendy and can only be used with a single connection like this without finess and otheer hardware.
I found a zip tie that fit perfectly into those holes and holds them together well. I did super glue a couple of housings together but I have found that for this purpose its not needed.

As a matter of fact I actually connected the two outputs on top of each other.



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[KC9ZNV]

Before breakfest yesterday I drained the rc timers and capciters in the truck by disconnecting the battery.

I also pulled the front seat,


I cut some aluminum and shaped out a bracket.

Here is the mock up of the bracket and radios.



I'll get into the buiding a little bit more on later. I bet you can already see where I'm running into trouble.


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[KC9ZNV]

Okay, more work done coupled with severe weather. Thr story continues.

I built the bracket out of .25" aluminum sheets. I chose it because it was the only aluminum that was at the hardware store, I was terrified of rf getting into the airbag inertia sensor directly below the powerguard, and I knew I had to bend it by hand.

I did buy a cheap power cutter at Menard's. The same one is offered by harbor freight. It made short work of the cuts as a utility knife didn't work that well.

Anyway, I used two pieces for the strap that when between the two seat studs. I hoped it would make it more rigid but not really. It did help in some other areas during assembly.

I hate rattles and sqeeks. So I got an idea in my head. I purchased 3M double sided auto tape. The same stuff that holds on your car emblems.

I took that and stuck the pieces together. This aided in assembly the small piece on the front of the bracket did rip off when the drill did it. I also added tape until the rattling stopped.





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[KC9ZNV]

To hold the bracket together I used 3/16" rivets that were wide. I ran into a few snags this way:



Every project has draw backs, I personally hste it when this happens. Not so much for the extra work but for the problem if I have to drill out the rivet.

I used these Arrow rivets to hold in the cigarette lighter housing as well. I bolted in the radio using 1/4x20x3/4 bolts, fender washers, and split washers. The same was used with the power guard except they were size 8 bolts.

Here is a photo of the test fit of the bracket and components.



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[KC9ZNV]

I had to use the stud that hold down the carpet at the front. I was really worried that I didn't have enough hard points.

After the seat was in everything tightened up a bit.

Here is a poor video of the bracket. I dont have the embed code handy on my phone. Sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cIRDK9ga08&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I taped a buch of these pieces of firm foam used to protect magnets to the bottom of the bracket




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[KC9ZNV]

Besides running the wires through the boot on the firewall as previosly mentioned.

This took the most time.

I wanted a toggle switch for the light bar run off of the new cigarette lighter outlet.

I couldn't seperate the center column enough to mount it near the gear shift. (My 7mm socket is taking a vacation from the tool box. )

This works out well in this spot though it was a bugger to get it in there. Its still disapointing because I always wanted a switch like that labeled missles or spy mode.



When the cover is closed the toggle is lock off. Handy in this location.

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[KC9ZNV]

I tested the radio. I had to use my 1/2 wave on a mag mount because my pctel nmo fender bracket didn't fit. I had to tape off the coax and secure it under the hood for now. Its quite the mess in the truck.

I built the cat5 mic extension cable. I do get a little clock noise but its hard to hear. The folks giving me a reply on the repeater were on hts or had a lot of interference from being mobile. They couldn't hear the light ticking.

I tested my curly phone cord head extension cable and it worked, woohoo!

I put the seat in and everything fit and tightened down well.



This unholy mess needs to be cleaned up a mess. It will be once the speakers and the coax is used.

I rad into about 1/2" of miscalculation in reguards to the c.l. and the pl-239 connector. The ones for the cable I ran will be shorter.


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[KC9ZNV]

This morning when I woke up I started in on the project again.

I adapted the pro.fit loboy to fit into the head via a knife belt sander and secure it to the bracket via the 3m tape. It took some time but I got the bracket to stick to the dash.

It was a little higher than I wanted it. By about 1/4 inch.


The curly cord is is secured by zip ties shoved into the seams. I forget if I read that in a forum or came up with it my self. Either way it held up for on road driving except wat at the bottom. It was stretched a little on the stick square.




I did my best to hold the mic cable in place. Its not as pretty but I may have to take the seat back out for that coax later. If the seat knocks this off when moving back and forth I have zipties that are held by screws.



I didnt get the speakers mounted today. I bought the bolts but I wanted to have some frequencies programed to listen to for the best spot to mount them. I had to go to town and buy a serial to usb cable from radio shack for my kenwood pc cable. Grrrr.

Thats all I have today.




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[KC9ZNV]

Saturday I got back out and started working again.

I stopped down at the local radio shop and they bent my L bracket so it would fit. Great because after looking at part numbers for fenders I determined the pro.fit probably wouldnt fit from the Colorado.

I tested it up and down the hood checking SWR and found it made zero difference so I put it where it didn't obstruct my view.

I used #10 self tapping screws and only had the first one go in crooked. I just used the screw to fill the hole luckilly it was the first one and I just moved it over.

I didn't use any lock washers so I'm watching closely. I also didn't use any sealant. I may add a little rtv down the road.

I've studied many forums and some folks think grounding straps are necessary. The antenna doesn't require grounding and all of the connections are metal to metal so I skipped it at this time.

I used a crimp on style uhf connector on the feed line.

Any way the pictures of the antenna:





I had some worries about this. The bracket was still short so the little plastic cover over the solder point might scab the paint. Time will will tell.

I got my speakers mounted. One for each side of the Kenwood TM-V71A. These surplus emergency speakers do pretty good. The only thing I ran into trouble with is that different folks have louder audio output so the quiet guys make me turn up the volume and the louder folks make the sound a bit distorted. I dont think I can fix this for the price I paid for these.



After much review this is the place I chose for the mic. I had tried double sided tape but the factory supplied mic hanger just didn't have the surface to hold it. Sorry about the fuzzyness.



Finally I need to update my magnets for this Chinese made LED light bar but it runs off the circuit just fine. The video isn't great but its all I had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xme4Yxs69Wc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

All I have to do is pull the seat, flip the heat sync up on the radio, police the wires, and reattach the mic coupler. I won't post pictures about that.

Thanks for all of your help, a thanks to Pointon Communications, and thanks to everyone in the YTARC yahoo email group (Yellow Thunder Amateur Radio Club.)

I hope my pictures and this writeup can help. I spent hours searching and there were only two or three Trailblazer installs found on the web.

That antenna blows my mind on recieve. Its about 4" lower than the MFJ-1422 on a Mag mount on the roof. Scares me driving in wooded areas. I did have my arm hanging out the window while testing at 50 watts. Don't do that.... OUCH!

73.


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[n9ol]

Interesting stuff. I have a 2002 Envoy (pretty much same as Trailblazer) and I simply mounted my HF radio and my FT-8800 Yaesu under the back seat. The FT-8800 sits nicely in the pocket formed by the hinge on the front of the seat. I also removed the OnStar radio altogether and mounted my HF radio (Kenwood TS-480sat) on that platform. Fit perfectly. Heads for the radios mounted on the dash.

As for power, the Envoy had the vehicle power distribution box under the back seat, with a large guage power feed going to the battery. I merely connected to that power feed where it connected to the power dist block.

Seems to work fine.

N9oL

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Interesting stuff. I have a 2002 Envoy (pretty much same as Trailblazer) and I simply mounted my HF radio and my FT-8800 Yaesu under the back seat. The FT-8800 sits nicely in the pocket formed by the hinge on the front of the seat. I also removed the OnStar radio altogether and mounted my HF radio (Kenwood TS-480sat) on that platform. Fit perfectly. Heads for the radios mounted on the dash.

As for power, the Envoy had the vehicle power distribution box under the back seat, with a large guage power feed going to the battery. I merely connected to that power feed where it connected to the power dist block.

Seems to work fine.

N9oL

I'm getting ready to add a few more radios. Have been debating a few remote mounts in my 04 but have quickly running out of room. Gonna have to get the console here eventually I think.

 

[tx2654]

I have a 2004 Trailblazer. The power for the radio is connected to the box under the rear seat behind the driver. (Pull the plastic cover off. You will not miss the big red wire.) The wiring is grounded to the chassis near there as well. I use power pole connectors for my gear. The radio itself sits underneath the rear passenger seat. I do not use the Onstar service/equipment, so I pulled it out. I have room to put the radio under there. On extended trips I put a Kenwood 480SAT and Kenwood D710 under the rear passenger seat and connect them with the power pole connectors. I set all of the radios to use APO (Auto Power Off) There might be a slight trickle drain, but nothing that I noticed. I use a Yaesu 7800 in that vehicle daily and a Diamond NR770HB antenna. Please note that antenna is meant for the Diamond K9000LRM motorized mount I have on the rack. While mine sits in the middle, could you mount it on the side? Another photo shows a Comet rack mount that is closer to the edge. What you cannot see is that it has a thumb screw to easily raise/lower an antenna. Both of those antenna mounts are grounded with a 5/8" ring connector heat shrinked wrapped to a wire and then I connected the other end of those wires to screws inside the rack rail.

While the heads of those Kenwood radios get mounted below the dash when in use, the Yaesu 7800 is simply fixed to the drivers visor using a couple pieces of velcro. I ran the wires down the drivers side column. One wire goes back under the rear passenger seat to the radio, while the other runs to the microphone you see in the photo. That Yaesu 7800 head does not weigh the visor down, as it is rather light. If I move the visor down, that head stays attached to it.

This first mount below is connected at the back right lift gate. I haven't added a ground yet and the SWR did not like it at 1.5:1 VHF and 1.9:1 UHF. It's functional and it will hit repeaters around here all day long with 5 watts and that NR770HB antenna, but it does not work as well as either of the rack mounts that are grounded and offer a better ground plane with their locations. I use simplex often, so a higher antenna is needed. My SWR on either of those rack mounts barely nudged the meter using 50 watts on 2 meters it was 1:1. It may have moved it slightly more on UHF, but nothing worse than 1.1:1. I have even used an HT with 5 watts and pushed 70 watts out of an amplifier with either of those rack mounts with 1.1:1.

* The motorized Diamond mount is the one I use daily for VHF/UHF with the NR770HB antenna on it as I park inside a garage. That switch near the microphone is the Up/Down button for that mount.

Hopefully this provides you with some ideas/possibilities that will work for your specific needs.

Did I miss the part where you said the antenna wire comes in?

 

[vagrant]

Did I miss the part where you said the antenna wire comes in?

No you did not miss it. I run it along the doorjambs. The coax is quite thin and I ran it so that it does not bind with some slack. One door opens and closes twice a day almost daily. While it shows no signs of failing, I would just replace it when the time comes. I believe it has been a year or so. The back gate lift is opened perhaps once a week on that other coax run. The coax is the thin RG316 which is quite flexible because of the stranded center conductor. By avoiding hard bends and using just a short run for the vehicle, the 50 Ohm coax does the job very well with little attenuation.

 

[tx2654]

No you did not miss it. I run it along the doorjambs. The coax is quite thin and I ran it so that it does not bind with some slack. One door opens and closes twice a day almost daily. While it shows no signs of failing, I would just replace it when the time comes. I believe it has been a year or so. The back gate lift is opened perhaps once a week on that other coax run. The coax is the thin RG316 which is quite flexible because of the stranded center conductor. By avoiding hard bends and using just a short run for the vehicle, the 50 Ohm coax does the job very well with little attenuation.

So did you just put it over the door weather seal and close the door on it ?