N9JIG Van

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N9JIG

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I redid my vehicle install recently. I bought an IC7000 and I was unhappy with the access to some of the scanners, looking at the displays required diverting my gaze too much from the road. I ordered a couple PortaClips (Great stuff BTW!) and went to work.


I had had the radios tucked into a large toolbox which for scanners was fine but with the addition of the IC7000 and it’s heat situation that wouldn’t work. I also decided to eliminate the Motorola CDM1250’s as they were basically unused. Only the UHF was ever used for transmitting on channels outside the ham bands and I can do that on a portable anyway.


I did revert back to 4 scanners from the 3 I had been using. 2 are BCD996XT’s and the other two are BCT15X’s. I have an Alinco DR-635 and an Icom IC7000 connected to an AT180 tuner.


For antennas I have a Comet scanner antenna at the front of the vehicle connected to a Stridsberg multicouplers connected to each scanner. The Alinco and the V/U side of the IC7000’s have Comet 2M/440 dual banders. I have a lip mount for the HF/10M/6M side of the IC7000. Sometimes I use a Diamond 8900 multi-band antenna, I also have a couple fiberglass monoband whips (20M, 10M) that I can swap to that mount depending on mood and band status.


The 6 radios and the tuner are mounted to a piece of ¾ inch plywood cut to fit in the storage well in the rear of my van. I cut it to allow the right side seat fold in and stow for the occasional duty of the suburban homeowner. I have a friend that will be making a wood cover for the radio side of the well that will be carpeted with the same style as in the van, making the shelf mounted radios all but invisible. There is a fuse panel for the radios and a barrier strip to allow quick removal if needed. I put the board together in the garage before placing it into the van.


The front of the van has 6 control heads. On the left side of the dashboard is a PortaClip with the BC96 head for a BCT15X. On the right side is another PortaClip for the IC7000.


2 RH96’s, one for a BCD996XT and one for the other BCT15X are mounted on a convenient slide-out tray below the Nav system ad above the built-in drink cooler. The other RH96 (BCD996XT) and the DR-635 heads are mounted by Velcro to the center console lid.


Several remote speakers are located under the front passenger seat although I am thinking of relocating the one for the left side BCT15X to nearer to that radio to allow for easier detection of what radio is talking. It is kind of weird to have the audio for that radio coming from behind and the right when the display is ahead to the left.


From the rear storage area the Icom and Alinco control cables as well as the RH96 cables and 6 speaker cables run towards the front via 1-inch wire looms. The cables break out into smaller looms to the various control heads. The mics hang on either side of the slide-out tray. I used extensions for the RH96’s and speakers, and the IC7000 required a second remote cable (borrowed from my other IC7000) used as an extension to reach. The DR635 cable was plenty long enough.

Photo 1: The well before installation
Well.JPG



Photo 2: The board with just the brackets

BoardRaw.JPG


Photo 3: Loaded board showing the front of the scanners and rear of the IC7000/AT180 and Alinco

BoardLoaded2.JPG


Photo 4: Loaded board showing the other side

BoardLoaded1.JPG


Photo 5: showing the board installed in the well

Board.JPG



Photo 6: Slide out tray and center console

Center.JPG


Photo 7: Overview of all control heads.

Overview.JPG


Photo 8: BCT15X and IC7000 heads

Top.JPG

 

gewecke

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Nice job! I had thought about doing something similar such as mounting everything portable in a black heavy duty milk crate with the control heads up front.

73,
n9zas
 

N9JIG

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AK9R

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Rich, I know you live in a climate with winter weather. I'd be cautious of people getting into your vehicle with snow- and salt-laden boots. That stuff will find its way into that storage well and wreck havoc with electronic devices.
 

N9JIG

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Rich, I know you live in a climate with winter weather. I'd be cautious of people getting into your vehicle with snow- and salt-laden boots. That stuff will find its way into that storage well and wreck havoc with electronic devices.

The storage well is in the far rear of the vehicle, behind the third row seats. While some vans have a forward well where this would be an issue it really isn't for this van.
 

N9JIG

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A few notes that might help others thinking of similar installations:

I put on a couple door pulls to make it easier to put the board in and out of the vehicle. These also make great (and cheap!) wire holders under wood desktops...

I have a buss bar for grounding connected to a good vehicle ground under the plastic trim near the board. This helped eliminate a lot of various noise issues on HF.

The antenna trunk lip mount came with Allen-Head screws. Honda lift gates on the Odyssey (and my Pilot before this) have a dual metal lip that blocks the screw heads' access with an Allen wrench. I replaced the screws with hex head cap screws so I could tighten them with an ignition wrench.

I learned from prior installs that it is near impossible to get the Uniden programming/remote head cables properly inserted blind so I made sure to mount the scanners so I could easily access the fronts and see the tiny serial ports at the front. Makes life a lot easier when I need to reprogram...

The GPS is connected to all four scanners thru a custom made harness. I took 4 Uniden serial cables and cut off the ends. I then figured out the proper pins and connected the serial data from the GPS receiver to the proper wires. In a prior install I also had this connected to a 2M rig for APRS but that radio has been re purposed.

The GPS has a small mag-mount matchbook antenna that works very well. The GPS is connected to the car battery and stays on all the time so I don't have to go and turn it on every time I get in the car. The only time I have an issue with this is when the vehicle sits for a few days in the extreme cold and the battery drops in voltage enough when starting to make it lose power. About once a month or so I have to restart the GPS, it sort of goes brain dead occasionally, and it is getting old (almost 15 years now...) so I expect to have to replace it eventually.

Before contemplating an install such as this I drive the vehicle a week or so with the control heads and tried putting them in various places to check sight lines and access before installing. This allowed me to decide the optimal locations before committing to a location. I did take a gamble and ordered the ProClips right away. I decided that $20 each was a good investment even if I didn't use them.

Speaking of ProClips (Sorry, I misidentified them earlier...) these are a great way to install radio heads in modern vehicles! They can be found at Device Holders and Dashboard Vehicle Mounts - ProClip Car Mounts for Mobile Phones, Tablet, and Handheld Devices.

The antennas were professionally installed. I had 5 NMO mounts installed, all with Mini-UHF connectors. This allows me to then use a single adapter to fit any radio in my inventory. Right now two of the NMO's are capped off for possible future use...

I use electrician's wire numbers on the cables and heads. Each radio is assigned a number. I had previously numbered the speakers 1 thru 6 so I numbered the radios 7 thru 12. Each control head, connecting cable and extension has a number on it (both ends for each cable) so I can figure out which one goes where... While this isn't a big issue for the Alinco and Icom, with 4 scanners having the same cables it can be a problem.
 

W9WSS

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I've rode along in Rich's vehicle. It's awesome to hear all the services that he monitors. How does he do it? I have nine radios in my car, and I 'selective listen" to traffic on each radio as I hear necessary, and I surmise, so does Rich. Sometimes I turn down the volume control(s) if I sense something is very interesting on a single service, and other times have all of them going. As with Rich, we are both ham radio radio operators, and along with monitoring public safety, railroads, aircraft, and other services, we have interests in all forms of communications.
 

scottyhetzel

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I've rode along in Rich's vehicle. It's awesome to hear all the services that he monitors. How does he do it? I have nine radios in my car, and I 'selective listen" to traffic on each radio as I hear necessary, and I surmise, so does Rich. Sometimes I turn down the volume control(s) if I sense something is very interesting on a single service, and other times have all of them going. As with Rich, we are both ham radio radio operators, and along with monitoring public safety, railroads, aircraft, and other services, we have interests in all forms of communications.


I can have one scanner in the car going off and the woman squeals ! How does a woman deal with 9 or 4 ? Are you single ? Or is the units all off when she rides in the vehicle ??

I prefer the scanner, ham radio(tuned to Fire) and the radio running along with my valentine1 (radar detector) and K40 lazer detector all going . and my woman has a hard time with it. The more the marry-her. : )
 

W9WSS

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I can have one scanner in the car going off and the woman squeals ! How does a woman deal with 9 or 4 ? Are you single ? Or is the units all off when she rides in the vehicle ??

I prefer the scanner, ham radio(tuned to Fire) and the radio running along with my valentine1 (radar detector) and K40 lazer detector all going . and my woman has a hard time with it. The more the marry-her. : )

When she DOES ride in the car with me, she is usually playing with her iPhone 5. The radios don't bother her. Matter of fact I installed a Radio Shack Pro-197 in her car; she loves listening to police & fire calls. The radio is a new install; the previous radio BC780 didn't do digital, so I had to get one digital P25 capable. She knows how much I love ham radio and scanning, and she's very tolerant of "the noise." Oh, and we just celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary on Dec 5th.
 

mlmummert

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I've rode along in Rich's vehicle. It's awesome to hear all the services that he monitors. How does he do it? I have nine radios in my car, and I 'selective listen" to traffic on each radio as I hear necessary, and I surmise, so does Rich. Sometimes I turn down the volume control(s) if I sense something is very interesting on a single service, and other times have all of them going. As with Rich, we are both ham radio radio operators, and along with monitoring public safety, railroads, aircraft, and other services, we have interests in all forms of communications.

How do you power nine radios in a car? Yeah I understand they're not all transmitting at once but still?
 

W9WSS

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How do you power nine radios in a car? Yeah I understand they're not all transmitting at once but still?

Everything is wired to specific tie-in points. The lower amperage draw radios such as the BCD996T go to a relay, which activates 13.8VDC from a power lead directly to the battery that is connected to ignition sense. The higher-power radios each have a relay that activates 13.8VDC to another lead directly to the battery. Each radio is fused independently, and the main has a 100 amp circuit breaker that I can disengage when the vehicle goes in for service if necessary that kills all the radios, lights, and ancillary accessories. There is also a ground-point, inside the passenger section of the car, and also in the trunk.

FFPM571, do you wish to further comment how you wired "Stegosaurus?"
 
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N9JIG

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How do you power nine radios in a car? Yeah I understand they're not all transmitting at once but still?

I know you are referring to Will's mobile radio platform, but as far as mine goes:

The Honda Odyssey has an auxiliary fuse panel conveniently located inches away from the rear cargo deck that covers things line the rear defogger, wiper, tailgate etc. There are a couple spare slots there and I used a 30A fuse, some real heavy wire and a barrier strip to connect the radios. The lead from the barrier strip to the fuse panel is probably less than 4 feet.

The IC7000 draws up to 22 amps at full power, the DR-635 draws half that. The scanners probably draw an amp or so each at full volume unsquelched.

As long as I don't transit on both the Alinco and Icom at the same time I should be OK!
 

scottyhetzel

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When she DOES ride in the car with me, she is usually playing with her iPhone 5. The radios don't bother her. Matter of fact I installed a Radio Shack Pro-197 in her car; she loves listening to police & fire calls. The radio is a new install; the previous radio BC780 didn't do digital, so I had to get one digital P25 capable. She knows how much I love ham radio and scanning, and she's very tolerant of "the noise." Oh, and we just celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary on Dec 5th.

Very cool....thanks for sharing... Congrats !
 
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