At the time I only have a BCD-396T to use in my vehicle. Being that it is a handheld and i often use it inside and away from my car and don't always have it in the car while driving I wanted a setup where i wouldn't have stuff in the way when not in use. Initially when i put the antenna on, i just had the cable running through the center pass through in the backseat and up to the front and no solid mount for the scanner. I didn't like having the loose cable in the backseat and it didn't look good. So i came up with this. I ran the antenna wire from where it enters the trunk lid over to the wheel well and behind the carpet there. From there it went through an opening between the trunk and the left side of the backseat. I then ran the cable under the baseboards on the door and up to behind the dash. Then i drilled a hole in the dash for a double sided female UHF connector and used washers to make sure it stayed in place. Then i connected the antenna wire to one side of tht. Then other other side of the connector when i am using the scanner i have a 3 foot cable i used to connect to the scanner. And when i am not using the scanner there are no loose cables laying around. For mounting the scanner i just used a standard radio shack mic clip. I like the location of the scanner, it is easy to see and operate. The antenna on the back is made by Antennex as is the trunk lip mount. I have been very pleased with the results of the antenna and my install. And before anyone says anything, i have not had any noticeable loss in the signal from the use of the coupler in the dash or the plug converters on the scanner.
1997 Grand Prix Simple Setup
- Thread starter wogggieee
- Start date
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AZScanner
Member
That's pretty darned cool! Nice job!
-AZ
-AZ
scanjunkie
Member
I Love the antenna hook up...NICE!!!
R
Rayjk110
Guest
That's the same place I have the mic-hangup clip for one of my maxtracs in my grand prix.
nice.
nice.
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2002
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- 560
That coax thing is clever.
RESCUE4NFD
Member
1997 GP Setup
Very GOOD install................
Very GOOD install................
Very nice. Looks clean and very stealth.
JnglMassiv
Member
It the display discernable at that angle?
I'll offer the counterpoint on this I guess...
IMHO, mounting that SO239 in a place like that is asking for a serious left leg injury in the event of a crash. That area of the dash is left free of obstructions for a reason by the car makers...it is where your knees and shins (sp?) contact the dash during a crash.
It's your ride, and you can do as you wish...but you picked a poor location for that connector. It would have been wiser to run the feedline into the center console and go from there.
IMHO, mounting that SO239 in a place like that is asking for a serious left leg injury in the event of a crash. That area of the dash is left free of obstructions for a reason by the car makers...it is where your knees and shins (sp?) contact the dash during a crash.
It's your ride, and you can do as you wish...but you picked a poor location for that connector. It would have been wiser to run the feedline into the center console and go from there.
stateboy said:
You may not hear the loss, or what you listen to is close and/or strong enough not to matter, but there is still loss. Every connector and every inch of coax introduces loss into any RF reception system in which they are installed.
I agree with the asssessment of bad positioning. Cable installed or not, in a crash that's going to eat some flesh.
I do like the stealth thing that you got going, though. However, to eliminate the loss of the all the connectors and keep the stealth thing, I think I'd run the coax under the carpet up to my console and terminate directly into a BNC male. That also leaves no permanent holes in my interior (not that I generally care... heh).
Thanks for posting the pictures...
nexus
Member
I don't mean to be a nitpick but thats how its going to come off...
Why did you install a pl-259/so-239 style connector on that side of the column? Why not around the center console so you don't have coax crossing over? And why that type of connector? Wouldn't something with a smaller footprint like an SMA or BNC have been better? It sticks out like a sore thumb through your plastic. Anyhow just curious.
Why did you install a pl-259/so-239 style connector on that side of the column? Why not around the center console so you don't have coax crossing over? And why that type of connector? Wouldn't something with a smaller footprint like an SMA or BNC have been better? It sticks out like a sore thumb through your plastic. Anyhow just curious.
Behind that plastic piece is a metal piece. At that point there was already a perfectly sized hole in that metal piece. I put it there to ease the installation and not having to drill into that metal piece. As far so going into the center console and going under the carpet and such, this is about what my knowledge of installing stuff like this would allow. This is the first thing I've installed, so next time i can learn from previous mistakes.
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