wuzafuzz
Member
It's time to retire my 2002 Toyota Corolla. My son is coming back to the U.S. after spending some military time overseas. He's going to get this car. Before I start the remove and reinstall I thought I'd capture the old install before moving everything to my replacement car.
The gear is pretty simple:
Yaesu FTM-350AR
Dual band Frankentenna on the trunk lid
PRO-106 scanner
The transceiver is mounted in the trunk, nice and close to the antenna. Makes for a beautifully short coax run.
The trick was installing the radio control head in a tiny car so it wasn't in the way but remained useful. Fortunately the car had an old-school CD player in the lower portion of the dash. When I replaced the stereo the old CD player went away too. It left a gaping hole in the console. So I cut a small section of 2X4 lumber, painted it black, and attached it to the dual DIN sleeve that lives in that part of the console. Then I cut some aluminum stock and bent it to the desired angle. I attached the control head to that, sandwiching a little star ring between them so the control head won't rotate. Once that was done I cut a little chunk of black packing foam to hide the aluminum strap.
The only drawback is the control head prevents using the built-in cup holders. No problem. I bought a cup holder wedge at the auto parts store. It's all about priorities!
The mic hang up clip is simply a retired antenna mount that used to hold an antenna on a truck fender. It's just wedged between the different parts of the dash. Works like a charm.
The scanner only rides shotgun occasionally, so it just hitches a ride in the after market cup holder. It's close enough to the dash that my audio cable for stereo aux-in reaches it perfectly. Routing the scanner audio into the car stereo sounds good. If I want music AND scanner, I just pull the plug.
Once in a while I take a road trip and add a mag mount for the scanner or a Byonics MT-AIO APRS gadget. Alternately I run a SPOT tracker and use the external antenna for the scanner instead of APRS.
Within a week or two I'll move all the toys to a 2010 Ford Fusion I just purchased. First I have to analyze the install options and make a plan. Once I have a plan it'll be time to remove the fun stuff from the trusty Corolla.
The gear is pretty simple:
Yaesu FTM-350AR
Dual band Frankentenna on the trunk lid
PRO-106 scanner
The transceiver is mounted in the trunk, nice and close to the antenna. Makes for a beautifully short coax run.
The trick was installing the radio control head in a tiny car so it wasn't in the way but remained useful. Fortunately the car had an old-school CD player in the lower portion of the dash. When I replaced the stereo the old CD player went away too. It left a gaping hole in the console. So I cut a small section of 2X4 lumber, painted it black, and attached it to the dual DIN sleeve that lives in that part of the console. Then I cut some aluminum stock and bent it to the desired angle. I attached the control head to that, sandwiching a little star ring between them so the control head won't rotate. Once that was done I cut a little chunk of black packing foam to hide the aluminum strap.
The only drawback is the control head prevents using the built-in cup holders. No problem. I bought a cup holder wedge at the auto parts store. It's all about priorities!
The mic hang up clip is simply a retired antenna mount that used to hold an antenna on a truck fender. It's just wedged between the different parts of the dash. Works like a charm.
The scanner only rides shotgun occasionally, so it just hitches a ride in the after market cup holder. It's close enough to the dash that my audio cable for stereo aux-in reaches it perfectly. Routing the scanner audio into the car stereo sounds good. If I want music AND scanner, I just pull the plug.
Once in a while I take a road trip and add a mag mount for the scanner or a Byonics MT-AIO APRS gadget. Alternately I run a SPOT tracker and use the external antenna for the scanner instead of APRS.
Within a week or two I'll move all the toys to a 2010 Ford Fusion I just purchased. First I have to analyze the install options and make a plan. Once I have a plan it'll be time to remove the fun stuff from the trusty Corolla.
