VK5ZEA
Member
Hi Everybody,
Here are some early install photos in my late 2004 Toyota Hilux. It looks somewhat different to this now, this is when the truck was shiny and new! It's a bit of a "sleeper", it looks very plain from the outside (apart from the ARB winch bar). The antennas let you know that maybe this isn't an ordinary truck.
I removed the factory center console and fabricated up a custom job out of aluminum. I covered it with gray vinyl. It was designed to pick up the factory mounting bolts. Having the gear shift in the floor (column shift is almost unheard of in Australia) limited the space for the radio control heads. The original radio installed were an Icom IC-2800 VHF/UHF, Icom IC-F2010 UHF commercial radio and an IC-F7000 commerical HF rig.
DC distribution is done from two places... in the engine compartment with five 6mm twin DC cables for radio power. Relays for driving lights and headlight upgrade loom are also mounted here.
... and behind the back seat is another distribution/fuse/relay box for the HF radio and air compressor.
The IC-2800 and IC-F2010 radios were mounted under the front seats. The IC-F7000 transceiver body is mounted behind the back seat.
In Nov 2005 a roof console was installed. Housing a speaker, control switches, turbo boot gauge and EGT gauge.
It has since been changed to include red LED map lights and an dual color LED dome light. A 12 core multicore cable is run from the roof console to the main DC distribution area, one is also run to the rear DC box and the centre console. If I need to run a control signal from the roof console to the rear DC box I can just jumper it through.
Next was the addition of a HamHUD II for APRS. It was mounted on the dash next to my Garmin GPSMAP60. The radio for the HamHUD is a Motorola GM950+. An extension for the centre console was fabricated out of aluminum and mounted at the rear of the centre console. It contains the NMEA distribution system, HamHUD breakout box and a Racal DGPS receiver as well as the Motorola radio.
I briefly used an Icom IC-F121S for APRS... but I reverted back to the Motorola radio.
... and finally for this post are some pictures of my Icom IC-400PRO. This is a UHF CB radio, in Australia we have an 80 channel UHF CB allocation in the 476/477 MHz band.
The IC-2800 has since been replaced with an Icom IC-2820H D-Star rig. The IC-F2010 will be replaced with an IC-7000 and the control heads moved around to make everything fit. I'm not sure if the IC-7000 body will fit under the drivers seat... but I might be able to squeeze it behind the back seat.
My truck is now my wife's daily driver so she gets to enjoy it more than I do.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post external URL links... but if you search for my callsign in YouTube you can find a video tour of my truck.
73
Michael.
VK5ZEA
Here are some early install photos in my late 2004 Toyota Hilux. It looks somewhat different to this now, this is when the truck was shiny and new! It's a bit of a "sleeper", it looks very plain from the outside (apart from the ARB winch bar). The antennas let you know that maybe this isn't an ordinary truck.
I removed the factory center console and fabricated up a custom job out of aluminum. I covered it with gray vinyl. It was designed to pick up the factory mounting bolts. Having the gear shift in the floor (column shift is almost unheard of in Australia) limited the space for the radio control heads. The original radio installed were an Icom IC-2800 VHF/UHF, Icom IC-F2010 UHF commercial radio and an IC-F7000 commerical HF rig.
DC distribution is done from two places... in the engine compartment with five 6mm twin DC cables for radio power. Relays for driving lights and headlight upgrade loom are also mounted here.
... and behind the back seat is another distribution/fuse/relay box for the HF radio and air compressor.
The IC-2800 and IC-F2010 radios were mounted under the front seats. The IC-F7000 transceiver body is mounted behind the back seat.
In Nov 2005 a roof console was installed. Housing a speaker, control switches, turbo boot gauge and EGT gauge.
It has since been changed to include red LED map lights and an dual color LED dome light. A 12 core multicore cable is run from the roof console to the main DC distribution area, one is also run to the rear DC box and the centre console. If I need to run a control signal from the roof console to the rear DC box I can just jumper it through.
Next was the addition of a HamHUD II for APRS. It was mounted on the dash next to my Garmin GPSMAP60. The radio for the HamHUD is a Motorola GM950+. An extension for the centre console was fabricated out of aluminum and mounted at the rear of the centre console. It contains the NMEA distribution system, HamHUD breakout box and a Racal DGPS receiver as well as the Motorola radio.
I briefly used an Icom IC-F121S for APRS... but I reverted back to the Motorola radio.
... and finally for this post are some pictures of my Icom IC-400PRO. This is a UHF CB radio, in Australia we have an 80 channel UHF CB allocation in the 476/477 MHz band.
The IC-2800 has since been replaced with an Icom IC-2820H D-Star rig. The IC-F2010 will be replaced with an IC-7000 and the control heads moved around to make everything fit. I'm not sure if the IC-7000 body will fit under the drivers seat... but I might be able to squeeze it behind the back seat.
My truck is now my wife's daily driver so she gets to enjoy it more than I do.
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post external URL links... but if you search for my callsign in YouTube you can find a video tour of my truck.
73
Michael.
VK5ZEA
I use almost the same exact one in my vehicle. 
