2006 Toyota Tacoma with 3 NMO Antennas

[BonziBuddy]

This is my Toyota Tacoma. I bought it new in 2006 when I was 16. Until today it has only 31,000 miles.

The radio is a Yeasu FT7800, remotely mounted on my dash. It's screwed directly into my FD blue light.

It's in the perfect spot. I can use it while driving, and keep my eyes on the road and hand on the shifter.

There are 3 antennas drilled into the roof. The one closest to the windshield is a 800Mhz unity gain quarter wave antenna... which goes to a Wilson Cellular Amplifier, the middle one is a 5/8 wave 3dB Laird UHF antenna (BB4503), and the tallest one is a 5/8 wave 3dB Laird VHF antenna (BB1443). I used fancy dual shielded coax for the runs, and cut them as short as possible... about 5 feet each.

I also have a 4 foot Firestik that I put up occasionally when I want to use CB. I keep it down most of the time because I hardly use CB, and the SWR is always high because the bed is composite and offers no ground plane.

The UHF and VHF antennas connect to the radio through a duplexer (Comet CF-4160). The coupler is directly connected with no coax to the radio with a N-Male to UHF-Male connector. The duplexer does not effect the SWR at all.

All the antennas are flat black. When I finish college I will be changing out the rims to black Mickey Thompsons. Love the Red/Black theme. The truck also has a 3 inch lift, 33 inch tires, aFe intake and Aero Turbine muffler.

 

[emd001]

Thats a good looking truck and clean looking install. I have the same cb antenna on my toolbox in the bed. I have a ground going from the cb mount to my cab frame and it works pretty well. CBs are fun in traffic.

 

[jhooten]

Get a dual band V/U antenna for the middle. Put an NMO-27 on the back for the CB. You could do away with the duplexer and the losses that go with it. That is what I have on mine, 900 on the pass side, V/U middle, MNO-27 drivers side of the cab, HF on the drivers side rear of the service bed.

 

[exkalibur]

Yup, what he said.

I'd pick up an NMO270 (Larsen) for the dual band radio.

Put that on there as well as an NMO-27 and you'll be golden.

 

[KM4WLV]

I've been doing installs for about 12 years now, and have moved on to systems engineering & I'm agreeing with the concensus here.......... It's always best to avoid using a duplexer whenever possible, especially in a mobile application. You always want to try to go straight through from the antenna to the radio. I think the biggest reason you aren't experiencing more loss than what you are is using the double shielded coax.

Duplexers serve a great purpose when needed. When absoluetly needed. There are various dual band antennas out there & are very resonably priced. The NMO27 CB antenna by Larsen is a solid performer, and if you can get it moved to the roof I can assure you that you'll notice a huge improvement from your CB. And if I'm not mistaken you can get the NMO27 in black, and if not, there are others that have a comparable model in black (PCTel / Maxrad, Antennex, etc), so as to keep your red & black theme going.

If it's not hard to get to can we see a shot of where you've got the radio itself & the cell amp are hiding at ?

All in all......... A+

BTW, the way you have the head mounted to the rear of the Whelen light is pretty neat & I'm sure makes it easier to see. Do you have any problems as far as it getting to hot if its in direct sunlight for extended periods?

 

[mrweather]

Yes, the NMO27 coil is black and mates with the standard black W490 whip.

Very nice setup in any event!

 

[RadioDaze]

Bonzi, did you ever get your ham license?