my mobile "command post"

[bondo_06092]

I saw this thread and decided to share with you all my setup. Now before you start to bicker about all the wacker crap YES i am a firefighter and YES i do have a use for it all.... moving on haha... all of my radios are installed in my 2000 ford explorer and everything is run directly off the battery. what i did was run a 4 gauge power cable from the battery to a car audio fuse box hidden in the console. from there i did another 4 gauge to the back seat so that i could easily power everything and not have a crapload of wires running everywhere. All the radios are wired so they can be turned on independantly from everything else and i have gotten looks from our local cops about it haha but they are cool with it. any feedback or questions are great and i hope you guys like it
steve KI4UMQ

 

[iMONITOR]

Looks good! No problems with the blue lights?

 

[landonjensen]

what kind of lights do you have?

 

[bondo_06092]

blues

nope legal for use by vol firefighters in ct with a valid permit. im currently in florida for school soo i cant play haha but they have clear lenses so im good to go. as for the light show i have a duel talon above the rearview, 2 series 500 liner leds in the grill and everything is synced, amber hideaways in the corner and rear turn lights and modified heads in the rear. all whelen all the leds are linear and ill never go back haha. when i can im going to change the rear strobes to synced single talons but due to the cost they are on hold for now.

 

[vkkev]

Hi,

What is the radio?? to the right of the CB ??

Regards

Kev

 

[bondo_06092]

radio

which one? the topmost one is my sat radio and the one under that is my FT-8800 which i modified for use with our fd so it does double duty as both a UHF/VHF ham and public safety band radio

 

[SCPD]

awesome

great set up with the talons and all the radios gotta love whelen

 

[SCPD]

switch box

did you build that box or did you buy it

 

[OpSec]

...and the one under that is my FT-8800 which i moded for use with our fd so that does double duty

I really want to disertate about type-acceptance but it would probably fall on deaf ears...so I won't.

 

[vkkev]

Ahh ok Sat Radio, we dont have that here in Australia, what brand is it and i gather that it is a Pay $ service.

Regards

Kev

 

[bondo_06092]

sat radio

its a sirius and the box is a havis shields

 

[RESCUE4NFD]

Command Post

Looks GREAT!! Any chance of more photos of your ANTENNAS??

 

[kjfswkr]

Looks good.

kevin

 

[durango5550]

which one? the topmost one is my sat radio and the one under that is my FT-8800 which i modified for use with our fd so it does double duty as both a UHF/VHF ham and public safety band radio

One word ..... ILLEGAL


ok im done , nice setup though

 

[LeeBarnes]

One word ..... ILLEGAL

i'll believe if you say it is and i don't want to stir up trouble, but i would have thought it not illegal.

because, isn't a licensed ham able to modify his own equipment? and he is a firefighter, as he says, and so would be legal to use whatever frequencies assigned to him.

guess i misunderstood something somewhere.

 

[OpSec]

i'll believe if you say it is and i don't want to stir up trouble, but i would have thought it not illegal.

because, isn't a licensed ham able to modify his own equipment? and he is a firefighter, as he says, and so would be legal to use whatever frequencies assigned to him.

guess i misunderstood something somewhere.

It is illegal, and here's why:

Using a ham transciever on public safety channels is a violation of FCC type acceptance for land mobile radios (That is what my post further above in this thread was regarding).

Since there are many other threads on here about type-acceptance I'll keep it short...

Aamateur radio service radios do not require type accepted by the FCC, presumably since it is a recreational radio service. However, any radio used in the land mobile radio service (public safety, business etc) does require FCC type acceptance. To use a non-type accepted radio in LMR service is a violation, and the FCC has placed sanctions against entities for doing exactly what the OP is doing...using a ham transciever for public safety communications.

 

[kb9hgi]

Looks great! Hope the sub box in the back is not for the scanner...

 

[LeeBarnes]

Using a ham transciever on public safety channels is a violation of FCC type acceptance for land mobile radios

okay, thank you for the clarification. i started to think about it a bit, and that's what i came up with.

73

 

[SCPD]

The reverse situation is legal however. If you have a Type accepted public service radio and modify it to cover the ham bands that is OK. I have a Bendix-King handheld that originally covered 150-174, but was modified to include 144-149 also.

Modifying ham radios to cover VHF-High is common among the search and rescue and volunteer firefighting crowd. It makes a lot of sense because the agencies they so generously give their time to often can't afford to buy radios for their members. Even though it makes sense from that perspective, it is as mentioned, not legal.

 

[policeMonitor]

whackerriffic!!!


really nice setup tho