Uniden beartrunk tracker V, IC-7100, and a 2018 freightliner cascadia

[K0BLR]

Hi there everyone!

How are we doing? Ben, K0BLR here. I just bought a uniden beartrunk tracker V for my truck to go along with the IC-7100 that I just bought, and I wanted to ask everyone here……Does anyone know away how I can route the gps antenna, and the rx antenna for the scanner? The scanner came with one of those telescoping antennas, but that may or may not hear the best. So I was going to swap the wire antenna from the 885 and use that for the scanner, and put the telescoping antenna on the 885. I should mention here the 885 will be used as a base radio. Do I need an external antenna for the scanner or will the wire work? The scanner was going to go in the cubby where the CB would normally be.

thoughts anyone

ben, k0BLR

 

[popnokick]

Focus on your IC-7100 as it is running 100W transmit RF on all bands 50mHz and below and half that on 2M / 70cM. If it is close to the other radios it will affect them. What is your placement plan for the 7100?
An external outdoor antenna on your scanner will nearly always work better on your scanner, unless you are experiencing simulcast distortion (SD) in your location. If you don’t monitor digital systems it’s totally a non-issue.

 

[slowmover]

ICOM antenna on driver door tilting PRO COMM mount.

Scanner on passenger door PRO COMM spot mirror mount.

 

[norcalscan]

Don't use the CB coax run for your Icom. You never know what the factory put in. Run your own clean coax run for an external antenna. Also if the cab is fiberglass you'll need to hack your own groundplane or run halfwave antennas...

 

[slowmover]

Don't use the CB coax run for your Icom. You never know what the factory put in. Run your own clean coax run for an external antenna. Also if the cab is fiberglass you'll need to hack your own groundplane or run halfwave antennas...

Even brand-new truck manufacturers spec coax is crap compared to a quality jumper. It’s not just the poor terminations, it’s every facet. Running new isn’t fun (but not terrible) and you’ll instantly notice the difference.

Run 3/4” or 1” tinned copper the mounts mentioned above to a mirror mount bolt AND across all four door hinges. Also RF Bond four cab corners to frame (want metal from bond to bond to frame).

885 GPS antenna on windshield has been fine in my use (579 Pete; intermittent). But scanner needs more than the suction-cup thingy. (It’ll work. It’s okay. Just).

A separate CB antenna PLUS antenna for the ICOM (and then scanner, GPS, AM/FM) is where it starts to get tricky.

PRO-COMM makes a dual antenna spot mirror mount where you could place receive-only antennas (AM-FM + Scanner). Bypassing factory coax means bypassing splitter for CB/AM-FM.

I used some closed-cell foam with a hard 2” grommet to get coax in/out cab. Just make enough slack to open/close doors. Run a few touches of GOOP or similar to keep foam attached to top of glass you inadvertently open that window

k0bg proposes the unused territory of fuel tank framing for HF & other service antennas.

— Shows several pics in gallery of those who’ve used frame-end tow hook mounts for screwdriver, etc on moose bumper.

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