Ham Radio Install

[kc5f]

Here are pics of how I mounted my ham radio control head. Similar to what folks have done with Scangage, GPS, etc.

Here's the view from the back - the antenna is a 5/8λ dual-band, inside the hatch. Just fits to the ceiling, and runs fine with 5-25 watts. I can always put the magmount on the top, but this works fine almost all the time.



Here's the view from the driver position. Easy to spot, but not at all in the way.



A little closer up.



The head's held in place with small strips of velcro. Never had it move.



The control wiring just runs down the side of the dash. Hardly noticeable, and I can remove it easily to move the whole thing to my wife's car. (The radio itself is under the driver's seat.)



I get power from the "heated mirrors" relay position. Both sides of the wiring are fused about 2" from the end.



The speaker is on my left side. Even with the door shut it works fine.



And unrelated to the ham setup, here are my and my daughter's Versa's next to each other. (Actually, she's a ham, too.)



And speaking of her, here she is, loading some future artwork into her Versa.

[vpnavy]

Outstanding!

BTW - 73's KE3W

[Martin Roy]

Need info for personnal knowledge: Isn't Ham radio like a CB ?

[DrivingHabit]

Wow your versa has some low miles!

[jfanaselle]

It's hard to see the antenna inside the hatch... is it just standing in there? Did you put a metal plate on the floor to stick it to? Do you happen to have a pic w/ the hatch open? I am a ham myself, but haven't fired up the ol' 2 meter in quite some time. I was going to maybe intall a scanner and was wondering what I should do for an antenna.

[vpnavy]

Need info for personnal knowledge: Isn't Ham radio like a CB ?

Briefly, Amateur radio, commonly called "ham radio", is a hobby enjoyed by many people throughout the world (as of 2004 about 3 million worldwide, 60,000 in UK, 70,000 in Germany, 5,000 in Norway, 57,000 in Canada, and 700,000 in the USA). A holder of an Amateur Radio license has studied and passed required tests in his or her country and been issued a call sign by its government. This call sign is unique to the operator. Amateur Radio Operator's help during disasters, etc. as a major source of communications when all other forms (i.e., radio stations, cell phone, etc.) are disabled. Anyway - you can jump over to http://www.arrl.org/ for further information.

[kc5f]

vpnavy - Thanks for the explanation of Ham vs CB. Yes, they're different. I may not be able to talk to most truckers, but I can have the ham radio on while kids are in the car without worrying about language or topics. I can talk to the ham in the next car or one on the other side of the world as I'm driving to work and back. All astronauts for quite a few years now have gotten their ham licenses so they can talk to earthbound hams during their off time from the shuttle and space station, and many make schedules to talk to schools. Lots of fun, besides being useful.

drivinghabit - Yes, I do get plenty of time to enjoy the ham radio, too, with the miles I put on my Versa!

It's hard to see the antenna inside the hatch... is it just standing in there? Did you put a metal plate on the floor to stick it to?

Yes, it is hard to see, but it's right in the center of the window. And yup, it's just standing there. I've planned to stick something like a pizza pan under it for a bit of ground plane, but it's worked fine now for over a year. At 5-10 watts I'm fine around two or three counties, and on my work route it gets into the repeater great from about 40 miles out, when it's behind me!

And, as I mentioned, it's a mag-mount, so I do stick it on the roof when I need to, but it just ruins the lines of the V! All my previous cars have had permanent antennas in the roof, but I don't know if I'll ever want to do it to the Versa...