duluthjk

I got my radio installed the other day and it is working great. Thought I would show how I installed it. My first problem was the antenna. I wanted it up high for better range and since I only have a soft top and no roof rack I was kind of stuck. Then I remembered that I had some A-Pillar mounts for an LED light bar so I figured I would weld a bracket onto it to mount the antenna. I got on a little crooked so I evened it out with some QuickSteel putty:



Then I needed to figure out where to mount the body of the radio. I thought about under the seat but I run without doors a lot and when I looked at how much dirt and mud was under the seats I figured I needed to find somewhere else. So I though about behind the glove box where the Cobra 75 is but there isn't enough room so the I figured the glove box itself because it would give good acces to plug in the computer to program and easy acess to the antenna should I decide to build a portable 10m antenna.



The easiest part was where to mount the face plate. I used a 5" flat "L" bracket and bolted it to my Bracketron bracket by the radio and I mounted the mic there too. The Cobra 75 mic is mounted to one of the vents.



I have tried the radio out and I can reach all the local repeaters on Low power. I need to play around a little more and see what all the radio can do.

David KE0NIU

duluthjk

I almost forgot. There is an external speaker mounted on the dash with a magnet. That way I can take it out and set it on the hood when I am doing stuff outside the Jeep. It came in handy when we were doing communications for a marathon in town this weekend.

CtSeaRay

Looks Great!! Nice job I so want to install mine at some point.

Maniak907

I've been looking all over for where to mount one on my 2dr JK. I found Rugged Radio has an A piller Mount, looks like it would get the antenna base about even with the tub of the jeep. Thats the route i was thinking of going. Do you think that would be a good spot? Also what kind of Antenna would you Recoomend. I was going to start out with the UV-50X2 or X3

TrailRecon

Looks great! I really like how you mounted the antenna to the light bar bracket. I was considering mounting mine to the rear of the Jeep, but you have made me reconsider.

LBJ

A friend gave me a pillar mount for the drivers side. This is the type of mount used for lighting. I mounted my NMO antenna there and it really has worked out well. In town I use a 1/4 wave and that's all I really need. I have a 1/2 wave I can put on when I'm on the road. With the 1/4 wave antenna, I don't have to worry about it hitting my garage door.

AlphaOverland

Nice Setup.

I'm running an Icom 2730, one idea im goin to employ soon is a smaller length comet antennae actually mounted inside the rig on the back passenger corner. I've seen another guy running this in a JKU and for on trail short range comms its really nice because in my neck of the woods (Southeast US) its very much WOODS, and the canopy is low, so having an antennae sticking 30" over your roof line is just asking to get bent, broken or slapped against the rig in some way by a tree. Probably wouldnt work as well on a soft top setup because of the metal frame that supports the top, but aside from the roll bar, hard tops are all fiberglass and glass, so the signal isn't as affected, again- mostly for on trail and short range comms.

w squared

If I may, I'll offer a bit of input on antenna locations. Having a solid RF ground for the signal to "push off from" is actually more important than the physical height of the antenna in terms of how far you can reach with your signal. To wit, I mounted my VHF antenna for my FT-8800R on a stainless steel "L" shaped bracket on my tailgate.




I've found that when running at 5 watts I can easily get into VHF repeaters that are 10 miles distant....and when running 50 watts (and with the vehicle pointed away from the repeater) I've been able to get into a receiver that is 75 miles distant (yes, it's up on a mountain).

AlphaOverland

That's even better. I originally purchased an NMO lip mount for a different vehicle so I use it on the flat part of the tower on my AEV tire carrier, but I like the idea of a grounded setup. The eventual plan is attaching different antennae to a roof rack, not so much to get it as high as possible but to get it out of the way of all the other gear I plan to carry lower down on the jeep. so I'm waiting to buy a different mount until then. I'm not sure if ill do a grounded setup or not, cross that bridge when I come to it.

Did you fab the bracket or did you buy it?

w squared

I purchased it. It's the "gatemount" from "Cooltech".

I like it because it's one solid piece of stainless, and came with quality stainless hardware. I've had two of them (one for my VHF/UHF and one for my CB) on my tailgate for eight years...and I still get shockingly good signal range with my VHF rig.