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View Full Version : Highly POed right now.........



FATKAT
10-07-2016, 12:42 PM
I have never been more aggravated with something!!!!!!

Let me start off with some details. As well as the 03 Ranger pickup, I also have a 2000 Chevy S-10 Extended Cab pickup. It’s my baby, it has been a good vehicle and I have never had any major issues with it.

The Ranger is my work truck. It used to be my company vehicle and when they decided I did not need a company vehicle any longer, I bought it. I really have no big love for it (it’s a FORD) so I don’t really care too much what I do to it and eventually I plan to “puck” mount the radio antenna on the roof.

So I thought I would put a radio in the S-10. Well as you may suspect you have very little room anywhere to mount a radio in the truck. I decided to mount it from the headliner the same as I did in the Ranger. Well Ijust can’t get past the mag-mount antenna with the coax running across the roof on the S-10 so I thought I would try to do a permanent mount and as I have across bed tool box on the truck what better place to mount it. Now the tool box is not bolted to the bed. I have an over the rail bed liner in the bed and I used “J” hook bolts to hold the tool box down.

So I purchase a 4ft FireStick antenna and mount it on the box and SWR’s are off the scale. I then ran a ground wire from the mount bracket to the bed and then the frame and then the cab and still could not getthe SWR’s anywhere near where they needed to be. I them decide I will have to use a No Ground Plain antenna and purchase a kit from Firestick and as you could guess I get the same thing SWR’s completely off the scale.

The reason for doing all of this is the Sirio 5000 I have on the ranger is way too tall for my carport and getting out to put it up or down is just a pain during rain etc… just to be able to park on the carport.

I am wishing now I had never decided to put a radio in my S-10! AGGRAVATED, Very AGGRAVATED at the moment.

JesseJamesDallas
10-08-2016, 12:47 PM
My 01 Tacoma...I didn't want to drill a hole in the roof either, so opted to build a riser out of 1" square tubing I found at Home Depot...Made some L brackets from angle iron (also from the Depot) and bolted to the square tubing so I would have something to mount my antenna mount to, and to attach the tubing to the bed floor...I also ran some ground straps from the bolts holding the tubing to the floor, to the frame just for added grounding...SWR 1.1

I also have a small 2 pill amp in the toolbox...coax to the antenna is ran inside the tubing to hide.
http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k592/jessejamesdallas/20160218_165950a.jpg

JesseJamesDallas
10-08-2016, 12:53 PM
Oh, and I also have a limited space to mount a radio, so what I did was went with a in-dash install with a Uniden 680. It's only 6x6x2"...fit real nice where the little storage box thing was at.
http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k592/jessejamesdallas/ta3a1.jpg

Also took out the ash tray which left a perfect space for my external speaker.

JesseJamesDallas
10-08-2016, 12:57 PM
I'm a big fan of doing in-dash installs now...even installed a radio in the dash on my Suburban. Uniden 520xl

http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k592/jessejamesdallas/sub.jpg

FATKAT
10-09-2016, 02:28 AM
A Cobra 29 would not go in the dash in the S-10 but those installs look good. I don't know what I'm going to do on the antenna. I have around 3 feet to work with and not hit the house pulling in the carport.

JesseJamesDallas
10-09-2016, 04:24 PM
A Cobra 29 would not go in the dash in the S-10 but those installs look good. I don't know what I'm going to do on the antenna. I have around 3 feet to work with and not hit the house pulling in the carport.
No, the 29 would be hard to stick in a dash...As for the clearance problem, not a whole lot of options unless you go with a "quick-disconnect" on the mount so all you have to do is make a quick turn and unsnap the antenna from it's mount. Using a quick-release you could use any antenna length you want, and right before you pull into your carport, just remove the antenna without having to unscrew the thing.

Breedlove makes some of the best quick disconnects...
https://www.breedlovemounts.com/quick-disconnect-mounts.html

Breedlove also has a "fold-over adapter" which may work for you.
https://www.breedlovemounts.com/fold-over-coupling.html

FATKAT
10-10-2016, 06:40 AM
Thanks for the links JJD. I don't know what I will go with on the S-10. The weather has started to turn and I will start driving the Ranger again (AC don't work in the Ranger). That means I will have plenty of time to try and figure something out. I am making the assumption that the reason the first antenna did not work was due to lack of ground plane. What I can't figure out us why the NGP antenna did not work.

Tell me more about the ground straps you used with your antenna. Were they just bought at the auto parts store? How big are they?

JesseJamesDallas
10-10-2016, 06:50 AM
You can take old coax and strip the center conductor wire out, then flatten out the ground braid and use that... I've used that, and also on ebay you can find ground braid usually sold in 10' lengths... never had much luck finding it at auto parts stores.

How I was using old coax, was I would first strip off the outer coating, then remove the center wire, flatten out the ground braid and stick some solder on the ends... then take self tapping screws and attach the ground wire... using solder on the ends will help the screw from messing up the braid.

Jay Mojave
12-14-2016, 09:14 AM
Hello Fatkat: Gee whiz I can't help to think that you tool box mounted antenna is too close to the cab, causing a high SWR. I have seen this problem many times.
In my 2002 Nisan I have the magnetic mount Wilson on the tool box but is mounted as far back as I can get, it works somewhat. But mounting like JJD is a good call.


Jay in the Great Mojave Desert

FATKAT
12-14-2016, 10:14 AM
Thanks

Yea........ I just gave up on it for now. I will figure out something on it later. Maybe I will get some pic's to post later and see if anyone has any idea.

Merry Christmas Everyone.........

BOOTY MONSTER
12-15-2016, 10:39 PM
the antenna is short and very close to metal for half it's length . antennas need to be above metal or at least have a big majority above the metal or the metal will reflect the signal right back into it resulting in high vswr .