Amateur Radio (ham) install

[toastytoast]

Got my Yaesu FTM-300D installed in the truck finally. I'm happy with it and it came out really clean. Radio body is up under the dash on the drivers side right above my left foot.
View attachment 129975

Great install pics. How did you route the wire through the dash to the head unit? About to install a Yaesu in my RAM this week.

 

[LBTRS]

Great install pics. How did you route the wire through the dash to the head unit? About to install a Yaesu in my RAM this week.

I unplugged and removed the cigarette lighter and ran it through the hole that it left. I left the cigarette lighter cover on there and just removed the socket so it looks stock there just isn't a lighter socket to plug into anymore.

 

[DennisY]

Some of us have run a power cable for a powered subwoofer through the firewall. This technique should work equally well for a power cable for a ham transceiver. Getting Through Firewall Of 2019 Ram 1500 - How do you run a power wire from the battery through the firewall and into the cab of a 2019 Ram 1500?

 

[2019Raven]

Got my Yaesu FTM-300D installed in the truck finally. I'm happy with it and it came out really clean. Radio body is up under the dash on the drivers side right above my left foot.
View attachment 129975

With that Bulletproof mount how wide is your remote radio head? My remote head is 5” wide. Would love to use this type of mount for my FT-8900.

 

[First_RAM]

Hi folks. I wanted to share a few pics from my installation on a 2023 Ram 1500 Limited. I took a slightly different approach and discovered the sliding drink tray inside of the console provided enough clearance to mount the transceiver underneath it. I removed the rubber mat from the bottom of the console, used a piece of thin plastic for support on the underside of the mat, and mounted the radio bracket on the topside of the mat.

The first two pictures show a top-down view looking into the console with the drink tray fully closed and 1/2 open - and I am still able to fully close the console if I desire. You can see a bit of the transciever (Icom 2730) in the fully closed position.

The third picture shows the accessory speaker in the console and the control head mounted with a BulletPoint Mounting solution. The BulletPoint mount is a great product! You may also notice that I am using the Scanner Radio App with Android Auto to monitor my local Public Safety departments.

The last picture shows the no hole, fender mount dual band 5/8 wave antenna installation.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the installation.

73, de W5iTZ

 

[Redlands Okie]

Nice

 

[deathbug74]

Thanks everyone for all the install pics, great food for thought. Recently picked up a 2023 Big Horn, and pondering installs. Lots of good ideas, I just need to decide which radio(s) I want in the truck.

Currently have 2m, 70cm, and GMRS covered in my old truck (Icom 2730a/Anytone AT779uv). Still debating with myself between rolling the Icom over, or swapping in the FTM-400 that's currently a base to have APRS.

 

[Luv2fly3]

I'm preparing to mount an IC-7100 into my '22 1500 Laramie. Can anyone who has done an HF rig install speak to how the RAM does as far as noise in the radio and how bonding parts together helped? I know on a prior vehicle I had a Yaesu FT-857 installed, I even put braid over the spark plug wires to shield them. My RAM has eTorque and I'm wondering if that might be better or worse for noise as well. Just curious how anyone has found their HF setups to work and what bonding did to help that specifically.

 

[boogielander]

I'm preparing to mount an IC-7100 into my '22 1500 Laramie. Can anyone who has done an HF rig install speak to how the RAM does as far as noise in the radio and how bonding parts together helped? I know on a prior vehicle I had a Yaesu FT-857 installed, I even put braid over the spark plug wires to shield them. My RAM has eTorque and I'm wondering if that might be better or worse for noise as well. Just curious how anyone has found their HF setups to work and what bonding did to help that specifically.

I have icom ic-2780a and no issues without doing any of that.

 

[boogielander]

I run a icom ic-2780a.
The way I did it is pretty unconventional to what most guys did but it opens up a lot more possibilities to add more accessories in the future.

I built a custom mount with scrap wood that goes under the driver side rear seat, ran 8 gauge power and ground to the engine bay and also fed the antenna cable along (I also fed my switch-pros 9100 controller cable through as well).
I connected the power to the battery via a circuit breaker, and ground to body inside engine bay and connected the 8 gauge to a BLUE SEA FUSE BLOCK WITH GROUND. This will serve as the center for my interior power distribution block. Then I mounted the ham right next to it, ran the 3.5mm speaker extension wire to front passenger side where I mounted my speaker, and utilized TWO CAT6 extensions for both the display and the mic.
I ran both display and mic extension under the center console. The mic comes out of driver side footwell and the display comes out from top of the dashboard.

To do that, radio removal is required. I took this opportunity to also install ICS Dash Mount to hold the display

I also drilled the bezel next to the ciggy plug to feed the Cat6 cable through.


To mount the antenna, since I'm running A-pillar lights, I utilized SDHQ A-Pillar light mounts with Rago Fabrication HAM Radio Antenna Mount extension. SDHQ plus Rago combo has been a tried and true solution for a-pillar setup, and have proven to work extremely well. I ran the same combo on my previous rig.
Reason to mount at A-pillar are:
1. I can see the antenna. I've seen antennas incorrectly or improperly installed flew off on the trail when doing high speed trail runs. This is due to vibrations and lack of threadlocker. Though, I have to say, on my previous rig I did not use any thread locker and I had no problem with the antenna coming loose.
2. Bed side is reserved for other things, like the camper.
3. Not messing with 3rd brake light especially when we already have leaky third brake light issue.

This is probably overkill for most guys, but I do also run a DC-DC charger and an EcoFlow system that gives me 3000Wh of power capacity inside the cab for fridge and to power my StarLink and charge my drones, so I did this from the get-go and serve as the foundation for my interior build. All these were done with only 300 miles on the clock and I'm at 21k right now, with plenty of trail mileages. So far so good.

Parts used in addition to iCom HAM:
Speaker: Amazon.com
(I chose one with the mount like that for ease of installation)
3.5mm Extension: Amazon.com
Cat6 Extension: https://a.co/d/5VP8MWI
Cat6 Extension: Amazon.com
Tram Antenna: Amazon.com
Tram Antenna Cable: Amazon.com
Rago Fab Ham Antenna Extension: Ham Antenna Ditch Bracket Extension
SDHQ A-Pillar Mount: '19-23 Ram 1500 SDHQ Built A-Pillar Light Mounts