Help Wanted: All HAMs on deck

This may be a long post so forgive me in advance. As a newer HAM I could really use some help with what are very basic questions to most. I'm planning to install my first mobile unit in my 2024 Tundra. So I'll lay out my plan, and ask a few questions from the experts on this forum - I know you guys are out there because I've seen your installs.

I'd like to install:

Radio: Yaesu FTM-150RASP (link: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-ftm-150rasp)
Antenna: Small Comet for garage clearance (link: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-ss-680sbnmo)
Antenna Mount w/ Coax: (link: https://www.walcottradio.com/toyota-tundra-antenna-mount-cable-p-3907.html)
Mount: haven't decided yet, could use some help in Q6

I know that in theory the install is simple - radio need power, pull it directly from the battery; radio need antenna, put antenna outside cab . Most of these questions will make me sound like I'm an idiot, but it's worth risking that to prevent an electrical fire.. lol

Question 1:

What is the proper way to connect to the battery? The FTM-150 will come with the basic positive and negative wiring, but I can't seem to tell if it's long enough for my install (despite searching online)? For those of you who installed Yaesu FTM500 or other with, what's likely the same wiring, is that what you used? Can it sustain the temps/conditions under the hood? Use wire lume?

Question 2:

Do you need to add ring terminals yourself to connect to the battery? Is there a link where I can buy the exact harness I need for that connection? Or did you heat shrink your own on there? If so, what is the proper ring terminals to use?

Question 3:

Proper way to ground in the third gen. I understand it that I should connect the red wire to the positive terminal and DO NOT connect the Negative, but rather it should be grounded. Doing some preliminary research on K0bg.com said that the negative should be grounded to the Electronic Load Detector (ELD)?.. (see schematic below).



... still question 3

Is this the proper ground point (see below pic)? Or am I going to break something.. It appears that this could be the proper way to ground the radio per the above schematic - in the past if I wired something in a truck I just used my own self-tapper and called it a day.. But maybe pushing 50W out of a mobile radio this matters more..?





Question 4:

Getting through the firewall. I see most people went through the port with the larger group of wires that enter the cab - just stabbing it with a coat hanger. Is this smaller little nipple also a viable option? (see pic below) or would you recommend I go through the larger entry below?



Question 5:

Mounting. I would like to mount the head unit on a RAM mount, or something similar, by my knees (see below). LLOD (on YouTube) mounted his here, but I can't seem to tell which mount to purchase for this - this looks to be stuck on, and not screwed in or suctioned. Any help? Also, what's the proper head to screw into the back of the head unit that RAM sells - I can't find it anywhere on their website.




Question 6:

How the heck are you guys feeding these wires for the radio installs? Are you ripping the whole interior apart..? In the pic above that's what I'd like to do. Can I fairly easily shimmy the head unit wiring separation cord through the side of the center console to reach under the driver seat?


If you made it this far, thank you. I know these questions may be trivial to some - I'm no electrician I'm new to becoming a HAM radio nerd.

Thanks

 

Good questions! Subscribed to learn from others.

 

Definitely interested in this thread!

 

Thanks, hoping some experts will chime in.

I went ahead and bought the antenna provisions, because I know I can do that pretty straight forward.

I bought the lip mount for the Tundra linked above as well as the antenna above (any NMO dual-bander will work for my application, I opted for the shorter one for clearance).

But I did purchase a different Coax cable since I believe the one that is sold with the lip mount from Walcott radio is for GMRS, it didn't look like an NMO connection. I bought this Diamond brand one - they make great antennas and this coax/mount looks super high quality (link https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dmn-c213snmo). It's expensive but it's nice to have the SMA connection, which will connect to most handheld HTs - I needed to get to $100 for free shipping so I threw in an SMA to BNC adaptor so I can quickly link to my Yaesu VX6-R's BNC Connection (link https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dmn-bncp-smaj).

My only worry is I'm not 100% sure that NMO adaptor will work with the lip mount from Walcott radio - but I'm optimistic. If it doesn't fit I may bore out a bigger hole and then spray paint it black..

Will come back and update on this thread - hoping to install antenna this weekend.

FYI, I'm mainly writing these things out to hopefully help someone down the line. These threads are a gold mine for me at least. So future lurkers - you're welcome

 

If you search "antenna" in the forum there has been threads dealing with this stuff. Not sure if it's what you're looking for but you never know....

 

Hook directly to the battery. OEM power cord might not be long enough. Don't buy cheap coax.

 

Thanks DRP. Yeah, I'm confident that Antenna will work with the NMO mount I purchased, just not sure if the lip mount from Walcott will accommodate the NMO mount I bought. We'll see hopefully later this week when I get them in the mail.

 

Not necessarily HAM, but GMRS guy here.

I had a 3rd brake light mount on my F150, cable run through the headliner...


I'd love to have a similar setup on the Gen 3 Tundra...but not looking like it.

Fender mount ghost antenna is probably where I am settling at. Run through the grommet.

Trying to figure out a spot to mount my radio thats out of the way next.

 

I took a direct path. I have a Nagoya NMO mount antenna clipped to the passenger side hood (3rd gen Tundra hood is NOT magnetic). Right behind the battery there is a big rubber grommet. Antenna and power wires go through this firewall point. In the cab, the entry point is above passenger footwell. Pull cables through. Pop out the cabin air filter and pop off the storage tray behind infotainment screen by windshield. You have a direct path to get power, antenna, and radio up to that spot. Excess cables can easily hide in this cavity.

I have a Yaesu FTM-100D that works flawlessly. Clean install too.

 

*UPDATE*

Didn't get as many pictures as I had planned, but I got it fully installed today and I'm pretty happy how it turned out. Most difficult part was getting the power cord through the firewall. I ended up removing the battery and the battery tray to get better access to the open slot below the main wiring harness on the passenger side.

I did NOT use the power cord that came with the radio. I purchased products from Powerwerx (the HAM crowd will be familiar with them) - they are a company in CA who have a lot of speciality products with Anderson Powerpole connectors. I bought a wiring harness which was a short pig tail with terminal connectors that go on the vehicle battery and has an Anderson plug on the opposite side. Then I bought a 10ft Anderson Powerpole extension (Anderson plugs on both sides, link: https://powerwerx.com/powerpole-connector-extension-cable) which I put in wiring loom and fed through the firewall. That way I could bring an Anderson plug into the truck to have 12V power source if I want it in a later project. I fed that plug (seen in blue/black braided wire loom below) along under the truck's kick plate (passenger side) and under the carpet and ultimately ended underneath the cupholders in the backseat. I haven't seen anyone else do this before (not that I invented it), but there's som great dead space in there to house wiring (see second picture below).




Fed the Anderson powerpole extension under the carpet. This was my one mistake, that I was too lazy to fix. I could've fed it under the carpet directly from the kick plate area, and you wouldn't have seen it at all, but by the time I realized that I had already fed it through under the backset cupholder and don't care enough to fix it now.




Picture 2: the dead space under the backseat cupholder. This pops apart super easy (almost too easy maybe...). Just pull up on the cupholder piece and it pops right up. Then pull back on the piece where the USB chargers are.





View inside - look at all that dead space to put stuff. Maybe need to hide some cash or emergency supplies in there...



My plan in the future is to purchase an Anderson Powerpole Distribution block (link: https://powerwerx.com/4-position-powerpole-distribution-block). It's like a power strip in your house. You could branch off of that and get another 12V cigarette plug, or another radio. Note, if you do that you should re-think your fuses - you'd probably want a 40A fuse at the truck's battery terminal and then add 15A fuses from the radio, etc...

**Important**
If others who try this install with the 10ft Anderson Powerpole extension cable I needed to pull off the plastic connectors on one end to feed through the rubber boot. No amount of tape and dielectric grease would get it through that little nipple. Just take a small flathead (like the one's used for eye glasses and pop it out - look it up on Youtube).


Push up on those little metal prongs inside the powerpole connector.
Th


Also note I used part number RGH-10 for the wiring harness at the vehicle battery. The terminal connectors were too small in diameter to fit around the tundra battery. I needed to run to Tractor Supply to find 10ga terminal connectors that would fit, and I crimped them on myself. This was annoying, but every project has its problems.. (link: https://powerwerx.com/ring-terminal-powerpole-inline-fuses-10-gauge). I also bought 4 fuses from Powerwerx (15A instead of the 40A that came with the harness because my radio called for 15A. They were only .39cents so bought 2 for the radio and 2 backups.


Still waiting on my mount to come in the mail and I'll load up some final pictures. But as of now it's installed, programmed, been talking on it. If anyone is interested I will post more about the antenna and wiring. That all went smoothly with all the above products I linked. That mount from Alcott radio (the stainless steel lip mount) fit perfectly. No problems with clearance on the hood - and is pretty hefty for what it is.


I hope this post helps at least one other person out there. even if you find it lurking years from now I apologize in advance because I'll read through forums and think "why didn't they get a picture of this angle" or "what about *insert specific question*". Did my best to detail some of my install.

 

And one thing I missed above: from the Anderson Powerpole found under the backseat cupholders I brought power to the radio with a custom cable from Powerwerx. They will make custom cables for you. They were great, I spoke with them on the phone for about 30 mins before ordering and were very helpful. But the cable I ordered was an OEM-T connection (white T-shape) on one side and (obviously) Anderson powerpole on the other side. I do NOT have fuses mounted from the radio to the Anderson connection - because at least at this point this entire wiring job is a "closed loop" - only powering the radio. So I have two 15A fuses at the vehicle batter. Like I mentioned above, if you add that Anderson Power Distribution block - I would advise to add fuses before that connection and again at the vehicle battery. I am not (quite obviously) an electrical engineer, so get your advice from someone else lol.

 

What radio did you go with? I run a Icom 5100 in the truck and a 7300 in the shack.

Check the SWRs with an antenna analyzer so you don't blow your new shit up.

 

Yeah I installed the FTM-150 RASP. It's funny how most people chose to go Icom or Yaesu, I like both and not really brand loyal (yet). I have an Icom ID-50A HT which I like, and also have the trusty VX6-R. This is my first mobile rig and was really wanting the

$346 Icom IC-2730A Dual Band VHF/UHF 50W Mobile Radio

Icom IC-2730A but ultimately went with the FTM-150 because of the speaker in the head unit that the 2730 doesn't have. Like many people, I installed the brain under the driver seat and wanted the speaker in the head unit and didn't want to add an additional speaker, which I know many people do. I also didn't want any digital features, because frankly I haven't figured them out yet which I see it looks like that 5100 is D-Star capable. I played with that a little bit in my HT, but couldn't figure it out - I'll eventually get a hotspot and play with it a bit.

I'll need to find someone locally to borrow an antenna analyzer because I don't have one yet. Should I be that concerned with the SWR's? I bought a Comet antenna, it's on the shorter side at 27in, but I would think it pairs well with my radio. I noticed that it was rated for 80W max, and I've seen on YouTube that someone tested it (I think HAM Radio 2.0) and on 2M it was pushing ~66W.

 

Run it on low to medium until you get it check. It should be fine but you never know.

 

I have a HAM install writeup here, on my build thread

 

RG6 for for coax? WTF?

 

Having a speaker built into the head/control unit is a handy feature. I did not know any radios came with one included. I use an early version FTM-400 in my 2008. It would be great to check the SWR of the coax and antenna, but since you bought an antenna for 2m/70cm you should not have a problem. Radios have SWR protection against shorts and high SWR. I have never checked SWR on any of my mobile ham setups (home HF.... sure), but if you can borrow a meter why not and it could be educational. If you do get one, don't freak out if you don't get 1.0000:1 Good call on putting your fuse(s) close to the battery.
Matt
N6EAJ

 

Just my 2 cents:

- regarding the antenna mount: (this comes from a "real" Motorola antenna engineer). One common mistake is using a mount where the ground path from the base of the antenna to the "counterpoise", read ground plane, read truck metal body, is too long. In this case length is measured in fractions of a wavelength. Want to keep that under about 1/10th wavelength, under 1/20th wavelength prefered. At 2m band that would be less than 20cm preferably 10cm. At 70cm band that would be 7cm preferably 3-4cm. The reason is that ANY length longer than 0cm ends up messing with the antenna vertical radiation pattern. You could end up with the main lobe going up at 30 degrees or more as that length goes up from 0cm.

- regarding power ground: Just about any good metallic ground is good from a DC current perspective. Of course the closer to the battery ground the better. But, as one gets further away from the battery ground point there are increasing chances of transient currents running on that ground path thus causing high frequency voltages conducted into the radio's ground which could cause interference especially to the receiver. In modern vehicles this is more likely as there is a ton of digital crap running all the time some of which can have harmonics right up to and past the 2m or 70cm band. I would also go so far to say that most modern transceivers should have filtering for such and might not be much of a problem. In Motorola radio police car installations they run straight to the battery negative terminal, and yes put a fuse in that path just in case it shorts to something positive on the way to the radio.

Hope this helps.

 

RG6 is 75 ohm coax. From an RF perspective that's not as bad as it might sound. The coax will result in a minimum VSWR of 1:1.5, not too bad really. That of course does not count any additional mismatch from the antenna. And RG6 has a nice foil shield (along with 60% coverage braid) and larger diameter than RG58 so it will have rather low loss. Where I would be concerned is in TX use. It's probably not possible to solder to the shield, but crimp connectors can be good IF done correctly. Having a good crimp connector and THE correct crimp tool is imperative. There is at least one store on Amazon selling a similar cable in 50 ohms with pre crimped and strain relieved connectors (PL259 is a choice) for a decent price. I'd go with that if I really wanted this low loss. Oh, both of these cables will be very intolerant of tight bends and damage from getting squeezed, say in a door or window. Tram makes and sells a high quality RG58 cable that is quite flexible and due to low loss dielectric and high quality shielding has loss/foot almost as low as RG6, but is thinner and easier to route.

Hope this helps.

 

It helps know your not a HAM radio operator.

 

I've been Ham since 1981, Extra class since 2002, active in Ham most of those years, RF engineer at Motorola for 34 years.
Helps?

 

Nope.

 

What is your concern? The RG6?

 

I would just ignore this person. In this case you are literally THE expert - an antenna engineer commenting on antennas and coax... and HAM for 40 years.

I appreciate the insight. The radio is running just fine. I'm hitting repeaters 30+ miles away on medium power. I haven't run it on high power yet I do want to get some SWR measurements before I do. Overall very happy with the install and the radio. For those who haven't tried the ASP function that filters out some of the white noise it's a game changer.

 

Seconded. My setup - with the RG6 - works great and does exactly what I need it to do.

 

Oh yeah, I'm really enjoying this radio, the front speaker in the head unit is perfectly loud for me, I have it at maybe 20% level max. It's essentially a watered-down FTM-500. I wanted to go with the FTM-500 and should've picked one up on Black Friday but at $800 it was a little too steep for me, especially considering I don't intend to do any of the digital features that come with the 500. However, it would be nice to figure out APRS and in the future I could see myself upgrading to the FTM-500 and in that case it's all plug and play at this point since it would utilize the same power and antenna connection.

If you don't normally use APRS or digital features I'd really recommend the FTM-150 - the ASP function is not just a gimmick, it does a good job cleaning up that annoying background white noise. However, it's not intended to strengthen a weak signal, so be aware of its limitations.

I plan to find someone with an antenna analyzer soon just to see what readings I'll get. Will post when I do.

 

Yeah and for what it's worth, when I received the items in the mail from DX Engineering I called them and talked to them about it. I thought that I would want a thicker coax if I was using a mobile unit capable of 60W tx and they said I bought the exact right thing and that's what a lot of people are using for their mobile installs. I couldn't find more data on the specific part that I purchased online and then I looked at the package and realized there was a sticker covering the specs and said it was capable of up to 350W.. That made me feel better. I'm not the engineer, by ANY means, and honestly don't understand the half of this radio stuff (yet) but I believe it's safe. And that was my main concern with this install: I wanted it to work and I didn't want my truck to catch fire in my garage...

 

Glad to hear that your setups are working well @BayAreaTruckin and @birdfeather2.

ps: One thing that I forgot to mention above: 50 ohm coax cable is able to handle more TX power, whilst 75 ohm cable is lower loss (with like construction). But some mere 50 or 100 watts is well within the acceptable power range for both at the VHF/UHF Ham frequencies.

73's