| A while back just after getting my new 100 series I felt the need to reconnect to the uhf community and started considering where to mount my radio.
I cast a question to the Group and the best idea (in my opinion) was that provided by Mike Sterling.
It was to mount a TX3400 radio head in the first sunglass holder in the console.
The Radio Remote Head.
As you can see, there is nothing to see, however, release the catch and vola,
Now you might notice the wires. The LH wire is a Mike Sterling mike extension wire that allows all this to happen. It is a special flat wire made up to extend the mike to somewhere else. I looked at places like Radio Parts and Dick Smith but none could help me, and therefore only Mike’s special extension wire is what I recommend. The other cable is the unit cable, which is too short to go where it needs to go. To extend this all you need is another Mike Sterling special cable, or just a 6-wire computer cable and joiner. By loosening off or taking out several screws that hold everything together, I was able to move the lining down and pass these wires over to the RH A pillar. The unit that holds the lights and sunglass holder comes out which is good because you have to drill out and file some large holes to allow the control knobs to fit in. I also put a block of wood (just visible) under the mounting bracket to raise the unit up slightly. Initially this was loose in the sunglass holder, but it moved around too much. I used two gold screws (gold to look good) in the sides (not visible in photo, unless you notice the LH one about in line with the rear vision mirror.
When I close the unit sometimes I need to jiggle the wires to make a smooth close. Otherwise it works really well.
The Radio Unit
Mike had suggested placing this on the passenger sidekick wall, and I headed down this path, but whoa all those things in there trying to stop me putting anything in there, as it turned out I opened the gearstick consol and vola the room!
I have a mobile phone and that where the installer had left the black box, all loose and floating around. So I took the lead and thought that a good place for the radio, power is there, the antenna can get there and the cables from the remote head can take the less travelled route via the driver’s side where it is easy to install.
This shot is the basic unit closed up, note the mobile phone bracket.
In this shot you can see the mobile phone unit behind the H/L gear stick, and the phone speaker, under the “white” cloth is the radio unit.
The antenna can be seen exiting the rubber boot around the H/L gear stick. If I go through water, it will have to bee that deep before I get too worried.
One more shot as I point to the radio unit.
I owe many thanks to Mike Sterling for his assistance and supply of the “Mike Sterling mike extension wire”, and suggest that if you follow this process you may like to buy a cable from Mike. He can be contacted on sterls@bigpond.com.
Feel free to contact me to pass on anything not clear in the above. Ken Uber, uber@australconstruction.com.au
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