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UHF antenna install, stock location


--weezl--

June 2011 OTOTM Winner
Law Enforcement
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May 26, 2010
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Location
hell
Vehicle Year
2007
Make / Model
Ford
Engine Size
4.0
Transmission
Manual
edit: before you read on, i would like to give credit where credit is due, a lot of the info i had, going into this install, came from member 5speedin2.3, who has previously installed a CB radio antenna in the same place, the basics are the same, though the installation will be different, due to the different type of mount on the two antennas. additional info from him can be found in his build thread, and this one.

I bought myself a VHF radio today, and due to the size constraints of the stock antenna location, along with quality differences in the different antenna mounts for VHF antennas, i was looking at either an NMO mount, or a UHF mount.

the clear difference between the two was size, the NMO is a much bigger diameter mount than the standard UHF mount, and in addition to that, i selected a small diameter UHF base antenna, of course this put me into a dual band (144-148,430-450mhz) antenna, which cost more money, but oh well... first try i got an antenna with a cracked base... not impressed, second try i actually got a ANLI base with a comet whip, the whip has the little coil on it, instead of two different diameter whips with a connector. i plan to cover the coil with heat shrink (or maybe just electrical tape) for the trail, so that it doesn't get caught on trees, as i've heard horror stories about this

ANYWAYS, so i started off with the stock radio mount



with a flathead screwdriver, you can pop the top off of this, which will expose this piece (seen in my hand, not the truck obviously)



do not try to pry the whole thing OFF the truck, you want to put the blade of the screwdriver on the crack, i gave it a gentle push and the top popped right off, take the 3 screws out, mine were VERY tight and rustedish...

from this point you will have something like this, with a wire sticking out of the bottom:



the wire will pull straight out, no twisting or pushing required, just give er a tug! once that is done, i set it aside, and worked on running the new wire. the stock coaxial cable, while it is the right kind, i am told it will not handle 55w of transmit power, and i do not believe the stock one is the right impediance... so this was VERY difficult, the first step was opening my glove box, and pulling everything out, with it empty, push in the sides so you can pull it past fully open, and gain access to the heater area. if you look directly in, you will see the orange antenna wire running through there, stuck to a piece of something, with 2 clips, i cut it off, and started yanking, you want to pull the gromet outof the hole, as it is attached to the wire, you will not be able to reach the hole it's self, which makes the next part of this MUCH more difficult

i actually ended up removing my fender for this... (in this pic, you can see my relocated intake)



i knew there was a small "access" hole for the heater intake drain into the base of the antenna, it didn't give me much luck working the wire in, but it did allow me to see the hole i had to feed it through, using a flashlight... i pulled the antenna wire back just a little bit, and cut off the connector on the end, along with a small piece of metal bent at a 45* angle, that was wrapped around the wire, then i duct taped the old antenna wire to the pl-259 connector that was already soldered on the end of my cable (if you get a cable with no connectors, for the love of god, wait to solder it on!!) i tried to make the transition from small wire to big connector as easy as possible, and actually put the cut end of the old wire inside the connector before taping it, so i knew it would be as lined up as possible... now pull the old wire into the cab, from the inside of the truck, nice and gentle, if the passenger door is open, you can actually feed it into the antenna hole with your right hand, as your left hand pulls gently. My connector WOULD NOT go through that hole, i ended up swearing a lot, and trying it 5 or 6 times before i found the way that worked... using a flashlight, and a piece of a clothes hanger i had straightened out, i was able to actually push the connector through the hole in the fire wall. i put the clothes hanger through the stock antenna hole, looked through the large square hole in the fender, and shone my flashlight through the smaller round hole to the upper left of the square one, and with this, i was able to fit the pl259 connector through quite easily. the hole in the fire wall is JUST bigger than the connector, you're fine with tape, but not with an extra piece of wire next to it

once that is done, just route to your desired 2 way mounting location.

to the new antenna i went! For my installation, i wanted it to look as stock as possible (with a small exception) so i wanted to be able to cover the screw holes and such, so i will be using that oval piece that your old antenna screwed into, later on (when i figure out what i'm doing with that)

but the small piece that clips to it, i wanted it over top of the mount, so it looked stock, the problem was this:



the hole was too small... naturally, i took the dremel to it, nice and slow, kept it round... in hindsight, i probably should have used a stepper bit or something, but this worked fine...



then i remembered that NOTHING! on my truck is chrome (with the exception of the lug nuts, and my steel rim center caps, THAT'S IT! so why have an antenna mount that is, when i've got a black whip? so i sanded it down



(i also removed the sticker and the goo it left, with a paint-prep wax and oil remover) i removed the whip portion of the antenna from the coil, as the whip is black, and i wasn't going to be painting that, i found my straightened clothes hook fit quite nicely into the hole it came out of, and gave me something i could hang the mount from while it dried


i then gave the plastic ring a quick spray with some black paint for plastic that i had lying around, hopefully it will work as a primer for me...



tomorrow i will give the metal parts a quick sand again, to get the paint off of them, and spray them down with a DSG spray bomb i had mixed up a while back... if i can locate some metal primer, i may use that first though, i don't know if i have any

i shall continue this build, and suppliment in more info into this posts, and later posts, as it becomes available
 
Last edited:

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