The mobile setup:
Galaxy DX959 from G.I.Joe's with peak and tune, and modulation mod.
Astatic 636L microphone
Radio Shack SWR meter with 20,200,2000 watt ranges.
Palomar elite 250
Small RoadPro external speaker
Predator 10K antenna
Custom antenna mount
The Truck - 2010 Ford F150 Supercrew
In the cab:
The SWR meter is not hard mounted. It sits inside the lower open slot in the bottom of the console with a piece of rubber wedged underneath it to create a friction fit.
The Gray power wire is actually home power wiring. It handles 30amps, so anything I would put there is good to go. The bare copper wire in the center is attached to the mount on one end, and the fender on the other, in an attempt to reduce engine noise.
The bracket that holds the radio is a simple piece of bar with holes that I got from Home Depot, bent to fit, and used self tapping screws to put it to the floor.
The peppermint tin in the radio holds 2 SPST switches for the upper and lower channel mod.
I'm simi-anal about things, so wires are tie-wrapped and such.
The external speaker is mounted using a ProClip cell phone mount. While they are made to mount your cell phone to your dash or console without drilling holes, it can be modified for something like this. It has small edges that slip in between parts of the dash, in this case, the change pocket on the passenger side of the dash.
The Antenna:
I had an antenna mount custom made for my previous truck, mounted to the tool box. I tried using it here, but the 8 inches of antenna that was below the roof of the cab caused a multitude of issues. Lessons learned. I took it back to the fab shop that made it for me and had them add 8 inches of height to it. Now it is at cab height for this truck and setup.
This shot shows it a little better. It is mounted directly to the bed wall, but it's not just washers on the back side of the thin metal. There is another piece of steel (same as the mount) on the back side from top to bottom of the bed wall, giving it much more stability. The wire below the coax is the ground wire going to my ground block on the frame.
I did a little bit of inexpensive work to create a decent ground plane. I ground a spot on the frame down to bare metal and used a couple self-tapping screws to mount a small ground bar like you would find in your home's breaker pannel. I then ran wire from bare metal points on the hood, cab, bed, and the antenna mount to bond and ground all at the same point. Larger gauge wire would probably be better, but #10 is what I already have in abundance. The green, however, is 8 gauge braided to the cab. It's the largest item to ground and receives a great deal of vibration, so I went with a braided wire that's less succeptable to breakage due to vibration.
After lessons learned, I now have a SWR of 1.1 on 1 and 1.2 on 40.
The spring on the antenna will soon go away. A 17" shaft for the Predator is in the mail. I will replace the current stud and spring with a Breedl0ve stud and the 17" shaft. I'm hoping that will improve the system even further.
P.S. I'll be getting my license while saving for the RCI2970N4 that I'm drooling over.
Ryan, I don't think your anal @ all, just know what you want up front. Anything worth doing is worth doing it right. The whole installation is really nice, JMHO and good luck. Almost forgot, welcome to the forum from Georgia Dawg country.
