2017+ Cascadia Evolution Antenna Mount

Just don’t. Stop where you are. As I wrote above, it isn’t worth it to go upstairs. The pinch points between the A-pillars and center console pretty well wreck coax AND may eventually cause the power cable to short out.

Come in from antenna mount thru door seal. Keep coax (and power if from battery) to lower part of dash. Mount CB on proveded dashtop tray, IMO. Or run coax and power “external” to upper.

 

I had my Uniden 880 and Galaxy 979 up above. But moved it all to dashtop. Am now using the Galaxy 99V2 as it’s a superior radio to the two above.

The midpoint shelf is detachable. But it won’t quite line up with the provided mount (formed plastic with rubbery bottom and a strap to hold Radio in place), which did a good job at holding the above radios

 

Changed antennas back to the 7’ Firestiks on two new mounts.

Am adding ferrite rings to various DC lines in truck (chargers, refrigerator power, etc). Have big box filter at transceiver end.

Have added coax chokes (toroid rings) at antenna feed points. Have the big box choke at transceiver end already.

Am going back to BATT power connections and add a different termination fuse to POS, and will move original fuse to NEG. (per Alan K0BG; within 6” of termination). Am also going to use more DC chokes on those leads back behind fuses.

The Tac Comm TRC-2 arrived yesterday. There’ll be a future post on how I mount the gear into this “box”.

And, there will be a summation post. With pics. Show & Tell on what I’ve done, what I’ve used, and how it appears and performs.

Currently, the noise reduction in DC power, and common mode (coax) has — with this Firestik setup — given me the problem I wanted all along: too many voices out there.

As “skip” is really impressive (listened to Sparkplug out of Cocoa Beach, FL, talk with T-Bone out of Houston as I turned north off of I-20W in West Texas into the Panhandle on US-84N yesterday) the “problem” is fun.

The West Mountain Radio ClearSpeaker was returned for repair yesterday. Now that I am receiving transmissions I can hear that don’t move the meter, I sure could use the digital signal processing to further diminish “static”.

As to transmission, the MFJ-945 Mobile Tumer has, with a fair amount of inductance, given me a flat SWR. I still need to DC ground the antenna mounts beyond what is present.

 

Some thoughts were I starting today, with current experiences.

Goes without saying, take your time coming in thru door seal. Almost a pinch point just inside of it. Starboard side was harder what with circuit box cabling making a more difficult reach to bring coax thru.

With only one antenna, the Port side is easier.

And, might review Alan’s comments (K0BG) re power & coax. There’s not quite a problem in parallel runs. I can’t find any.

BATT access is only via Port floorboard entry plate.

Now, I realize all “identical trucks” will have differences. I found little difference in going to BATT versus circuit box cable ends. Still some of the same noises. (This is where the DC filter made a larger difference).

As install would be far easier staying above the floor, I’m thinking of installing a quick disconnect (Anderson Powerpole) and a pigtail to make noise comparisons. I’m doubting the longer cable offers much advantage. Not enough to outweigh disadvantages.

Something to keep coax and power “clean” at both ends is what I’m going to stick with from hereon.

It may not be a substitute in an exact sense, but with a leased truck, I think it “looks l better” than a set of power cables 4X longer, AND going thru floorboard.

 

Good luck on firewall. It’s armored.

I’ll be curious to see what route you use.

Do you need dimensions on antenna mount bolts & spacers (one short and one long)?