Two-way Radio Installation
 

Probably should have looked into this before buying a 2011 Silverado but....:o
Does anybody have experience with installing radio equipment in the Silverado? Specifically I am installing an Amateur Radio (Ham) VHF/UHF transceiver and wondering if there is anything in particular to watch out for. Power levels may be up to 55 Watts out (Figure roughly 140 W input DC). Will hook directly to the battery and double fuse the lines.

Advise on handy routing for the wires appreciated also. ( Feedline and power) Antenna placement is open for now.

Thanks in advance.
GD

Last rig I got to look at, and was installed by my father, was a 2 meter ICOM setup he wired directly to the battery, stuck a mag mount on the roof, and drilled a hole in the bulkhead for the battery wires. The coax for the mag mount went over and out the passenger door. Worked pretty well, actually. But this was on a less than mint condition truck ... so there wasn't any hard feelings about that new hole drilled in the bulkhead :P

I'd say tap into a switched 12V source inside the cabin, and get one of those adhesive window mount antennas that way you don't have coax running out a hole you drill, or a door you risk leaking through.

Thanks NH.
That's kind of what I had in mind. (Just so happens this will be an Icom also.) Was hoping to find some pre-existing routes through the firewall though.
My biggest concern at the moment is any of the electronics in the truck that may be an EMI/EMC issue. 50 W of RF has a tendency to do strange things to computers and such. And of course there are probably some noise sources to be avoided too. I doubt if GM has Hams in mind when they design their vehicles.

GD

"Most of the worlds problems can be traced to two root causes. Too many people and not enough sense of humor." -Grey Dog

I've also seen a rig powered off of the cigarette lighter socket. I don't think that your radio will bother the truck's engine management systems considering the antenna will be outside the truck's cabin. Plus all of the powertrain modules and important modules are shielded by metal cases anyways.

I personally don't know of any pre-existing holes in the firewall convenient for tucking wires through.

I would expect the interference to be caused by RF getting into the sensor harnesses and not the CPU's directly. The Cigar lighters were always fused to 20 amps and there wasn't ever much else tied to them. But than again the wire wasn't necessarily sized for several minutes of high drain (TX) and a continuous low current (RX) duty cycle.

I'll have to look around and see where I can fish the feed through with some other harness. Probably just bite the bullet and punch a hole in the roof for a semi-flush NMO type RF connector. (Some distance away from the On-Spy antenna.)

Thanks again for helping me get my thought straight on this job.

GD

******************
The easier it is to send messages, the less we communicate." Grey Dog
******************