VHF Radio Installation

[Retirement Fund]

I was installing a VHF Radio in my 03 Mobius LSV and had some questions. I want to install it under the dash, but hook it up to one of my accessory switches. Has anyone ever done this before and could shoot me some advice on how to?Thanks!

[catdog]

My son and I installed a raytheon unit in a 99 outback. Not sure if your dash has any similarities, but this might help.

I bought a wire connector / crimp kit.

I found ground and hot leads with male fittings under the dash on the unitized ciruit board at Accessory rocker switch #2.

I attached female fittings to the red and black wires of the radio, then plugged-in to the males.

The hot lead is hot when the switch is on, so yes, it goes through the switch. I could have attached to a full-time hot lead at the other side of the circuit board, but chose not to.

The hard part of this was the antenna, not the radio. We had no tower. We mounted the antenna on the heavily contoured passenger side deck, just in front of the windshield. We used a 3" dia rubber soil-pipe end cap, and cut it to contours of the rounded hull by trial and error.

We mounted a 3 ft shakespear antenna to a flat mount, then through bolted the mount, the rubber and the hull. We used 3 SS bolts & 3 nyloc nuts with hard plastic washers against the underside of the fiberglas.

Oh, we also had interference between the open windshield retainer edge and the antenna, so we cut a little semi-circle in the aluminum retainer edge so it would clear the antenna base. If you want photos of the installation post an email address and I'll produce them for you.

[Retirement Fund]

catdog,

Thanks for the info. I started on this project last week and through some trial and error I finally got the radio mounted and operational through one of my accessory switches. I didn't even think about the antenna installation until after I got all that done. I started looking for a place to mount the antenna since the cord is only 7 feet long my options are limited. I can put a longer cord on, but I would prefer not to since it will kill my reception strength. I also have a tower, so that might be an issue as well since it isn't supposed to be mounted near metal objects. I would love to see you pics though. It may help give me some better ideas. Thanks again!

[email protected]

[catdog]

Beside those sent, here are some at a website if you type the following: http://members.cavtel.net/hct

If anybody else does this, be smarter than me and consider moving it an inch more towards the edge of the boat. This might let you avoid having to notch the windshield retaining edge.