I haz radio
Oct. 9th, 2017 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scott_sanfordMy car has a radio. Neepery below...
I've wanted a CB for years (no, I don't need a CB; that's a different question), and now I've finally gotten one into my car.
Gathering the pieces is another story and irrelevant, but once I got the radio, antenna, and antenna mount all together assembly was...kind of a pain, but there you go. As you know, the first 80% of a project takes 80% of the work and the last 20% takes the other 80% of the work; this was one of those.
Fortunately the only part where I needed an extra pair of hands was running an antenna wire from the trunk into the passenger compartment; I knew that this was going to require someone in either space simultaneously. But I got lucky with a flexible extension grabber and the only time I truly needed a second person was to push and then release a button when told. Having said that, seventeen feet of coax isn't as much as it sounds like when routing cable through a gigantic American car; I had to reposition my antenna mount and I ended up with inches to spare.
My luck really held with my help, though. It turned out one of the folks idling in my dining room had bought a handheld CB in case of emergencies on the road, so we both got to check our radios for the first time together. We successfully exchanged transmissions across about two meters, the message distance being about the wavelength of the signal. They do say it's not the size but what you do with it...
No project is ever completed, just abandoned. That's pretty much the case here as there are things I want to do in the future. Rather too much cable is held down with electrical tape and I need to pick up some cable brackets when I'm next at a hardware store. A few of the radio's features only become useful once it's hooked up to constant 12v power but it's not obvious where the best source of that might be and I haven't gone looking yet. Someday I'll want a PA horn – and I fully expect to remember that when I'm in traffic watching someone do something stupid. For now I've reached a good stopping place and I'm happy to have the radio working.
I have pictures but sharing them here will be another round tuit project.
I've wanted a CB for years (no, I don't need a CB; that's a different question), and now I've finally gotten one into my car.
Gathering the pieces is another story and irrelevant, but once I got the radio, antenna, and antenna mount all together assembly was...kind of a pain, but there you go. As you know, the first 80% of a project takes 80% of the work and the last 20% takes the other 80% of the work; this was one of those.
Fortunately the only part where I needed an extra pair of hands was running an antenna wire from the trunk into the passenger compartment; I knew that this was going to require someone in either space simultaneously. But I got lucky with a flexible extension grabber and the only time I truly needed a second person was to push and then release a button when told. Having said that, seventeen feet of coax isn't as much as it sounds like when routing cable through a gigantic American car; I had to reposition my antenna mount and I ended up with inches to spare.
My luck really held with my help, though. It turned out one of the folks idling in my dining room had bought a handheld CB in case of emergencies on the road, so we both got to check our radios for the first time together. We successfully exchanged transmissions across about two meters, the message distance being about the wavelength of the signal. They do say it's not the size but what you do with it...
No project is ever completed, just abandoned. That's pretty much the case here as there are things I want to do in the future. Rather too much cable is held down with electrical tape and I need to pick up some cable brackets when I'm next at a hardware store. A few of the radio's features only become useful once it's hooked up to constant 12v power but it's not obvious where the best source of that might be and I haven't gone looking yet. Someday I'll want a PA horn – and I fully expect to remember that when I'm in traffic watching someone do something stupid. For now I've reached a good stopping place and I'm happy to have the radio working.
I have pictures but sharing them here will be another round tuit project.
