UHF radio installation

mav

mav

Forum Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2009
Messages
78
Location
newcastle, australia
riteo tomorrow im pretty sure im goin to buy a uniden uhf, but im wondering whats the best way to install the power/earth cables and the aerial cable, the uhf is prob goin under the seat if i get the one with the remote head unit. umm is there sumwhere i can connect the power cables inside the car? and with the aerial im thinkin of shovin through the grommet that goes from the cabin to the door (if u no what i mean) then routing it up through the driver side fender to the driver side of the bonnet. ive got a 2002 outback. ill take a fair few fotos aswell so i can do a good write up for everyone :ebiggrin::ebiggrin:
 
I used power from the cigarette lighter for my UHF. In the Forrie I just used the auxillary one in the glove box, in the Impreza I hard wired it off the standard ciggy lighter. As for the coax, I ran the coax through the firewall on the drivers side. Where are you mounting the aerial? Did you buy the UHF from that offroad place in Gateshead?
 
nah im just gettin mine from dick smith or strathfield, im just mounting the aerial on the driver side of the bonnet, im tryin to find a 4wd place on newcastle road in jesmond atm on google earth i wanna try n get on there website, and see if theyve got a diff range
 
I thought Strathfield had gone? DSE can be expensive and that place at Gateshead is pretty good. What about Newcastle 4WD at Belmont? Never used them- just see them every time I drive past.
 
i wouldn't recommend putting anything electrial under any seats or the floor.if you do a river crossing and you take on water "you'll be spewin"
there should be plenty of room under behind the dash. i know Gary (ggvfr) installed one of these but i think that got lost on the old site. maybe PM him and ask for pics, he has a gen 3 outback aswell.
 
I had the extra din slot in the dash below the stereo to mount my UHF. I believe the power comes from the cig lighter. My aerial is one of the powered type and attached inside the back window opposite the standard radio aerial (which looks the same). I figured it's worked really well so far and, although it may not have quite as much range as an external aerial, it's immune from vandals bending, snapping, stealing, or otherwise destroying it. Doesn't get snagged on bushes either :p. As I've only ever used it for shrot-range comms, it's just perfect!
 
eden said:
i wouldn't recommend putting anything electrial under any seats or the floor.if you do a river crossing and you take on water "you'll be spewin"
there should be plenty of room under behind the dash. i know Gary (ggvfr) installed one of these but i think that got lost on the old site. maybe PM him and ask for pics, he has a gen 3 outback aswell.
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yeh ive seen a couple of his pics on the subaruoutback.org forum it looks pretty neat, havin the remote head unit up on the festoon lights looks sweet. im thinkin of puttin it in a din slot as a whole unit or puttin the main unit in the glove box and puttin the other half sumwhere :S ill just have to wait n c what i rekon looks good,
 
Bumper said:
I had the extra din slot in the dash below the stereo to mount my UHF. I believe the power comes from the cig lighter. My aerial is one of the powered type and attached inside the back window opposite the standard radio aerial (which looks the same). I figured it's worked really well so far and, although it may not have quite as much range as an external aerial, it's immune from vandals bending, snapping, stealing, or otherwise destroying it. Doesn't get snagged on bushes either :p. As I've only ever used it for shrot-range comms, it's just perfect!
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yeh i think i mite try n splice into the ciggie lighter cables, it seems easy, i dont ever use it unless im charging my fone which is hardly ever, about the aerial im gonna try n get one that i can screw off when im parked in dodgy places or im not gonna use it for a while, i cant wait to test it out once i get it :ebiggrin::ebiggrin:
 
Rally said:
I thought Strathfield had gone? DSE can be expensive and that place at Gateshead is pretty good. What about Newcastle 4WD at Belmont? Never used them- just see them every time I drive past.
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theyve got a strathfield at the home maker centre at kotara, theyve only got 2 uhf;s but ther the 2 im deciding from :D there both the same price at the shops im gonna try n get em to give us a deal if a buy an antenna there aswell
 
DSE is owned by Woollies, so I reckon if they have the same mark ups that Woollies do you just know you're paying WAY too much.
 
well ive bought the uniden, i didnt get the scanner cos the fella said u couldnt realy listen to cops n stuff cos there mostly digital and coded, so now im gonna do the writeup, whats the best way to put photos in a thread? photobucket em or sumthin?
 
With DSE always ask them what their best price is, sometimes you'll be surprised at the discount you can get just for asking. When I bought my 5w Uniden handheld I got $80 off just for asking for their best price.

Slight but related thread hijack.

I'm also installing an incar UHF so I don't have to worry about keeping the handheld charged. Somthing's been bugging me. I understand that higher db antennas have long range or reach but al the diagrams show that as being in one direction whereas lower db is more ven coverage all around. Fair enough. What I don't get, and no doubt I'm missing something simple, is how do you know what direction that range or reach is facing? You just screw the anetenna on to the base. There's no "forward" edge. The diagrams always show the range as "up" which most people interpret as forward but how do you know it's not 30deg off to the right? Or 220deg off to the left? What am I missing?
 
I think most UHF aerials are ground independant, so it should not really matter which direction- it should fan out reasonably equally. If you have a ground dependant aerial, then that is different. Assuming you had such an aerial mounted on your towbar, the signal would then go mostly forward, and if mounted in the middle of a bullbar, mostly rearward. Imagine the aerial as the centre of a speaker cone, and the cars body as the rest of the speaker pointing in the direction of the signal.
 
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