…in the car without drilling the car dashboard
Every ham knows how could be difficult to mount our transceiver in the car…. basically there is two common problem….
- How I can fix in a confortable place my radio without “destroying” the cockpit ?
- How I can fix the antenna if I do not want to drill the car roof ?
If you have brand new car, these two question are for sure in your mind.
I have got an idea, so easy as efficient, to fix the front panel of the transceiver to my AUDI… on the market there are tons’ of solution, but all of them they need at least to drill the point where you will fix the arm that support the radio.
If you have a transceiver with the detachable panel, will be much easy as you think….. here I decide to mount the panels using this corner plate… there is a lot of different size, you need to choose the one that fit for you… or as in my case, I have modified the lenght to fit perfect.
My Setup in the car is Icom IC-706 and Kenwood TM-710 GE.. panels are different, the TM710 has 2 screw in the back, and I used to fix the plate in the back radio panel, the IC-706 instead doesn’t show any possibility to hang it… then I have made a couple of jaws, always using the angle metal plate….
As you can see in the pics here up, I used 3 + 3 plate for IC-706 (2 + 2 grab the panel, and last 2 hold fix the panel to the dashboard), instead for the TM-710 just 2 plate are enough… panel hold the plate with screws on the back.
My Audi as dashboard profile has quite narrow space, and the thickness of the corner plates was too high, then I have reduced it wiht a grinding wheel until start to go inside the profile…. you also have to understand how deep can the plate can be inserted in the profile, as much will go deep as more will be fix the panel….
WARNING !!!! MUST BE VERY DELICATE WITH SCREW, OR YOU CAN DESTROY OF THE PANEL !!
The nice thing if is that you can put the radio panels in the best place, finding a confortable place to see the display, and at the same time avoiding to cover other cockpit controls…. and still YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DRILL ANY PART OF YOUR CAR….. Another interesting feature is that you can remove the panel in a second, and hide the panel in the traveller drawer or similar.
It is simple and may be stupid idea, but allow me to have the panel where I like and especially NO HOLE !!!
WARNING ! IF YOU DECIDE TO TRY MAKING THIS INSTALLATION YOU DO AT YOUR OWN RISK, I WILL BE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU CAN CAUSE TO YOUR CAR OR RADIO .