Building a sliding mount for my in car radio - Part 5

Just had lots of fun running the 12v supply from the engine bay of my car to a point just under my dashboard. Modern cars really know how to squeeze every last inch of space. After an hours hard work and some cut hands I finally got the cable to the correct location. I was happy to see my rig powering up and quickly grabbed a SWR meter to test the antenna. With an output of 50 Watts I have a near 1:1 SWR across the repeater and main transmission frequencies. A quick audio check confirmed I could contact Kent from the Danbury repeater. My next test is to try out the rig whilst mobile, probably on my way to work. The rig sits nicely on its slide mount and can be easily fitted and removed. I’ll probably run a short length of coax so that when I fix the mag mount I won’t have trailing leads in the foot well. Let me know if you plan to make your own slide mount and need any advice.

Building a sliding mount for my in car radio - Part 4

Now that I have my car back after its accident, I was able to attach the fixed plate that makes up the mounting point for my slide mount. I may trim the screws so that they fit flush but they don’t get in the way at the moment. The plate fits well giving a sturdy base to slide the radio onto. When the radio is in position it is very accessible and doesn’t interfere with my driving position or getting in and out of the car. The next  job is to run the power lead from the battery through the bulkhead. The end of the lead will then be stored in the dropdown tray behind the radio. I will then do something similar with the antenna lead so that it is always available at the radio end and easy for me to connect the lead from the mag-mount at the other.

Top of the bracket fitted to the car. I’ll remove it and give it a coat of matt black paint so that it blends in better.

 

 

The radio slid into position.

 

 

Building a sliding mount for my in car radio - Part 3

I have now soldered the two channels onto the brass base. I held the channels in place with some bent paperclips which actually did a very good job. I cleaned the brass and applied some flux before heating it. The solder ran smoothly between the parts and made good clean joints. The top part of the mount slides smoothly in the channels and should hold the radio securely to the underside of my dashboard. The next job is to clean up the brass and remove any flux and excess solder.

Paperclips did a good job of holding the parts

 

 

All the parts soldered in place

 

 The finished parts showing the top mount slid into place

Building a sliding mount for my in car radio

Now that the weather is getting better, I am looking to fit my mobile radio into my car. I don’t want it to be a permanent fixture as it could be stolen if left in unattended. I have decided on where I want to fit the radio and have devised a bracket design that will allow me to slid the radio in and out. I’ll still have to connect the power and antenna but this will only take a few seconds. I am going to make the brackets out of various pieces of brass soldered together. I have cut out the bits I’ll need and a photograph of these is shown below. My next job is to fabricate the channels so that they are blocked at one end. These will then be soldered onto the larger sheet of brass which I’ll attach to the radio mount. The small sheet of brass will be mounted in the car where the radio bracket will slid over it. When I get some spare time to do the drilling and soldering I’ll post the next set of pictures.