Mobile Radios

Lights are KC brand 100w Halogen bulbs.
Great for lighting a mountain road, as well as a mountain top site building or tower when needed.

HF antenna is a "High Sierra" mounted on a custom built pipe welded to the trailer hitch hardware.

Supplemental back up lights. They're 55w Halogen bulbs.
Also come in handy for lighting up a site at night & seeing the lock when locking a gate behind you.

Mount for HF antenna is made from steel pipe one size smaller than trailer hitch receiver hardware.
Pipe is pushed in about 6" & welded in place.

Pipe can be extended up about 2' to get antenna mast above roof of turck.
I tried this as an experiment and have found that there is no serious noticeable difference in signal strength
and I plan on removing the extension pipe & just using the main pipe.

Batteries are paralled together Positive terminal to Positive terminal
and *Negative terminal to Negative terminal*
*It is Very Important to tie the negative terminal to the negative terminal
and not the negative terminal of the second battery to the engine block
on vehicles with this newer technology explained in next sentence.
This is because of the amp-clamp that samples charge currant on the main battery negative cable.
A computer raises the regulated voltage from 13.8 to 14.2 when it senses charge currant
through the negative battery cable. This is a very nice feature. It saved me from having to
install an after-market alternator with external regulator with manual voltage control.

To install the second battery, I purchased the second battery tray for a Chevy truck with a Dura-Max Diesel engine.
It was a 10 minute simple procedure to unbolt a brace and bolt the battery tray in.
The second cables shown power the winch.

All radios & after-market equipment I installed
is powered from this 2 gauge cable and is fused through a 150 amp breaker on the firewall.
No tampering has been done to GM's OEM wiring except for this one connection to the lug where
the alternator output connects to the main battery cable.

Console
Radio console is made for the 2006 Tahoe, Suburban & Chevy Pick-up by "Jotto-Desk".
Jotto-Desk makes similar consoles for many vehicles that are popular
with off-roaders, contractors, public utilities, public safety, etc.

Rocker switches are for KC lights & high idle.
High Idle kit that made by "Off Road Engineering" simply connects between the cable to the foot throttle control (drive by wire)
and the plug on the foot throttle where the cable plugs in. Apply 12VDC to activate.
RPM manually adjustable between low idle & 2000 RPM.
Perfect for battery charging, keeping interior cool while sitting for a period of time on a hot summer day, etc.
Fuel burn measured at 1 gallon per hour @ 1500 RPM w/ A/C compressor running & 100 amp load on alternator.

Radios
100 watt UHF & VHF Motorola Syntor X-9000 for both amateur & professional use.
Icom 706 Mark II for amateur use only. Switch to left of radio powers antenna up & down for tuning.
40 watt UHF & VHF Motorola CDM-1550 for both amateur & professional use.
40 watt UHF Motorola 1225 primarily for GMRS has some amateur & business band freqs too.
40 watt 800MHz Motorola Spectra for professional use only.
40 watt 900MHz Motorola Spectra for amateur use only.
Cellphone "Hands Free" kit connects to a Wilson brand amplifier.

Power
Power comes from connection explained above.
2 ga cable runs under vehicle & comes up through hole under rear seat
to an enclosed connection (lugs) behind rear seat.
The Motorola Syntors, 1500 watt inverter & 40amp float charger
and a 6 ga cable that goes to the console all connect at that point.
The 6ga cable connects to a fuse block (automotive spade fuses)
where each console mounted radio & cellphone and amp is fused.
An 8 ga wire goes from that connection to the 20A aircraft type breaker
to the right of one of the CDM radios and it fuses the switches and
cigarette lighter power outlets and "power pole" connectors on top & sides of console.
Rocker switches power relays that power the front KC lights.
KC lights relays are on firewall & power to lights is tapped from the 2ga wire at the 150 amp breaker.
DC ground is to rear seat bolt & from under that to vehicle frame and from frame to engine block.

Mod to Motorola #Maxtrac Mic to use on an Icom radios w/ RJ45 connector:
Connect the mic cord wires to the terminals as follows-
White wire to Red terminal.
Blue wire to Blue terminal. *Blue wire & blue terminal is not used.
Black wire to Black terminal.
Red wire to Green terminal.
Green wire not used.
White terminal not used.

All sig reports I get on SSB contacts are good audio, but there's too much
mic gain for FM with the gain set @ 3. Set it at 1 or 2 for FM.

The mic I used is a Maxtrac mic, which also works on all the Radius models, the Spectra, the Syntor X9000s and all the newer (late 1980's & newer) Motorola radios. Even though the connector may be differant, the electret element is the same.

An older Motrac, Mocom 70, Mocom 35, Maxar, Micor, Mitrek, Syntor (except the X9000) mics that use an amplified dynamic cartridge may or may not work. I haven't tried this type of mic on the IC-706.

If you like to tinker, you can try padding it down w/ some "R" &
experementing with that rather than resetting the mic gain level, but I just swapped wires & set the gain down &
called it done.

This Jeep is for sale.
It looks ugly, but it runs good!
Asking $3,500 as is, radios & antennas not included.
Will include the HF antenna mount & cable. It'll work as a CB antenna mount.

If you're interested, please email me

and type "63 Willy's Jeep"
in the subject line to get through the spam filter.

This Jeep was pieced together from a 1951 frame and a 1963 body.
The engine is a Chevy 262 CUI V6 from a wrecked Astro Van.
Power train is Spicer with 5.39:1 gears.
Instruments, switch panel & electrical system 100% redone by myself.

Antennas:
Left Rear- AS VHF Coaxial Antenna custom lengthened for 2 meters.
Top of Roll Bar- NMO Mount (AS UHF 1/2 wave shown in pix).
Right Rear- Ball & spring mount for HF antenna (40m "Hamstick" shown in pix)

GE Phoenix or Motorola Maxtrac VHF & UHF (depending on my mood) are secured together
and on a slide mount for quick & easy removal when Jeep is parked & not in my view.
Radios mount between the seats.

IC-735 is seatbelted and strapped into the "shotgun" seat when no one is riding shotgun.
Towel covers radio to keep the dust out.