UHF radio choices - pluses and minuses of remote mike models

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Thats the one you can get at supercheap yeah?

Yeah, but they want $309 for them.
They are going cheap at the moment with the advent of 80 channels here.

Excellent service too, bought it on Thursday morning, had it Friday!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ORICOM-UH...item2c5dec910b

[jarrah7rally Member Find all posts View Profile Close jarrah7rally]

If i was to install a new UHF cb or any other radio for that matter I'd prefer to use a control mic unit. Although currently I use a vertex VX-2200 capble of both land mobile & CBRS and yes I still need to reprogarm it to new 80 variant

Today I found out the latest as far as installation requirements from a undisclosed source in the mines, all radios must now be installed in such a fashion that the operator doesn't have to look away from the road whilst driving to change channels. My issue with this is why does one need to change channel when your on a mine site ?

You know what that means if commonsense doesn't prevail there will be lots of used ex mining prados and hiluxes coming out of service without the genuine double din radio installed

Further more GPS antennas must now be mounted in such away that in event of a roll over the gps can still transit a signal for duress purposes. Would make sense if the gps antenna wasn't ripped off when the vehicle rolls onto the roof smashing the bar work lights flag etc

[bworth Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bworth]

Recent Installation ofGME TX3540 [+Controller MIC]

Hi Guys,

First post , sorry if I wander off topic a bit .

Purchased our long talked-about 'grey-nomad' 4WD in March this year (2011), as was on the way towards Broken Hill 48 hours later. [4WD 2006 Prado 120 Diesel Auto].

Just had time to fit some 30+ year old Cibié Super Oscars that I had on the bull bar of my old 1975 Honda Civic, and had been sitting in a box in the garage for years.

When we returned from Alice, Darwin etc, I started looking at 2-way radio options. Never really used a 2 way radio much before, but liked the (mounting) flexibility of the small GME range. ie TX3?40 with the 'smart' mounted microphone.

<< Starts getting to the point HERE >>



Saw the TX3540 at the Sydney Caravan show, purchased it about 3 weeks ago, and installed behind the handbrake, in the vertical space between the large square 'glove box', and the twin drinks container. Bolted it to the square glove box, having removed a small amount of acoustic insulation to accommodate the slightly greater depth of the TX3440 series over the earlier TX3340.



Cut a 3inch hole in the plastic facing forward to the drinks bay for the speaker, and glued a black Jaycar 5-inch speaker grill over the hole to finish it off. Needed to fix and centre the drinks divider in place, as it would no longer fit past the speaker grille, slight trimming with angle grinder required...

After considerable consternation, I mounted a home made Microphone bracket above (and to the right of) the (Centre) Right side A/C vent, immediately to the right of the 2xDin Fujitsu Radio. The bracket was made from a 1inch wide strip of lightweight steel screwed down beside the A/C duct, with a simple angled bend (at about 30 degrees to 'straight') that meant that it can be moved or removed without issues. The A/C vent is unimpeded, and the coiled cord stretched nicely from the side of the center console near the handbrake.



Unfortunately I got a bit cocky in running the Aerial cable to the Bull-Bar, and decided to remove the battery to do a neat job of laying the cable through the engine bay. Tragically (yes, you guessed it!) a Security code had been applied to the radio, and was completely unknown to myself, the previous owner, and the original dealer, and anyone else that could possibly know. It was not the last 3 digits of the VIN, nor engine number, nor '320' nor any of the few other numbers that I tried.

Costs to clear the code, ranged from $22 (pretty reasonable!) if I made the back of the radio completely accessible, to $44-$60+ if the dealer did it all. The price at the low end was more than acceptable, except that the radio was probably pretty average back in 2006, and even more so now, with the CD jumping far more that I thought it should. Worse still my experiences and frustrations with the code had poisoned our relationship <snif>, so I decided to rip it out and search eBay for an upgrade.



Settled on an 'Xtrons TD695GD', which has all the various bits and pieces an a few more. Notably Bluetooth, DVD/Avi player, iPod links, GPS (iGo) etc. The Aus dealer helomolto called it a '6.95" Car Stereo DVD Player in Dash TV DVB-T GPS WiFi' and was priced at $595 with Digital TV, or $555 with Analog TV.

Installation was 'ok' but was made much easier when I decided that the whole radio, and side mounting brackets would need to come out. Then, it was a breeze! I purchased the 'Aerpro APP0141 ISI Interconnect Wiring Harness', (abt $15) which made the wiring trivial, [ie Plug to Plug], and the 'DNAaudio WHP702E Toyota 2000 up Double ISO/DIN Brackets', (abt $10), the latter filled in an air-gap at the sides of the 2xDIN fascia "Toyota Plastic Ears" they called them. The wiring harness had paired male/female connectors for the power/ignition and earth connections which was brilliant, as I had to swap over the (+)ve and Ignition cables for some reason, so just swapped the plugs. Bingo!

The trick with the 'DNAaudio WHP702E' "Toyota Plastic Ears" was to screw them to the TD695 gd separately (one screw each side was all I could manage), then screw the side metal mounting brackets to the radio unit with the fascia ears attached. The task of putting it all back together was really just the reversal of the dis-assembly, which worked out fine. Front of the radio sticks out a bit more that I would have liked, but I can live with that. I connected the GPS sensor on top of the dash, drilling a small hole in the demister duct, and feeding the plug and cable from the top, through the 90 degree turn by applying heat-shrink over the end of the tiny plug, and feeding the soft head-shrink tail through the duct first.

I opted for the reversing camera for another $59, which was also high on my list of priorities, as the Prado is damned dangerous without it. I trawled the Internet for the wiring colour code of the reversing light, ran the video cable and the reversing trigger to the back of the 'car'. Tapped into the wiring harness at the tail light [Reverse was Red with a Black stripe]. Also connected "Lights" to instrument lights for auto night dimming. Quality of the reversing camera just plain awful. Might do a separate post later on this one.

[Update (Reversing Camera): The inside of the reversing camera (new) lense was dirty, and the plastic housing was causing distortion. The whole image looked "smoky". I even took it to pieces to clean the lense and ended drilling out a hole for the vision, and then covering the hole with the flat glass face of a $12 girls wrist-watch purchased from Target. It was a short lived experience, as I have now replaced it with a completely different unit.]

The radio is very flash, although it doesn't connect with my Nokia E71, for some reason, [Edit: Now Fixed] (wife's phone works fine), and it takes about 20 seconds to boot up to radio, 40 secs to iGo8 (it is a Windows CE device). Also it doesn't remember radio stations the way it should, when you power off, then on. I am hoping that a firmware revision will fix that in due course.

Currently experiencing intermittent problems with the device NOT recognising the SD card slots and USB/Hard Disk connection, as a result GPS, and SD/Music/Video etc not working. Talking to dealer at the moment. Intermittent nature of the problem suggests unit faulty, (something loose? temperature sensitive?). Have wasted untold time sorting through this one, hope that there is a happy ending to report, [replace unit, not try to repair], but I believe that all should be ok.

[Update (Radio Unit): the eBay Seller replaced the entire unit, which had updated firmware, Bluetooth now connects fine, SD card issues solved. Excellent Unit - can now recommend it!]

Other quirks?
* Channel scan on AM and FM obliterates ALL current programmed stations [not very bright]. ie 'Scan' designed more for setup, than ongoing usage and travelling beyond the horizon.
* Remembers last Radio station for current band, but forgets the other band, just defaults to tuned channel #1. [really stupid]
* Possible to accidentally hit scan button and loose all programming. [ouch!]
* AM Distant/Local lacks current mode info, or not yet implemented? [unimportant]
* Reversing camera kills all audio. Why? [Bad if listening to something interesting on the radio.]
* Can't run GPS at the same time as video played from SD Card. [TomTom is back in favour for trips away]
* Bluetooth - Can't talk to our two Nokia E63's or my E71 - Problem with radio??? [fixed]
* [Problem with recognising SD cards, and USB; (intermittent hardware fault?) talking with dealer now..][fixed]
* Bluetooth - no phonebooks (sad omission).

Because I had all the fascia panels removed, I wired up a 5v voltage regulator on a heatsink (a 78H05 because the case is at earth), and placed it in the 'void' of the center console [Just visible before I stabilized it, to the left of the Hi-Lo range gearstick in the photo]. I have run a cable off to a TomTom which pops out of the top of the dashboard (This was before I stuffed up the old radio), and one off to charge a USB device in the glove box. The idea was to free up some cable clutter.

I haven't decided if the TomTom is now obsolete, or if it should stay, particularly for longer trips, and the possible Memory Map/Ozi options of the main Radio unit. I do wish that the Tom Tom would turn on with the ignition though.

Anyway, that is enough rambling. I have tried to be specific enough with what I have done, have maxed out the limit of 4 images per post. Here are links to 4 images that I deleted:-

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7547558/2011...Radio_007t.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7547558/2011...Radio_010t.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7547558/2011...Radio_021t.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7547558/2011...Radio_035t.jpg

Best Wishes,

bworth
in Sydney

[elbo007 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close elbo007]

Consider the Uniden UH7760. All controls and mike on the handset. Awesome to mount anywhere in the truck Highly recommended.

[Trekrider Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Trekrider]

If you do go for the remote mic type (without speaker in the mic) you can do this:



It's just a GME remote speaker (could be any brand) taken apart and fitted as shown.

[Homer Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Homer]

If you do go for the remote mic type (without speaker in the mic) you can do this:



It's just a GME remote speaker (could be any brand) taken apart and fitted as shown.

Great Idea Trekrider.

I use Icom IC-400's for most of my UHF CB needs (overhead console in the Prado) for a couple of reasons, I can service them..they will do 25w out of the box & they are 80 capable with another 48 channels spare to program anything else you like.
The IC-440 is a great radio...just a real shame it cant be programmed with the 80 channels.
The GME TX-3520 would be my next choice if I was limited for space.

My 2C worth

[Doofus Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Doofus]

Looks good Trecky. Did you have to cut the facia to recess the speaker? I've got my GME speaker mounter in the ashtray recess but it doesn't look as neat as your install.

Cheers
John

[Trekrider Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Trekrider]

Thanks John, yes I did - great fun getting it out

[jika Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jika]

hi guys i have a 120 series d4d prado just fitted a uniden uh7700nb uhf about a month ago. i ended up removing the ash tray (after taking the whole center console out) and mounting the unit in the ash tray provision. looks like it is meant to be there. it has the flip feature so the speaker is on the bottom of the unit and there is about a finger width of room underneath so can easily hear the speaker.

Hi Yeomanda, found this post of yours while seaching for install ideas, I thought of installing as you have and have seen the pictures posted. Did you use the original mounting hardware? was there room to tighten the thumb screws from front of unit?

[gumboot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close gumboot]

Great Idea Trekrider.

I use Icom IC-400's for most of my UHF CB needs (overhead console in the Prado) for a couple of reasons, I can service them..they will do 25w out of the box & they are 80 capable with another 48 channels spare to program anything else you like.
The IC-440 is a great radio...just a real shame it cant be programmed with the 80 channels.
The GME TX-3520 would be my next choice if I was limited for space.

My 2C worth

Homer,
I thought the 80 channels on the Icom were 5Watts, and the 48 selectable channels between 450–500MHz were the only ones that would do 25watts?

Cheers

[Dusty74 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dusty74]

25watts? More info please, was under the impression 5watt was maximum allowable.

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

25watts? More info please, was under the impression 5watt was maximum allowable.

unless for commercial use with a radio license legally you're only allowed a 5W radio.

[Dusty74 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dusty74]

Just checking, that was how I understood it. In saying that is your regular unit "upgradable"?

[qbholp Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close qbholp]

G'day LeighW
I have a GME with remote head that I want to mount in my Prado 120. Where did you mount the remote head?