PWguy

Howdy,

As long as I have been an amateur radio operator I have always installed a VHF and/or UHF transeiver in my vehicles, always trying to make the installation invisible or as nearly so as possible. I also try to install so that the car be restored to stock for resale.

When I got the TSX, a couple of months ago, I decided I would go without the transceiver, because the vehicle is just so nice, and it didn't look like it would be easy to do a clean install. I searched these forums to see what other people had done and didn't find anything.

I was satisfied for a while, but it finally got where it drove me crazy not knowing what was going on. I wanted to know what that airplane was saying to the tower or what the sirens were about and finally just to chat with my fellow hams and participate in weather spotter radio nets so I finally decided to go ahead and do it.

I didn't want to decrease the utility of the car so pondered what spot is it I don't use. I use the sunglass case and the console between the seats and the CD storage nook but I never never use the "not an ashtray" so that is where the head unit would go. Since the microphone would not run conveniently from that location I got an Icom IC-208H which has the microphone plug into the main unit. This is a 2 meter/70 centimeter radio that has a 50 watt output on 2 meters.

I bought an ashtray so I could restore the "not an astray" when I sell the car. I cut the guts out of the ashtray to the point where the head unit would fit, nestled in some foam covered with fabric (need to neaten this up).



The viewing angle from the driver's seat is better than it looks in the picture.




With the cover closed everything looks stock.




The main unit of the radio gets power from an unused fuse location in the fusebock by the driver's leg and runs through a 15 amp fuse. The ground is from a mounting screw of the fuseblock. This power tap works pretty well, as I have only noticed a slight turn signal click on AM (aircraft band), occasionally.

The main unit is mounted very simply by bungee cording it to the floor mat hooks under the driver's seat. There is very little clearance between the seat structure and the floor, so the bungees are small. I mounted it upside down so the speaker would shoot up and so far I have gotten by without an auxillary speaker. It is very readable but the audio is certainly thin.

The mike mount is double stickied to the front of the seat bottom, under the driver's leg. I don't talk much, so this works, but is not real convenient.



It is hard to hide the antenna, so I compromised by using an inconpicuous trunk lid mount antenna that might be mistaken for a broadcast or cellphone antenna. This works especially well since the TSX has no whip antennas.

I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out, and it works well

rjairam

Hey I'm a ham too (AB2MH) , and while I don't have a TSX, I do have an Accord, which is somewhat similar.

I have a TM-V7A in my car, and the head was on top of the dash, just over the display.

I have a pic, but it's not here at work. Anyway if you look at my avatar at www.driveaccord.net you'll see what I did. My username is EXLNavi.