JEEP GRAND
CHEROKEE 97 MOBILING
A STRUGGLE ON ITS OWN
As for mobiling, I started
with an IC-2100H VHF radio to operate 2m while on the move around the city of
Muscat.
I mostly used an on glass antenna to keep the cool look on my car. However, I
was still being haunted by the HF/Mobile dreams and ideas.
As I did screw up the body of my brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee 2001 and had to
get it repaired and painted at the dealer, I did also with my current 1997
Grand Cherokee V8. Nonetheless, there were lessons to remember and had to plan
and take time for the fitting.
I started with acquiring an HF
rig to be used at home and opted for a second hand TS450s for around $400. It
performed quite well except for a little frequency shift on 20m. The
IC-706MKIIG which I had at home had to make it finally to the car boot with the
control head fitted on the dashboard. It took long ours and patience to fit and
wire everything as neat and clean as possible and that is especially if you
live in such a hot and humid place as Muscat
I started from the outside,
finding the most perfect place for mounting an HF antenna ( I already have an
outbacker, a 20m hamstick,
an MFJ Bugcatcher, and an 8ft marine HF whip. The mount had to be as strong as
possible and had to take into account the weak body metal sheets of the Jeep
which supported nothing. I first opted for mounting the antenna at the front.
Since the bumper is plastic, I had to weld a stainless steel pipe to the
chassis close to the front bulbar.
However, after a few rides, the antenna looked pretty bulky and distracting for
the driver.
I had to go back to the welding
shop and cut the whole thing down and start from scratch.
I tried convincing the welder that he can fit a mount that I designed to the
back left (passenger side) of the car and fit another steel sheet behind it,
but he did not believe there is enough place to insert that sheet until I tore
all the plastic paneling myself before him.
He then fabricated a mount and installed it with the sheet as on the pictures.
However, I had to change the sheet again because it was small given the wide
weak area it needed to cover. I asked him to drill three holes on both metal
pieces two for the screws and one for the coax cable. After fitting a rubber
seal behind the mount to protect the paint, the ground cable of the outbacker,
tightening all screws and nuts, passing the coax cable and soldering a
connector, I had to use some black silicon (rubber like) sealant to prevent
moister and water from getting in and corroding the interior body. The mount is
now as tough as a rock although it did leave an inward dent that could be seen
if passing close by.
On the right side of the trunk,
there was a vacant curve with a net to host some of your stuff. I took off the
net and measured the necessary locations for the screws to attach the 706 with
its mounting gear. I also had to open up the plastic panels around to open up
the area behind the fitting spot in order to fit an appropriate peace of wood
to support the screws in place since the plastic was somehow shaky and wobbly.
I also took the chance to wire the shortest grounding wire possible from the
mounting spot of the rig through the plastic to the body metal frame. As
for the power cable, I first rooted the positive and negative wires both fused
directly to the battery, but could not find any hole on the firewall to pass
the wires through except for a tiny hole on the driver side to the upper left
of the brake pedal. I managed to get the wires through, but they had to
overpass the ignition system and sensors including airflow sensors etc to reach
the battery on the passenger side. Fearing disturbance to the car systems, I
pulled them out again and tried all possible means except drilling the
firewall, and finally settled to rooting them out of passenger side near the
fuse panel with the door controls for the mirror and passed them to the front
where they joined the engine compartment near the battery. Bit of a mess.
As usual, I rooted the control cable along the passenger door side, to top of
the dashboard opening up the front tweeter housing plastic panel and bringing
the cable to the middle top of the dashboard.
The coax cable was rooted beneath the boot carpet across the boot area to the
radio.