The AM Forum

I want to remove the radio in my GM vehicle, which is a 2x tall "double DIN" and put a din-mount aftermarket one in, leaving room for an IC-706.

It's the only way I am going to get AM mobile capability.

Has anyone ever done that?

Not I, but are you referring to mounting the entire 706 in the dash or just mouting the 706 head in the spot where the stock radio was ?  If its the former, its going to get extremely hot.  The 706 case runs hot just sitting there in the open air in receive mode.  I think in the summer while transmitting in AM its just going to melt down if its in the dash of a vehicle.

That's a good point. I could settle for just mounting the control head there. The goal then is to make it look flush, like the car radio does, as opposed to how some people "surface mount" the control head on the dash.

There is a neat DIN-mount entertainment radio that does AM/FM, DVD, CD, MP3, and has a video input for a backing-up camera. I could use that in the pickup truck. It has a little 2.5" video LCD and is the Logic DM800-I. It's an off brand, but that is alot of spank for $150. So that would and hopefully leave room for a ham rig in the dash. Or the front panel. I wish the Icom extension cable were longer. Not sure where to put the icom's 'body'. Thanks for reminding me that radio does get very warm. The in-dash compartment is no place for it.

They do sell a longer separation cable  - 16' as opposed to the 11' cable that comes with the radio. Not cheap but its available and the model # is OPC587.

My 706 body is located at the rear gate of my SUV very close to the screwdriver antenna.  I have a direct line for power running from the battery to the radio, then the separation cable runs back up under floor mats to the center console where I have the 706 head.   The 11' separation cable is barely enough to make the trip. If I had the 16' cable I could hide it better.


Sam / KS2AM

Do yourself a favor and do the published (google it) fan mod. The mkiig gets so hot, you'd think it was baking cookies or something. I did the mod to mine a few years back and it spends it's life year 'round in my truck with no problems. Without the mod, it'll idle around 120deg and with the mod, it's only a few degrees above ambient. It involves a 2 watt 100ohm resister from the fan+ to a switched power to run the fan at a low speed all the time and it doesn't affect otherwise normal operation or the fan when the radio gets hot from tx'ing. If it's an older model, then this is sort of important. The PA is what melts and there's no replacement parts avail.

73

Patrick,

   If you do decide to mount the whole 706 in the dash, maybe route an AC cooling duct such that cold air is blown past the icom case and heatsink. Who needs a defroster, cool the Icom!

Jim
WD5JKO

That's another good couple of suggestions! Mine is not the MKIIG, but the plain one. I'm very happy with it, and with its price. I did the VHF filter mods, and 2M is very good on it. I also got an AT-4 with it, but that item does not have a very wide range and really expects to see trimmed/tuned antennas.

this thread continues it later:
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=21864.0