Batboard

Hi,
Long time reader with first post.

I have a remote head a5 coming in this week. I doubt it will have any paper work.
Its going in a tahoe and I plan to put the brain under the rear seat. I drilled the antenna in yesterday, so I only have to worry about the radio itself when it comes in.
I am familiar with mounting radios and lighting but this is my first spectra/remote mount.

Any tips, advise or anything else to offer before it arrives?
Any heat issues with it being on the rug under the seat?
I am aware the caps will need to be changed out.
Thanks,
Eric

Depending on the year Tahoe, there may be enough room under the front seat. Other than that, it is easier to got your power wire out the driver's side of the vehicle, as the power hookup is also on that side.

SG

What year is your tahoe?

There should be no problem with placing the radio under the seat. The radio does get hot but it should not affect the operation. The Motorola Spectra radio is old and we phased them out of our shop. They are really prone to failures and the parts to repair them are hard to come by these days.

diogini wrote:The Motorola Spectra radio is old and we phased them out of our shop. They are really prone to failures and the parts to repair them are hard to come by these days.

That's why Will exists.

and i think that they are not "really prone" to failures, i just think they are run so hard, and for so long...that they really chew up that MTBF and their lifespan. We love ours, and most people love theirs, otherwise they would not "repair them" they would replace them. It's a testament to longevity that they keep being repaired and put back, as opposed to replaced with newer toys.

Thanks for the help and Spectra God was a big help in PM's.

The Tahoe is an 02 and there wasnt enough room under the front seats so it is under the rear seat. It is up and running great.

Next question. Being a 100W is there a safety distance I should observe for putting in a scanner antenna?
I dont want to screw up the scanner. I was thinking of a window mount but the masts seem to be from 18 to 28 inches. Now im thinking of using a moto 800 antenna. I just have to find one with a bnc connector.

If anyone knows anything about these, Please feel free to speak up. Thanks.
Eric

ECM242 wrote: Next question. Being a 100W is there a safety distance I should observe for putting in a scanner antenna?

I dont want to screw up the scanner.

Somewhere in the next county would be nice.

Now, for the non-humorous answer: Place it as far away from the 100W radio as you possibly can. I have a tri-band cell/GPS antenna on the roof of my car, about fourteen inches away from a 1/4" VHF whip. The Syntor X9000 at 100W causes my GPS to lose lock, and if I keep the key down long enough, it totally loses position.

Ok,
Thanks.
I have my GPS through the laptop. The GPS antenna is mounted on the top right inside of the windshield. I will have to see if it throws it off. I have not looked at it while transmitting.
With the scanner on my desk and keying up my 5W mts2k, it made a slight interference sound. Its now in the truck with the same desktop antenna until the real antenna comes in and while transmitting, it doesn't seem to bother it at all.
The only other thing I noticed is when I key up it will turn on all my motion sensor lights at the house.

I had four radios in my suburban, with a 100watt VHF. I had minimal interference...but maybe I was just lucky.

Unless you really need the power, I would suggest that you program all your channels for low power. This will help, and will cause the radio to xmit around 50-60? watts.

If you have a roof mounted tx antenna, the best I can offer you is to do a lipmount antenna on the drivers side. Pro Fit International has a nice NMO mount that reuses a screw and the install (minus the cable run) takes about 5 mins. Most of that time is looking for the right size driver to get the screw out. This is what I use on my truck.

Remember, the scanner is by its nature a reciever designed to pull in anything an anything, so figure your spectra to blast this thing out, that I think that lip mount will be your best option.