Ham Radio - Yaesu FTM-10R Install in Gen2 Yamaha Super Tenere

[GSequoia]

Those of you that know me know that I'm the radio guy for the Death Valley Noobs Rally. While I have this reputation as a ham radio guy I'm really quite terrible at it. I only use my radios directly with my outdoor activities. I hardly ever sit in a basement in stained underwear talking down to people on the airwaves. Pathetic, I know.

Anyway one of the goals with the big bike was to get a big, full sized radio on it. We have a lot more electrical capacity on these beasts to handle the radio and while a full, sustained 20A draw may ultimately overwhelm the charging system (causing the battery to drain) I transmit briefly. When you're receiving the draw is minimal so you can monitor all day long.

There aren't really a lot of good options for full power radios for motorcycles. Yaesu made the FTM-10R. The radio had a non-waterproof control unit and a waterproof remote-mounted head. It fits the bill perfectly. The only issue is it was discontinued several years ago and is rather hard to find. I paid dearly for a good example on eBay and started to work in getting it going.

Please note that the radio mounting and antenna currently shown in this thread are temporary solutions. My ultimate plan will mount the radio in a less obtrusive way and have an antenna mount that does not interfere with luggage.

For wiring I spring-boarded off of my existing wiring upgrades. Please see this thread for full details.

After getting the radio I started planning my installation. My goal is to have the head mounted on the tube under the windshield (commonly use for GPS units) and the control unit mounted in a water-resistant box. For normal use I will join it to my pre-exsiting Sena headset using their SR-10 two-way radio adaptor.

To do this the first step is to make the loom that joins the Sena wiring to the Yaesu. Luckily Yaesu still carriers the wiring to do this, the CT-M11 cable. I picked up a bare wire Sena (Sena SC-A0116) loom and proceeded to make it work. I left an unnecessary amount of wire on this connector as I may ultimately relocate components, when I have my permanent solution I will shorten the loom to its minimal necessary length.

Yaesu connector on the left, Sena on the right.

Next up is power. I have the radio set up on a switched circuit. The switch is a double-throw switch which gives me one position with constant power and the other tied to ignition power (more details on how I achieved ignition power in the thread referenced above).

Since the radio is a high-load item the input power pin #30 for the relay comes directly from the battery with a 20 amp fuse before entering the relay. Both relay and fuse are in a small fuse/relay box noted in the above thread. From there pin #87 leads to the radio itself.

Since I won't be running the radio all the time I staged a connector under the seat in a water-resistant Metri-pack connector carrying my ground and positive wires. When I'm not running the radio I put a blank capped connector over this to keep any risk of shorts at bay.

As an added benefit to this I also wired in an SAE connector cable as an alternate load on this wire (plug it in instead of a radio). These are normally used for battery maintenance chargers but I found a pretty nifty USB Outlet with voltmeter on Amazon that I could use to have more charging capability when camping off the bike as my other USB charge outlets only operate when the ignition is on.

This was quite helpful when I took the bike for a week camping in the Sequoia National Forest earlier this year.

So back to the radio my ultimate plan is to hard mount it behind the right side pannier rack but I didn't have time to do my research so picked up a Seahorse box (knock off Pelican) from Amazon to house the goods. This box is then mounted to an 1/8" aluminum plate that replaces my rear seat.

First I removed the rear seat and the pan underneath. Then I removed the four rubber bumpers that the seat rests on and ran some bolts with fender washers through them. Notching the fender washers where needed.

That done I put another set of fender washers on top and ran a nut down to hold the bolts in place. This also serves to act as standoffs to keep the plate from rubbing against the panel.

Next it was as simple as attaching the plate to the bolts.

Last I drilled a mounting pattern in both the box and aluminum plate and bolted them together with 1/2" standoffs in between them to give me room to route the cables.

With a few more holes in the box I was able to mount the radio bracket to the box and the radio to the bracket. This left enough room for my extra cable (for future relocation), the hand-held microphone for when I'm not wearing my helmet, and the Sena SR-10 two-way radio adapter with a little room leftover. I added a 3/4" hole so that the antenna, power, and head unit cables can pass through.

The next point is the antenna. If you know much about radios you've probably heard of ground plane. To cut to the chase there are two parts of an antenna, your radiating tip and your ground plane. You need both to get performance. Most mobile antennas use the sheetmetal of the vehicles body as a ground plane but this won't work for motorcycles. For this purpose you need a special No Ground Plane antenna (used in situations like this and also on stuff like RVs that have fiberglass bodies). I chose a Comet SBB-5 antenna as it was not obnoxiously long and is a reputable brand.

Ultimately I will make a proper mount for this antenna. For now I use a truck mirror bracket attached to my RH pannier rack. I can't use my side box with the antenna installed but I don't use them off-road anyway so no big loss for now.

I used a short RG-58 cable to attach them and adjusted SWR (no pictured here).

Last I just had to route the cable for my head unit and mount it. The cable has RJ-45 ends (think network cables) to attach to the radio box and head unit making for simple connections. I ran this cable along the frame and under the fuel tank to poke up through my front cowling and lead to my head unit.

Radio installed with the handheld mic hooked up - You can hook it up here on the front of the radio (with the proper optional connector, Yaesu PN MEK-M10) or to the radio body.

I use the handheld mic only if the bike is parked, clearly. Day-to-day is currently through my Sena system although I ultimately would like to look into a hard-wired Rugged Radios setup. I used the radio for the Noobs Rally and it worked fantastically. The only thing I don't like about the radio is it lacks the capability to be programmed from a computer. I'd love it if Yaesu would re-vamp this model but I'm afraid there just aren't that many interested parts at the price point it would sell it (probably $350ish).

 

[AVGeek]

Nice write up on the install. With your radio, the Rugged Radios setup would work well (you could also look at PCI). I have one of the Rugged helmet kits, but because I currently use one of the RH5 radios (and was carrying it in my hydration backpack), volume control became an issue. I actually changed it out to use the SR10 with my Sena setup that I moved over to my off road helmet when I sold my Tenere, and now use it only on my quad out at the dunes.

 

[Madhatter]

wow

 

[STenitus]

Pretty cool!

 

[GearheadGrrrl]

I lusted for those Yaesu motorcycle/ATV radios when they made them, wish I'd bought one.

 

[GSequoia]

An update to this thread. Last month I finally got around to moving the radio to its final intended location tucked in behind the RH luggage rack:

To start with I removed the Givi mounting pucks from the rack (which I also do when putting my Wolfman bags on to minimize rub). The nutzerts for the lower pucks are not threaded entirely through so I got my M6-1.0 tap and Brough them all the way through.

When laying out a project it's always nice to have some friends to help. My buddies Snap, Crackle, and Pop assisted here. It's nice to work with them since they don't drink all my beer!

I laid the box in place then used the old trick from making gaskets out of cardstock/gasket paper where you punch the hole locations to get a good impression.

Now simply slide the bolt through and trim the little bit of excess material off.

After getting all four holes in place I bolted the cardstock in place to lay out the shape by drawing the inside and key points of the outside around the bolt holes with a sharpie.

Since the radio head unit is not water proof I'm using a waterproof project box to next the radio. While heat is an issue I won't be transmitting a whole lot at full power so feel that I'll be alright here.

Now I used my trusty old tool (older than even most Super Tenere riders!) to guide me in making clean lines at the same angle.

Now as you can tell this is a minor fabrication project. When doing fab work it's really important to keep an open mind. After laying out my design and cutting the card stock as my template I started to become concerned that my design was insufficient. Mainly I was concerned about the materials I was using. I decided that maybe making the bracket out of cardboard wasn't the best way to go about things so I transferred the design to 16g sheet metal.

After cleaning up and going for paint.

While waiting for paint to cure I laid out my new antenna bracket to bolt to the Altrider luggage rack using the two holes intended for a Givi bracket (which I won't be using as this rack isn't fantastic for much weight) using the old radio case bracket in 1/8" aluminum.

Now was the time to start laying out my project box. I started by removing all of the bosses for mounting screws since I wouldn't be using them then scraped the plate smooth with a razor.

 

[GSequoia]

Then on to laying out my cable gland holes.

I had to trim some of the structure away to fit the nuts behind the glands. To do so I used a hot knife approach. Anytime you can play with fire is a good time.

Glands in place. The top center item you see is an external speaker connector so I can listen to USFS fire radio to see if I gotta get out of Dodge (an apt subject giving the California wildfires going on right now).

I mounted the box to the plate with M8 buttonhead bolts with rubber washers in between the bracket and case as well as in between the case and washer before the nuts (inside the case). I also made four holes for my radio to box mounts and enlarged them so they only bolt to the box. Again I used rubber washers in between all hardware and box.

Since I can't be completely sure of water tightness I put some desiccant packs in the case before dropping the radio in. These change color when wet (the one on the right is wet, you can see the darker beads) indicating if I have a problem.

Now to the wiring part of the project. Since I was using cable glands I had to cut off all connectors, pass the cables through, then put them back on. Luckily I run an IT Department so have tools on hand to make it easier. The face plate uses seven conductors in an RJ45 jack. I use pass-through RJ45 connectors so I can easily make sure that the wires are in the correct order and correct bores leaving the eighth empty.

I had to sever my Sena SR10 cable and re-create it, as well.

Radio in place with a copule extra desiccant packs for good measure. It's a tight fit but works.

Radio in place and Givi case on for fitment test. Works just fine.

The plate without the Givi case hiding it.

Cable gland connections and speaker port.

The wires are routed up to the subframe and lashed in place. The connection point for power is under my seat so that as well as the head unit cable and speaker/mic cable (currently still using a Sena SR-10 go there, too.

All done.

Now I can run the radio and a rear seat and the radio will never be in my way. For day-to-day riding I'll likely still remove it. All will come apart easily, the only thing that's a bit of a PITA is routing the head unit cable through under the tank and out through the dashboard.