It has been a while since I posted some info on this forum. Being a hamradio operator I kept looking for a decent solution to make radio contacts while riding my Super Ténéré. A lot of things are to be considered when installing RF to a vehicle. One has to take care of grounding, decent wiring, making the antenna work, and connecting the radio to a intercom system or headset. My first goal was to install the antenna and use a portable radio. But after I started to read about the Yaesu FTM-10 radio, I got very enthusiastic since this dual band transceiver has a waterproof remote display and supports intercom and bluetooth. Great. I contacted the dealer and he confirmed that I should find some storage under the cover that's used to mount the pillion seat. Since the die cast radio housing needs some space to mount, it was a gamble. After some testing and measuring I went for it and drilled some holes to mount the radio unit. It is almost like Yaesu developed this model for the Super Ténére. It was a tight but exact fit.
Next I started tucking away all the wires. First the antenna. At this moment I'm using a quarter wave dipole on 145 MHz and a half wave dipole on 440 MHz. Next week I will install a more powerful antenna with 5dB gain that doesn't need radials since it is hard to get a good RF ground on a motorcycle. I ran a wire form the base of the antenna to the frame to have as much RF ground as possible. I cut the coax cable to the exact length needed to reach for the transceiver. The coax is only 2 feet long so no losses are introduced. Even at 440 MHz two feet of RG58 coax has almost no effect.
Next I connected the head display to the radio and ran the cable to the dashboard. I installed a small RAM ball on the dash and on the radios remote display using two RAM accessories. The last thing to do was running the power line to the battery and the optional CT-M11 cable to the Starcom1 intercom. A small PTT (push to talk) switch was mounted on the left side of the handlebar at the beginning of the grip.
I like the results. The unit is installed in a safe and secure way. It's almost unreachable (or you have to dismantle almost everything). First results are promising. I still have to run some more tests but from the first impressions I think I will have a performing mobile station. This way I can talk bike to bike (PMR) or on ham licenced bands or make contacts trough repeaters.
Some images provided. It took me almost 6 hours to complete the job.
Next I started tucking away all the wires. First the antenna. At this moment I'm using a quarter wave dipole on 145 MHz and a half wave dipole on 440 MHz. Next week I will install a more powerful antenna with 5dB gain that doesn't need radials since it is hard to get a good RF ground on a motorcycle. I ran a wire form the base of the antenna to the frame to have as much RF ground as possible. I cut the coax cable to the exact length needed to reach for the transceiver. The coax is only 2 feet long so no losses are introduced. Even at 440 MHz two feet of RG58 coax has almost no effect.
Next I connected the head display to the radio and ran the cable to the dashboard. I installed a small RAM ball on the dash and on the radios remote display using two RAM accessories. The last thing to do was running the power line to the battery and the optional CT-M11 cable to the Starcom1 intercom. A small PTT (push to talk) switch was mounted on the left side of the handlebar at the beginning of the grip.
I like the results. The unit is installed in a safe and secure way. It's almost unreachable (or you have to dismantle almost everything). First results are promising. I still have to run some more tests but from the first impressions I think I will have a performing mobile station. This way I can talk bike to bike (PMR) or on ham licenced bands or make contacts trough repeaters.
Some images provided. It took me almost 6 hours to complete the job.
