Coyote's Vanagon: The CB radio

Beethoven's Citizen's Band Radio

The Antenna

The antenna for my CB has a permanent mount on the right rear quarter-panel of the van. It's just behind the sliding door, so it doesn't interfere with the sliding door operation. The antenna wire runs through the van to the CB that is installed under the dash.

I used a FireStik FireFly antenna, white to match the van. The antenna is 4 feet long and reaches far above the top of the van. This antenna is top-loaded. (This means that the bulk of the wire in the antenna is near the top.) The result is a fairly good signal. Since the antenna is towards the right rear of the van, transmissions from the left and front of the van actually come in slightly stronger.

The antenna is attached to its mount with a quick release, so that I can take the antenna off when I'm not using it. When the antenna is removed, the mount is fairly unobtrusive, and only sticks out from the body about 1 1/2 inches.

The Radio

The Vanagon suffers the problem of not having any good place to mount a standard CB radio. The radio can be mounted to the right of the box upon which the driver sits, but that restricts movement back into the van. It could be mounted towards the front of the driver's seat, but I expected that this might be uncomfortable, and that I would bang my shins on the radio. The only forward place to mount a radio is on the duct covers forward of the stick shift, but this might interfere with shifting. Trucks place radios overhead, but this doesn't work well in the small Vanagon cabin.

I thought for quite a while about how to mount a radio. I finally found a solution by changing my paradigm. Rather than forcing a normal box-shaped CB radio into the van, I started looking around for a radio that was smaller and would naturally fit.

The radio that I chose is the Cobra 75 WX ST. Basically this radio eliminates the box and gives you a large microphone with the display and controls. There are two sections to this CB. A power box (about the size of a pack of cards) mounts permanently behind the dash and wires into the van's electrical system. This box also connects to the permanent antenna I've installed (as described above.) The second part of the radio is a hand-held unit that contains most of the radio's functionality, including speaker, mike, tuner, and all of the controls. The hand-held portion of the radio connects to the under-dash power supply via a DIN-like socket that may be mounted into the dash.

I had the radio installed by my stereo installers, and they did a very clean job. The socket is mounted on the vent panel just forward of the stick shift. This means that if I ever wish to remove the CB, I can simply replace this panel.

This radio also features SoundTracker technology, which strengthens the transmit signal by more effectively using the available RF power output of the CB. The result is improved transmission signal clarity and an expanded transmission range. You can hear a demo of this technology by calling Cobra at 1-888-262-7229.

Credit Where Credit is Due

All of the work in installing the CB system was done by a wonderful stereo installer in Campbell, California called Performance Sound & Security. I cannot recommend them enough. They're pricey, but they do extremely nice work and are very professional. If you want some stereo or electrical work done and want it done well, give them a call at 408.369.9597.

Links

The following sites might be of interest to anyone wishing to install a CB radio similar to the one which I have in Beethoven:

Cobra Electronics
FireStik Antennas
Scanner World, USA
Everybody's Electronics
Cobra CB Shop