Jason Antman’s Blog

When I did the communications upgrades to my truck, I was originally going to order the antennas and mounts from Tessco, but I found that The Antenna Farm in Montana had the best price on the IC-F5061, and also carried the antennas and mounts. I must first say that there was a notice on the Antenna Farm web site that they had moved to a new location a few days before I placed my order. I waited to place my order until the web site stated that things were shipping normally.

When I placed my order, I added in the “notes” field that I would like tracking numbers sent to me as soon as they were available, as I had requested UPS shipping. I received an initial order confirmation. After waiting a few days, I had received neither a confirmation that my card was charged nor a tracking number. The order status on their web site was still listed as “processing”. I called back four days after placing my order, and it took five calls over two days to get anything other than an answering machine. When I finally got through to John (the owner and, as far as I can tell, sole employee), the voice quality of their phone line was so poor I could hardly communicate. I got enough of his end of the conversation to understand that I should email him, which I did (for the second or third time). In the email, I stated that I was having the equipment installed, so I really needed to know when it would arrive in order to schedule an installation.

I placed the order early on a Monday morning. After numerous attempts to make contact, and no change in the “processing” status on the web site, I finally got an email back on Thursday afternoon stating that some of the antenna mounts were out of stock, and part of the order would be drop shipped from the distributor, and should be there the next day. Still no mention of a tracking number, which I had requested numerous times. I’ve done quite a bit of selling on Ebay, and know how easy it is to provide a customer with this information. He also stated that the high frequency antenna mount for the WiFI antenna was out of stock at the distributor as well, so he had them make up a more expensive one at no extra cost.

The drop ship box arrived the next day, Friday. It contained the two antennas (I ordered the WiFi antenna directly from L-Com) and two antenna mounts – *one* of the Antenex MB8X’s, and the high frequency mount for the WiFi antenna. The WiFi NMO mount was definitelty not the one I ordered. I know John incurred extra cost in having them custom add a connector, but it didn’t look like any NMO mount I had ever seen (it appeared to accept a pin in the center, as opposed to having a flat disc to make contact).

The next week, on Tuesday, the Icom radio arrived. It was as ordered, but the second Antenex MB8X was nowhere to be found. I did finally receive a tracking number about 24 hours prior to delivery.

Two weeks after I placed my order (with three day UPS shipping), Ken managed to fit me in early in the morning. I told him about the missing third antenna mount, and he agreed to use one from his stock. Much to my dismay, when he dropped off the truck, I learned that *neither* of the antenna mounts that arrived were true NMO mounts, and thus they were both useless.

Overall, I’m horribly disappointed with The Antenna Farm. The lack of communication is appalling, regardless of whether they’re having telephone problems or not (and I find it hard to believe that this guy doesn’t have a cell phone, or can’t setup something VoIP-based). The online feedback on order status is nonexistent, and I might as well have had it shipped USPS, because I only got one tracking number and that was a mere day before delivery. One of three antenna mounts was never received (though John did refund me the cost) and the other two were not as specified. He clearly has no idea how to deal with someone who actually has a timeframe – perhaps normal for someone who does most of his business with hams and not public safety (I guess that’s my fault for choosing a bad vendor). When he found out that there would be delays in fulfilling my order, John should have contacted me and asked me how I wanted to proceed. The bulk of my order was drop shipped from Tessco, who I’ve done business with before and would have been more than happy to order direct from.

The programming kit for the F5061 that I ordered from The Antenna Farm, which was listed as “you buy the cable, we throw in the software”, arrived as a loose cable in the radio box and a home-burned CD, without even any writing on it to say what it was, with a simple zip file of the installer. I don’t know what Icom’s licensing agreement is, but I doubt they’d be happy about this, as the software isn’t available on their web site.

To top it all off, I was told by my installer that he stopped buying from The Antenna Farm a few years ago due to endless problems.

Vehicles antennafarm, communications, EMS, radio

I’ve done a bit of work on my truck since my last update, and also have some new photos. The work done includes:

• Added 4 strobes head to rear of truck, with strobe box in NEMA enclosure in bed.
• Icom F5061 (VHF 50W) mobile radio in console
• Three antenna mounts and antennae on roof – WiFi antenna, VHF mobile antenna and wideband scanner antenna. The installation and wiring was done by Ken’s Auto Electric of Midland Park, NJ (Ken is a great guy, and prices very reasonably).

Click photos for larger version.

Looking good after a wash and detail…

Another photo after the wash (before antenna installation)

Front lighting job finished.

Direct frontal view (before antennae). The Dual Avenger is barely visible behind the Super Duty graphic at the top of the windshield, but shows through very clearly when lit.

Running board mounted LIN4’s.

Rear license plate mounted LIN3s and rear strobes.

Closeup of rear LIN3s on license plate bracket.

Icom F5061 mounted in center console, wired to center antenna.

Video of rear lights (LIN3s and strobes) during the day. Quicktime MOV, 20 seconds, 26 MB. download/view video.

Video of truck lit at night, shot from all sides. 24 seconds, Quicktime MOV, 29 Mb. download/view video.

Antenna installation by Ken’s Auto Electric. Front to rear:

1. L-Com HG2405U-NMO 2.4GHz 5dBi WiFi antenna for future laptop.
2. Antenex QW152B 152-162MHz 1/4 wave unity gain VHF antenna hooked up to Icom mobile.
3. Antenex ABSCANC 150/450/800 MHz scanner antenna.

Vehicles antennafarm, antennas, emergency, EMS, f250, icom, lights, radio, truck

As mentioned in my Custom Truck Console post, since my truck was stolen and now recovered (with all of the emergency equipment stripped out – weird) I’ve got to start from scratch. Since I finished the console, I’ve started work on redoing the lighting. The first grueling step was to check continuity of the existing wiring (what was left of it), strip out everything that didn’t work, and rehab what did. Then I did a few pulls, mainly a giant pull from the console to under the hood of six 16-ga wires and three 12-ga, along with a massive run of 6-ga welding cable direct from the battery (with a circuit breaker) to the console.

There’s a thread covering this install over at elightbars.org as well as a thread on the previous (original) installation.

This is part 1 of (hopefully only) 2. The list of what’s installed so far is:

• Custom console.
• Galls SE082 switch box – 3-position slider, 5 on/off rocker switches and one on-off-(on) rocker switch.
• Radio Shack Pro-433 scanner, hopefully to be replaced by a Icom F5061.
• B/B Whelen Dual Avenger above rearview mirror.
• Unitrol 80K air horn (siren wires not connected)
• 2x Sirennet 100W speakers mounted in front bumper.
• 2x B/B Whelen LIN4’s on 10-75 Lighting front license plate bracket.

The console with equipment mounted in it:

Dual Avenger (B/B) on headliner bracket above rearview mirror – it just fits:

Avenger from the outside:

10-75 Intersection Bracket behind front license plate. B/B LIN4’s:

SirenNet 100W speakers behind front bumper:

Coming next:

• 4x (!!!) blue Whelen 500 Linear Super LED’s in front grill, mounted with chrome flanges.
• B/B LIN4’s on front running board mounts.
• Blue LIN3’s on rear license plate bracket.
• Some sort of lights in the rear window – if I can afford it, blue/amber Whelen 400 Linear’s (6-over-6) independently switched.
• Icom F5061 VHF mobile.
• VHF antenna, either roof mount or mounted in a stake pocket.

Vehicles console, emergency, emergency vehicle, EMS, lighting, truck

I’ll keep this post relatively to the point (the original full story is on eLightbars.org here and here). My 2006 Ford F-250 CC XLT was stolen in September, 2008. It was recovered about a month later, after Geico said they’d pay out, and after I’d bought another vehicle. Anyway, it came back from the body shop about 2 months later, and it was time to begin customizing it again. The main parts of the project were wiring and installation and building a custom console…

My main inspiration was some of the custom consoles done by places like Odyssey, though I wanted something carpeted (hopefully a close match to the factory interior). The main idea I was working off of was this one from Odyssey:

The general idea was to have a replacement for the factory console which would allow mounting of a radio, emergency lighting controls, and a few other things while not sacrificing storage space. The specific requirements that I came up with included:

• Mount over the transmission hump more or less where the factory console is, forward to the dash.
• Allow access to the pull-out cupholders in the dash and not impede access to any controls.
• Fasten to the floor using only the four factory console bolts.
• Allow mounting of at least one radio, one switch box, GPS and scanner.
• Radio and switch box should be mounted using the Jotto Desk faceplates that I had from the CVPI console.
• The real clincher that prevented me from using a stock console: Have a large storage compartment comparable to the factory console.
• Provide a set of rear cupholders.

I spent some time over the course of three days or so measuring the console area of the truck and drawing out my initial plan in CAD (specifically the demo version of QCAD for Linux – regrettably not Free software). Once I had the plans drawn up and was satisfied that the angles and measurements were within acceptable tolerance, I made a full-scale prototype out of foam core board. With a little shaving of the corners, I managed to get a relatively good form and transferred it to ½" cabinet-grade luan plywood. It was a bit difficult with only a jigsaw, but worked out relatively well. While I can’t seem to find any pictures of the foam core, here are some of the wood form being assembled and the test fit in the truck:



I’d originally been a bit worried about the structural integrity, but I found that by clamping the corners, pre-drilling and securing them with aggressive wood screws at approximately 1 screw per 1.5 inches along the joints, the plywood held together fine.

After testing the fit and checking that the four factory bolt holes lined up correctly (which they did, and also held the console quite securely), I pulled it back out and started the process of carpeting it. I bought 2 yards (76 x 72 inch) of color #8078 “Dark Grey/Quartz” plush cut pile automotive carpet from StockInteriors.com, for about $80 with shipping. It turns out that the color isn’t an exact match to the factory carpet (I got 6 sample squares from them and this was the closest color) but it’s a good medium between the carpet and upholstery.

Planning for how to cover this wooden behemoth with carpet took quite a few hours, and short of making it into a week-long job of sewing, I decided to wrap the sides and back with one piece, folded over on the bottom and top edges of the storage box, then use separate pieces for the top of the console and the front (which would be adjacent to the dash and mostly hidden from view). I started off with a plan to use 3M Super 90 spray adhesive, on the advice of an ELB member. Unfortunately, I could only find Super 77.

Prior to carpeting, I had to get the equipment mounting openings down to about 8.5" for the 8.75" Jotto faceplates. I cut some excess luan plywood down into 2" wide strips and then cut them to length for the openings, sandwiching about three together with Liquid Nails and then mounted them vertically on the sides of the console.

Carpeting the console at 2 AM probably wasn’t the best idea. I looked at how the cut edges of the carpet would meet and the corners, and decided I’d need some sort of edge molding to make it look good – preferably black powder coated aluminum, somewhere around ½" legs. As such, I decided to forgo most of the glue and stapled the carpet at the edges, planning to cover it with molding. Ok, I lose a few points for that one. The last thing to go on was the carpet on the front and top, which I glued with Super 77 and also stapled on the front (where it can’t be seen). I cut X-shapes in the mounting areas and folded the carpet down, stapling it to the inside of the console, and cut a slit in the front for wiring. The glue didn’t seem to hold on the narrow parts of the top/mounting area, but once faceplates were screwed in it was fine. The faceplates are just held in with screws into the vertical wood strips placed on the sides of the opening.

Top view of the console, mounted in place, with the unfinished storage box.

Equipment mounting area:

View from the driver’s seat:

Factory cupholders extended with just enough clearance to work:

Staples around the edges, intended to be covered with molding. They’re really not that visible unless you make a point of looking at them (given their placement). Red handle is a 100A cutoff for the main battery lead, with a removable handle.

The weekend after console fabrication, I started wiring. Here’s the relevant parts involving the console.

Semi-finished console with equipment mounted. Front-to back, RAM magnet mount for GPS, Radio Shack Pro-433, Galls SE082, nifty Jotto storage tray.

Wire routing in loom from the console to under the dash

Rear of console – Jotto cupholder and charger for Streamlight Stinger 75014

Still to be done:

• Most of the wiring and installation.
• Lining the storage box with something, probably toolbox drawer liner.
• Making a cover/lid for the storage box.

Vehicles console, emergency, emergency vehicle, EMS, lighting, truck