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Author Topic: Car speaker repurpose to HAM  (Read 414 times)

W7GEL

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Car speaker repurpose to HAM
« on: August 09, 2021, 02:34:46 PM »

My car has a center channel speaker from the factory but the stock radio is long gone, so this speaker is just there.  I was considering using this spot for a speaker from my TM-D710GA radio.  The speaker is 8 ohm as I recall and dual voice coil, With some chokes inline, might need to cut those out.  Anyways the radio has the typical headphone jack output. 

I assume I could just hack off the jack on one end and hard wire it up.   Anyone do this? 

Thoughts?   Seem like an easy thing to do.
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K0UA

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Re: Car speaker repurpose to HAM
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2021, 04:30:43 PM »

My car has a center channel speaker from the factory but the stock radio is long gone, so this speaker is just there.  I was considering using this spot for a speaker from my TM-D710GA radio.  The speaker is 8 ohm as I recall and dual voice coil, With some chokes inline, might need to cut those out.  Anyways the radio has the typical headphone jack output. 

I assume I could just hack off the jack on one end and hard wire it up.   Anyone do this? 

Thoughts?   Seem like an easy thing to do.

Back in the "before time" when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a deputy Sheriff, we hooked the speaker outputs of our Motorola Mocom 70 VHF rigs to the front speaker of our fleet of Mercury police interceptors. Leaving the rear speaker still hooked up to the AM "goodtime" radio.  The front speaker hooked to the Motorola rigs sounded great! bounced off of the front windshield. Far better than the stock Motorola under dash speakers that came with the Motorola's.  I Say give it a try as is.
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73  James K0UA

N1IG

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Re: Car speaker repurpose to HAM
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2021, 05:24:25 PM »


Back in the "before time" when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a deputy Sheriff, we hooked the speaker outputs of our Motorola Mocom 70 VHF rigs to the front speaker of our fleet of Mercury police interceptors. Leaving the rear speaker still hooked up to the AM "goodtime" radio.  The front speaker hooked to the Motorola rigs sounded great! bounced off of the front windshield. Far better than the stock Motorola under dash speakers that came with the Motorola's.  I Say give it a try as is.

lol

« Last Edit: August 09, 2021, 05:29:59 PM by N1IG »
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K7MEM

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Re: Car speaker repurpose to HAM
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2021, 01:17:05 AM »

A center channel speaker works very well. I use a center channel speaker, that was once part of a RCA surround sound system, in my shack. I drive it with a small PA amp that has bass and treble controls. But you probably don't need an outboard amp. I use it for convenience. I have it set up so that I can switch in any of my radios. The sound is much nicer than the tiny speakers in the radios. I have several old Heathkit speakers, for my SB-101 and HR-1680, but the center channel speaker sounds much better.
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Martin - K7MEM
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KC6RWI

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Re: Car speaker repurpose to HAM
« Reply #4 on: August 10, 2021, 12:26:08 PM »

I'd be under that dash so fast to do that.
I remember putting a 6"/9" speaker in the rear deck of my 69 plymouth belvedere, it was only AM radio, there wasn't even a place for 2 speakers back then, but it sounded great at the time.
It was cop car, same as a road runner, but with  4 doors..wish I still had it..
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WB2WIK

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Re: Car speaker repurpose to HAM
« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2021, 06:11:16 AM »

I'd certainly "just try it" and see if you like how it sounds.   Nothing to lose.

However, I like a speaker closer to me and aimed at me so if I have passengers they're not so annoyed by "more sound" filling the car interior with content they don't care about and lately use a wireless speaker setup (Bluetooth) with the "receiver" and speaker clipped to the sun visor overhead and right in front of me, and the speaker is more "communications" grade without much bass response that can make speech sound more muddy.

(Of course some of the "muddiness" may be just me, since I note my high-frequency hearing has fallen off over the years and I can't hear lots of stuff my dog hears fine. :P)

Some mobile rigs may already be Bluetooth enabled (haven't bought anything new lately) but if not, a small plug-in dongle can be used with its battery recharged every once in a while by plugging the charger into the cigar lighter/aux power outlet in the car.   The batteries in these things last a really long time between charges.   The visor-clipped unit has an Li-Ion battery that lasts at least a month of daily use between charges.

They're very inexpensive and sound "just right" for speech communications.
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N2AYM

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Re: Car speaker repurpose to HAM
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2021, 06:59:51 AM »


Back in the "before time" when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a deputy Sheriff, we hooked the speaker outputs of our Motorola Mocom 70 VHF rigs to the front speaker of our fleet of Mercury police interceptors. Leaving the rear speaker still hooked up to the AM "goodtime" radio.  The front speaker hooked to the Motorola rigs sounded great! bounced off of the front windshield. Far better than the stock Motorola under dash speakers that came with the Motorola's.  I Say give it a try as is.

lol



Looks like from the old research line series mobiles
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K0UA

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Re: Car speaker repurpose to HAM
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2021, 07:29:19 AM »

Back in 2000, I got a new job as an engineer for Alltel corporation, and bought a new pickup truck to go to work with. A nice 2000 Silverado. I also bought a new Yaesu Ft-90 vhf/uhf rig to go in it. I "built in" the FT-90r to go into the dash with a custom faceplate/bezel I made. But that left the problem of what to do about the speaker.

 As my new truck did not have trip computer in the overhead compartment, but did have a nice plastic snap in cover where the trip computer would be that faced outward and down. I unsnapped that cover, and went to the drill press and drilled a bunch of 3/16 holes in the cover in a pleasing symmetrical pattern for a speaker grille. I found a nice oval speaker that would fit in the recess and ran wire for it down to the radio. I was in business with a great sounding and great looking install.

Many people that rode in the truck commented on how "cool" the install looked. I was pretty proud of it myself and used it for many years until a distracted driver T boned the truck, apparently because this distracted driver ran a red light while looking at a cell phone.

In my next mobile install into a 2010 Silverado, I just hung it all under the dash.  :)
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73  James K0UA
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