New radios in car

Well, today's aim was to get the new rigs into the car, that job is not 100% complete however.

The Leixen was the easier of the two to install, wiring into where the Midland used to go, no hassle there, the rig bracket was fastened to the car's ash tray and the rig fixed to it (after two attempts), the antenna was then connected and the power connected, mic clip was fastened between the instrument panel and the stereo, that is now done other than the need to cable tie the power wires out of the way.

The CRT was a different story, this requires a direct to battery connection, this meant I had to remove the glovebox (a pain in the arse in a Peugeot 106) and put a hole through a pre-existing grommet, the cable refused to go through until I simply strapped it to a screwdriver and lubricated it with washing up liquid, it now needs pulling the rest of the way with pliers, however there was another issue, that of the fuse on the positive line (there is one on the negative line as well), this disintegrated when I removed it from the fuse holder, meaning an emergency trip to Halfords for a new one in the morning, not what I wanted.

The above means that the CRT is in it's final position, with mic on other side of stereo though still within my reach from the driver's seat, but with no electrical supply, add to that rain and later on snow prevented me from doing as much work under the bonnet as I could have, as well as a lack of pliers to pull the wire through.

Despite the issues installing the CRT I am happy so far, the Leixen will be on and tuned to GB3IR when I head to Darlington early tomorrow and later on when I head to South Yorkshire for an appointment, by which time the CRT should also be operational and tuned to an active frequency, most likely FM voice as SSB frequencies will always require adjustment of the clarifier/RIT and I can't be doing that while driving.

More tomorrow all being well

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