One of the most important pillars of preparedness is communication. If you enjoy taking your family hiking, camping, or off-roading you may find yourself in areas with poor cell coverage. If you find yourself in an emergency with no cell service, what is your backup plan? For a growing number of adventure seekers Ham radio is the key. In this Tacoma Ham radio install I’ll walk you through how I set up my mobile ham radio and things you should consider before installing yours.
Communication for the trail or emergencies
Parts list:
- Icom IC-2730a
- Comet CP-5M Universal RS-730 Lip Mount w/Coax Attached
- Comet SBB-5NMO 2M/70cm Dual Band Mobile Antenna
- Tacoma Track Mount
- Ring terminals for 10-12 AWG wire
- Heat shrink tubing
- ABS Plastic sheet
- (1) RAM Ball Adapter with AMPS Plate
- (1) RAM Composite Double Socket Arm
- (1) RAM Track Ball with T-Bolt Attachment
- Wire loom tubing ¾”
- Zip ties
- 6x8mm machine screws
Tools needed for this Tacoma Ham radio install:
- Cordless drill
- Drill bit set
- 10mm socket or wrench
- Philips head screwdriver
- Crimper
- Lighter
- Loctite (blue)
- Dremel
What comes in the IC-2730a box?
Routing the power cable
Getting the power cable through the firewall is the hardest part of adding electronics to a vehicle. Fortunately for me, Toyota doesn’t actively try to fill every square inch of the engine compartment with random bits of plastic. I easily found the gromet that the main wire harness enters the cab through. I used a long piece of metal to poke a hole through the gromet and taped to it the power cables that came with the radio. Snaking the wires through the tiny hole, I made sure I wasn’t pulling on any of the wires in the factory wire harness. With this step out of the way the rest of this Tacoma ham radio install was cake.
Connecting to the battery
Connecting directly to the battery is what most people do when adding a ham radio to their vehicle. With the addition of my own accessory fuse block, this won’t be necessary for me. I cut off the inline fuses that came with the radio’s power cable and crimped a ring terminal to each of the wires. Don’t forget to slide the heat shrink tubes onto the wires before you crimp on the ring terminals. I tightened the screws in my Blue Seas fuse block down onto the ring terminals on my wires and wrapped the power cable in ¾ inch wire loom tubing. Time to move into the cab.
Routing the cables in the cab
Routing cables for this Tacoma ham radio install is painless because of how easy it is to get behind the trim near the doors. I removed the trim piece nearest the driver’s side door and then the piece near the clutch. I wrapped the power cable in wire loom tubing. The power cables were pushed into the track next to existing factory wires.
Installing the antenna
Before fishing the power cable under the driver’s seat, the next step in this Tacoma Ham radio install is adding the antenna. I attached the Comet lip mount on the hood of the Tacoma. This particular model came with the coax cable already attached. I wrapped the portion of coax that will be left under the hood in wire loom tubing then zip-tied it to the hood itself. The antenna coax was fed through the driver’s side quarter panel then wrapped under the weather stripping, meeting the radio’s power cable just under the hood release. Both the coax cable and the power cables were then fed through the carpet under the driver’s seat and connected to the radio.
Making a mount for the Tacoma ham radio install
There is a mount for the Icom IC-2730a head unit, but it’s sold separately and it’s outrageously priced at $37. That only gets you a steel plate and two magnets. You have to buy the additional suction cup mount for another $80. I decided to make my own mount for the head unit. I cut a piece of ABS plastic to 1.75” x 8“. This left me enough room to mount the head and the microphone clip.
Two holes were drilled at 68mm apart for the two mounting screws for the head unit, the first of which was 41mm from the edge. I attached the Ram ball adapter with AMPS plate to the ABS plastic by drilling and countersinking four holes for four bolts. Two holes were also drilled for two bolts to hold the microphone clip in place. A square hole was cut in the back of the mount where the power cable attaches to the head unit. This was done with a Dremel.
Tacoma Track Mount for the Tacoma Ham radio install
My goal with this Tacoma Ham radio install was to keep it as clean as possible. There are several other dashtop mounting options, however the Tacoma Track Mount (TTM) is one of the smallest and cleanest looking, while maintaining the most functionality. I won’t go into the entire process here because Expedition Essentials has a very detailed video tutorial. I used my Dremel to make a small notch in the back of the track itself so the radio’s power cable could fit through.
Fishing the cable from the radio’s body to the head unit
The best part of this Tacoma Ham radio install is that the power cable for the head unit is completely hidden. I removed the plastic trim piece that holds the heat and fan controls while the bezel was outside of the truck. I then removed the center console trim piece around the parking brake lever that has the cupholders. You can find how-to demonstrations on YouTube to see how to remove these pieces.
The power cable was run behind the main screen in the dash and down past the wires for the heat and fan controls. The wire was then fished through a small channel on the left side of the wireless phone charger and back towards the center console storage compartment. From here the cable pokes through between the hard-plastic trim and the carpet and runs under the driver’s seat.
Finishing the Tacoma Ham radio install
Once the power cable was run from the body of the radio to the head unit, I snapped all the plastic pieces back into place in the reverse order they were removed. The last piece reinstalled was the bezel. I made sure that the power cable was not pinched when reinstalling the bezel. I inserted the Ram mount with T-track adapter into the TTM and tightened it down. Attaching the Ram Mounts arm to my DIY mounting plate and clipping the power cable to the head unit was the final step in this Tacoma Ham radio install.
Summary
You certainly don’t need all of this to have a ham radio in your vehicle, but having all the wires tucked away and hidden from sight is oddly satisfying. This is one of the cleanest Tacoma Ham radio install’s that I could find. I would still like to mount the hand microphone in another location, but that project will have to be completed at another time. I’m very happy with how this install went and can’t wait to test it out over the repeater.
Find our YouTube video of this install on our channel.
Check out our review of the 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road!
I find this very interesting. My grandfather was a Ham operator for many years. He spent hours upon hours talking with people all over the world. At that time he had a very tall tower in the yard. I was really surprised to see how compact your radio is.. He taught forestry for the University of KY and ran their field camp. He’s been gone over 30 years so I’m sure he’d be excited to see how things have changed.
Thank you for checking out the article! Wow, he must have known a lot about Ham to talk to people around the world. From what I understand it can be fairly difficult to talk to people in other countries, let alone in different counties. I’m sure he would have been happy to see how many more people are getting into Ham as well!