Many of the folks in the local radio club, and on the local repeater (Red Rose Repeater Association) have heard me lamenting the length of time it was taking for my new vehicle to arrive.  Well, the wait is finally over!  Today I picked up my new 2016 Ford Fusion SE.

I can hardly wait to start making holes in it!  I have big plans for the radio install in this vehicle (well, maybe medium size plans compared to some of the stuff I've seen on them-there inter-nets.)  You'll have to watch the progress to see how the plans that are in my head play out in the car, but here is the high level plan:

1.  Install radio 
   
2. Talk 
3. Have fun

The plan is to use the convenient empty space under the climate controls to mount the control head of the radio [ed. you can see my first pass at this here, and my upgraded version here].  I've held the control head in place, and it should be a good fit.  When the car is in park, the shifter will be close, but while driving it will be quite easy to operate the radio.  As the project progresses you'll see why I'm not too worried about the control head feeling close to the shifter while in park.

There is just enough room in the center console for a couple things too [ed. like an "other" radio].  The little tray will come out, and the plan is to eventually put a couple radio nick-nac's in here.

 Looks like there is plenty of clearance with the trunk open.  The plan is to put an antenna on the roof of the car [ed. which I did!], and another mounted on the center of the trunk [ed. did that too!].  Based on this, I should be able to open the trunk without the trunk mounted antenna hitting anything.  Speaking of trunks....there's enough room in there for a body!  (Radio body that is......) I have big plans for this space too, but that's a secret...you'll have to follow along to see what goes on in here.

And of course - one of the important parts.  I'm not a motor-head, so I could care less about the engine.  What I'm interested in is the battery, and how easy it will be to connect power to.  Easy access, and plenty of room to work with power wiring.  Awesome!

As an added bonus, I struck a deal with the YL - she wanted to go to IKEA tomorrow, which is close enough to HRO (at least from where we live) that she's willing to ride along to the candy store after a trip to the infamous Swedish furniture monger, so that I can pick up a couple bits of stuff that I just have to have right away.

P.S.  I've heard that IKEA is the Swedish word for marital spat....

     Good evening all!  As I write this post I am sitting in what serves as both my temporary office, and my temporary shack, listening to some DX talking on 7.156.  The thing that stinks, is that I can't really join the fray - my rain gutters, which are doing double duty as my antenna just aren't up to the task [ed. read more about my gutter antenna here].  That will eventually change!  We recently did an addition on our house, and the room that used to be our basement catch-all storage room / cat litter box area (gross!) will be turning into my new office, and my new shack!  Additionally, I am finally going to pick up my new car tomorrow, so my radio equipment that has been patiently waiting since being removed from the old car will finally get pressed back into service.  I've been talking with a number of the local hams about the status of these things (or really the lack of status) so I decided to start this blog while things are in the early stages, so that everyone can play along, give a newbie feedback and advice, and hopefully have some fun!
     As I make progress on these projects, I'll post info and pictures about what I'm doing here [ed. there are a bunch of pictures in the gallery too!].  While the two main ongoing projects will be the vehicle install and the shack build, if other things pop up, I might just slip them in here as well. ​