VIC-3 Intercom Installation

[aleigh]

Installed a Harris 30-500mhz antenna, the mount, and the intercom boxes for my VIC-3 in the LMTV. I went back and forth on the location of the intercom boxes; I thought about putting them up on the dash, but I felt that space was kind of precious and I thought the cables might get annoying. I thought about putting them up where the sun visors are, but then the sun visors. Wear a hat, right.

Finally I decided on what you see here. I drilled through the chassis and placed 5/16 I.D. nutserts. The main VIC-3 box is going to go either in or on the rack, I haven't decided how I want to manage the real estate.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/adventioneering/albums/72157667465345064

 

[NDT]

Perfect placement. That's where they are in our fire truck.

 

[DiverDarrell]

looks great! What headsets are you going to use?

 

[aleigh]

I personally use a peltor comtac iii. Some of my more mission-capable friends have their own, and I've got a Bose laying around that girls look cute in. I'll probably pick up a couple of the older (cheaper) peltors for guests since they double as shooting muffs.

I may eventually run a box into the bed, I haven't decided. I have desires for a S-280 shelter to go back there, and I'll run a box into there for sure. I'll be hooking up ham radios to the intercom as well, building the interface boxes now, and I've been toying with the idea of trying to add a bluetooth interface so I can make phone calls.

 

[DiverDarrell]

We use comtacIII with our Lvis systems. If you need, I know of a company that makes adapters to go from the gentex style plugs to the normal.

 

[aleigh]

Our comtacs all have PTT boxes to U-229, so they just hook right up. I make U-229 and Ampheno/etc milspec cables anyways. In the process of making the highway cables. Thanks though!

I do like the comtac 3s but some people tell me that is just because I have not tried the 4s yet, with the in-ears. The biggest gripe I have about the 3s is probably that if I wear them with sunglasses the frames need to be close to my skull or things go wrong, and wearing them all day in the heat gets kind of terrible. I shoot OK with them so there's that.

I have some old VIC-1 headsets I was just thinking about re-writing to work with the ViC-3 (from 2 plugs to 1). Because they are cheap, and I have them, and I could hand them out to guests.

 

[86humv]

I have 10 + New vic3 hwy cables 19 ft available

 

[aleigh]

You mentioned that in my other thread. That would be great if I needed 19 foot ones, but it's just as easy to make ones that are a custom length for my install. They are very easy to make. Thanks though!

 

[DiverDarrell]

I'm going have to check out your truck soon. Looks like mine is going to take a little longer to get on the road than expected, and need inspiration to keep throwing money at it.

 

[aleigh]

You're welcome to come over and have a look at it. It still feels like a big TODO list but I feel like I am making progress.

 

[Feal318000]

I see lots of mounts and bases for sale, but where did you get the whip antenna? And is it 2 piece?

 

[aleigh]

This is one of the fancier Harris 30-500 mhz ones, RF-3183, which also seems to work well enough on CB. It gives around S3 or better across the entire range which is serviceable enough even without a tuner. I am into HAM radio/etc and work a lot of convoys so I wanted something that would cover all the bands useful to me in one go, CB through FRS/70cm basically. It's two piece in that it screws together in the middle. I bought this one new in box on a certain popular auction site for a few hundred. This is the -3 so it happens to include a duplexer but you can get them in different configurations.

The AS-3900 is the common antenna and pretty much looks the same. It is 30-88mhz and you see them up for auction a lot. I have never used one personally but they might be close-enough for CB if that was your only deal.

 

[Feal318000]

i am very interested in buying a mount, base, and a "military looking whip for my m1078. Not for a practical use, but for looks, i think they just look great on the cab, wrapped over. i think there were 2 on my truck, as it has the captured nuts and 1" holes for the wires on both driver and passenger sides

 

[aleigh]

Then your best bet is to pay as little as possible for a common 3900. I agree they look cool. The driver-side bracket seems to be very rare but just about anyone with a welder will be able to make you one if you take them the pax-side as a pattern. If you make it out of steel, it can be considerably thinner than the aluminum they use. I hope you put bolts into the nutserts to prevent water from getting into the cab through the holes. The 1" holes you can plug with a rubber plug, they are widely available.

I am curious, did your truck have a center seat and/or a digitization rack when you got it?

 

[Feal318000]

no center seat....im not sure what it did come with, (at least its use) maybe a digitization rack??? the center had a platform that extended almost to the heater, and mounted on that, a square frame that is about a foot or so tall. any info would be greatly appericeated, and ill run out and take a pic or 2, shortly. on a side note id trade all that stuff for a center seat in a heartbeat! (we have 2 kiddos)

 

[aleigh]

The digitization rack is a rack that replaces the NBC storage bin behind the pax seat and goes up to the roof. You can see mine in the pictures, I added it.

The "normal" radio mount replaces the center seat but it doesn't stick out towards the heater. The radios face forwards and it's about the same footprint as the seat was. It is basically a shell and holds at most a pair of radios. It sounds like your truck may have had a FBCB2/DAGR or something, or at least, maybe that mounting you have supported that system. Someone with more first-hand experience would have to chime in.

I have a premonition that center mounting bracket is going to be valuable to the right person so my unsolicited advice is don't dispose of it casually when you do pickup another seat.

 

[Feal318000]

well, here it is. i have no use for it and do want a center seat. as far as behind the passenger seat, my truck has a multi level canvas covered storage rack. the front of it has a Velcro door with weight limits painted on it. as always, ANY info is super appericeated!!!ill go grab a pic of what is behind my passenger seat

 

[aleigh]

Ah - that's the regular radio rack mated to a gunners platform. You stand on the thing when you are manning the turret and it folds up to allow crew to get between the seats.

I think you can mount a seat through the platform and then still be able to stand on it. You'd have to look for examples of this. Pretty cool though, esp. if you convert to a hatch top you can open. Girls love riding around standing out of the hatch for some reason, it's a trope with the unimogs which open.

 

[Feal318000]

common setup??

 

[aleigh]

Not common, not rare. Uncommon?