Aftermarket CB Radio

I bought my 1996 Voyager used without a CB radio. I did not care about not having a radio initially, but lately I have been riding in some groups where they use CB radios for communciation (and I felt left out). I did not want to spend the big bucks to buy a factory radio, so I looked for a way to add an aftermarket radio to my bike. The most important thing I wanted out of the aftermarket radio was to be able to use my existing (intercom) headset and mic to receive and transmit with the CB. I was not able to figure out how to do this by myself. However, with the help of a schematic provided by Eric Warman (met Eric on the Wyz's Voyager Forum site), I have been able to adapt a Radio Shack TC-503 Mini CB to my bike's systems. I picked up the radio for $40, spent another $50 on a Firestick antenna (includes the mounting and cable), and probably spent $100 for other supplies (I experimented a lot). I ended up using the Firestick antenna just for the CB. It worked fine for the AM/FM but the splitter took too much away from the transmission of the CB for me to try to use it for all radio bands.

If you don't uderstand this drawing then you might not be ready for this project ;O) The Radio Shack CB hooks up to the factory radio deck completly through the 8 pin DIN plug on the back of the radio (kinda like the stock radio ;o). The capaciter is 0.33uF and the resistor is 1000 ohms. Transmission isn't perect, but it is much better than anything else I have tried. My daughter grades it as 8 out of 10, with 10 being perfect. Drawing revised on 2/18/03 to correct pin numbering on 8-pin connector (1&4 pins and the wire leads were transposed)

I opened the radio and extended the mic wires out the side to avoid having to use the 5 pin DIN plug for the mic.

Push-to-Talk switch on the left handlebar.

Wired for test. Now I need to clean this mess up.

Ready to install the fairing.

I made the antenna mount out of 1/4" x 1" strap aluminum from a building supply store. The antenna mount bolts on to the bike using the helment locks (and some longer than original screws).

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