I have an unidentified cable under the passenger side of my dash. It looks like a coaxial antenna cable for a CB or Ham radio..... Any ideas on what this may be used for?

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1983 Mercedes 300D
Atlanta, GA

That is exactly what it was. Apparently factory installed. Remember what year that was!!

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1961 190Db retired
1968 220D/8 325,000
1983 300D 164,150

and if you take the panel off the left side in the trunk you will find the other end.

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currently
[1981 300 td tdidi 165500 dark brown/palamino-Brownie-mine-3k miles of ownership
1983 240d 162+++ Anthricite grey w/ henna red interior and hella lights-wifes car-Red

the above two cars are for sale
and can be seen on the cars for sale thread here. pix also available.


240d-144+ Manilla Yellow w/ palmino interior-greasecar kit-Blondie-the college kids car

23" gt 21 speed still on original tires-still got the nubs
21" khs tandem

for the responses. I thought that the cable was indeed for a CB or Ham radio. My father was into the ham radio scene for many years, and I remember seeing lots of coaxial cable that he ran through the house and even his cars. I think its pretty cool that MB would put some coax cable into the car...

I just so happened to see it when I was replacing my blower motor, and I wanted to get some other opinions.

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1983 Mercedes 300D
Atlanta, GA

They probably just replaced the stock telephone antenna cable with that one (and or changed connectors on the ends)
Running coax sucks...thats why I use remote mount
Radio in the trunk, run power, faceplate, and mic/speaker stuff up front.
Also makes for less "RF in the Shack"

So, why is it harder to run coax than a multicore cable and power and speaker leads?
I prefer to simply run a single coax (in the MB, there is plenty of protection for the coax).
Tony

I could have run the coax but I plan on changing my antenna and whatnot sometime soon.
Its easier for me to run the remote face plate becuase there isn't many good locations to put the unit up front (atleast a ham rig).
I like a reasonably stock look so a bulky rig chillin on my or between the seats wasn't on my mind.

The coax probably would be easier however feeding the large PL-259 end through the body would have been bad times as compared to the power, mic, faceplate, and speaker wire. Most of those are realitively thin in this setup. (the faceplate cord is REAL thin...the only sizeable one is the power leads.)

BTW RF in the shack was just a joke

Brandon,
I am used to installing 2 way radios using BNC connectors which are relatively easy to route in a vehicle. I forgot the CB radios use the UHF (PL259) connector.
We usually install the remote unit under the drivers' seat in our vehicles as we almost never carry more than one passenger. The Head unit in this case is a flat ribbon RJ45 connected cable, which is also easy to run.
Tony

This is ham radio install but yeah ..Same thing.
I thought about the under the drivers seat install but I wasn't sure on the available space. This kenwood rig is pretty good sized.
But for those wishing to run an anntenna, the BMC would be a good way to as you worked it through the interior.

Aluminium trunk + Magnetic Mount Antenna = Not fun.