I desoldered the faceplate of a Uniden 520xl pro

[bloggerstomper]

Hi all!

I wanted to install my uniden 520xl pro inside my pickup and didn't like the clunky look of the whole radio just sitting out in the open, so I desoldered the faceplate and connected the faceplate and the body with 5ft of cat6e wires. I made the faceplate detachable by using RJ45 connectors and keystones. I checked continuity for each connection and all the connections were okay.

Now the issue is as follows.
The radio turns on, it changes channels and I can hear myself speak on the talkback speaker that I have. When I click the microphone switch the radio registers it and the RF meter goes all the way to 4. But I cannot hear anything, I cannot tune the antenna with it (the SWR meter works, I tested with a different radio) and I´m honestly stumped at what it could be. Did I mess up the timing by adding such a long wire run? Is there a way to fix this? Any information is greatly appreciated!

PS: find photos in gallery form below

[MDYoungblood]

From what I can tell, that is an a lot of cat5 cable, long runs like that could add resistance and impedance to the controls. It could possible be a solder joint, check them all and also check the cat5 connectors, one of them could be a bad contact. Those radios weren't meant to do what you are trying so good luck at getting it to work.

3's

Greg

[bloggerstomper]

Do you think that having a much shorter run would work? Thank you for your answer!

[MDYoungblood]

Shorter runs might help but there also could be an RF problem with those unshielded cat cables.

3’s

Greg

[bloggerstomper]

The cable itself is shielded in its majority save the solder points.

[bloggerstomper]

I’ll try to work on it and report back. Thank you!!