Old mobile discreet amp

[BrutonStreetTailor]

Hi, but of a long shot here but does anyone have any knowledge of a mobile amplifier, or even had or have one that I remember seeing installed in a friend's car many years ago. It had a hideaway main unit and a cable that ran to an interface that was spring loaded that he had mounted under the dash by his knees, it was screwed to the bottom edge of the plastic in his mk2 Escort. You reached down and felt for the panel as it was kept out of sight by a spring, when pulled forwards it latched into position so you could "play " with it, select mode, am/ssb and possibly pre amp. When you had finished I think you pulled it slightly further forwards and it would unlatch and spring back into it's hidden position, unfortunately I cannot remember the make despite a search of he usual sites. Regards Paul.

[The Collector]

I've never heard of anything like that before that was available from new. Cool if it was, but a lot of amp's that I know of (not that many then) have a removeable front panel that could probably have all the wires to it lengthened to enable remote switching from another point inthe car.

I bought an amp myself a year or two back, purely to try and contact soneone who was struggling to hear anyone. He was about 30 miles away from me and I live in a bit of a low spot/valley of sorts so he still couldn't hear me even pushing 100 watts.

Anyway, after failing to reach him (I believe he then sold up) with it, I decided I didn't like the upside-down design/look of the amp, so I took it apart, lengthened all the wires by about 8 inches and then put the front panel back on after twisting it 180 degrees, so the heatsink is now on the top with the writing on the front panel the right way around.

I'm sure if you lengthened all the wires of yours by 6ft or 8ft, the same method of stealthy-use your friend's had could be acheived. Just use nice, thick wires so you don't lose too much power down the extensions and the wires don't get too warm. Also, insulate them plenty too so you don't short the wires against any car seat frames etc. How you'd fit a spring-loaded system to it is another thing, but it's probably do-able with a couple of little angle brackets and a box of springs from Lidl etc.

[BrutonStreetTailor]

Thanks for your reply, do you know it never occurred to me that it could of been a DIY mod as from memory it looked pretty factory made, and I think I saw the amp in his cut out glove box, with the same controls replicated on the front but it was the first time I saw a cb set up in a car close up, must of been around late 1980 in my mid-teens and I'm sure my memory is not what it was, it could of been dark blue and black. Regards.