I have a 2004 Civic LX and I'm trying to get power to my HAM radio. The cables a pretty big gauge for the radio. The last car I had, I ran it to the battery. But with the Civic I can't find a place to run it that I can reach (or see). What's the best place to run it?

 

well, I dont know of any other way to power your radio or anything else in your car that isnt hooked up to your battery in the engine bay. You could have a seperate battery in the car but that would b pointless because it would be too much of a hassle to recharge and such, so definity just power it from your car battery. Anyways, look for gromlets or were other wires from your engine are passing threw the firewall and into the car. Or you could just drill a new hole. I would just secure the wire to a clothes hanger and push it thru one of the gromlets and once you can see the wire inside the car detach it from the clothes hanger and pull how ever much you need into the car and hook the wires to your new stereo. Hope that helped and good luck with the install! =)

 

for something small just tap into your fuse box under the dash... find a empty spade terminal and use a female spade terminal conected to a INLINE FUSE! inline fuse VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! dont just wire it directly. then run the power wire from the inline fuse to your accessory. and to ground it simply find any metal brace under the dash and easiest to find a existing bolt and use a ring terminal or if your lazy just strip the wire back and wrap it around the bolt and tighten it.

 

he mentioned the radio he is trying to install uses fairly large gauge wire. I wouldnt recommend using the fuse box to power anything that uses larger then 16 maybe 14 gauge wire.

On the driver side firewall to the left of the pedals (sitting inside the car looking at the pedals) there are several grommets in the firewall you could make a slice into to be able to pass your power wire through to gain access to the engine bay and connect to the battery.

 

Why do you want/need a ham radio in your car..... seems odd?
Isn't that something most do at home?

 

The radio uses 65 Watts, and the wire is somewhere between 8 and 12 gauge.

I mainly use it to listen to police frequencies (they can be VERY amusing at times) as well as storm chasers, and also just general frequencies.

The grommet was what I was imagining I would go through, I just don't know the location of the easiest one to access.



And OOPS! I meant the title to be "Running power for Radio from battery and another source (meaning I was possibly thinking of running another wire so I can power another lighter adapter)"

 

Go look in your engine bay on the drivers side and look at the fire wall, you will see other wires from your engine going thru the fire wall. Then just do what I said b4 and feed the wire thru it and connect it to your radio.

 

I found a good solution that someone told me. The drivers side is a good place, but pulling up the carpet on the passenger side, right next to the center console on the left there is a grommet. It's the shortest way to get to the battery.

Just posting if anyone else is trying to find an easier way