HAM Mobile: Rig Radios, vehicle mounting set ups, and relevant equipment

[luk4mud]

Just bought the following:

Yaseu 7900. Dual band, less than $300 after rebate, detachable face, 4 levels of power. Has more features than I need but it was the lowest priced decent brand I could find with the important features listed above.

Diamond 1/2 wave antenna. No ground plane needed, or thats what the HRO sales guy led me to believe.

Cheapy external speaker. The radio body is zip tied to the underside of the passenger seat, so this was needed.

Skinny coax line. Easily threaded under the carpet etc in the Jeep.

With that less than $500 set up, I can pick up some incredible transmission at distance. I was on the repeaters all over SoCal last night, many of them 30+ miles out with very good clarity.

A cb will never occupy my jeep again ....

 

[CaliMobber]

Nice! 7900 is a great radio, I know first hand :victory:.

yup 1/2 way doesn't need a ground plane so your in good shape.

 

[luk4mud]

Nice! 7900 is a great radio, I know first hand :victory:.

yup 1/2 way doesn't need a ground plane so your in good shape.

Thanks for the confirmation! Any pointers for us newbies would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I heard an interesting local radio club conversation last night, the topic being why there are so many new ham licensees. My first thought was that it is attributable to folks like us- offroaders switching from cb. The group consensus was that it is due to preppers. That was followed by a RIP tribute to one of their older club members who fell from his roof installing a gargantuan antenna. What a way to go ....

 

[CaliMobber]

Thanks for the confirmation! Any pointers for us newbies would be greatly appreciated.

Your in the area of the 147.435! if you dont mind trash talk and swear words, I enjoy the 435 crew. Many people dont like how they act but I think its funny. they are kinda world famous in the ham radio world.

i think for sure the offroaders are a big part of it plus the Chinese radios making there way into the market, they are so cheap anyone can get involved.


Where is the pictures of your setup?? haha

 

[luk4mud]

Your in the area of the 147.435! if you dont mind trash talk and swear words, I enjoy the 435 crew. Many people dont like how they act but I think its funny. they are kinda world famous in the ham radio world.

i think for sure the offroaders are a big part of it plus the Chinese radios making there way into the market, they are so cheap anyone can get involved.


Where is the pictures of your setup?? haha

Yeah I found the 435, their conversations make the truckers blush. I still dont have my call sign so I am just monitoring for now. Not that I would contribute much to the 435 anyway I guess.

 

[CrewServed]

I was gonna start another thread for my own install, but luckily I found this thread, and hopefully this photo album will be useful to other hams (or CBers) who want to hardmount their radios to their trucks.

Yaesu FT-8800R install in 2005 Toyota Tundra AC

 

[doug720]

Here is my install in my 60 Series LandCruiser with a Tuffy console. The radio is an ICOM V8000 which has a fan and front speaker. I use a Maxrad antenna on the front bumper.

I drilled the tuffy for the mic cord and used a rubber grommet to protect it. When I close the tuffy, the radio is hidden and very secure. The radio is mounted with rubber isolators to the tuffy and a chassis ground. All reports from other hams report the set up works great.

 

[Gutarplaya39]

Super crappy picture, but this is my current setup in my 4th Gen 4Runner... It's constantly being updated though.
Kenwood TS-480 (HF), Uniden BCD-536HP (Digital Scanner), Kenwood Stereo (crankin' the tunes), Kenwood TM-V71 (VHF/UHF).

 

[Maverick1701]

TYT7800 & Cobra 75 mounted in my 2018 Frontier.
The dual band antenna was mounted on a front fender lip mount. CB antenna was mounted off the rear bed area.

I rarely use the CB anymore (which is why I bought the 75 model) so I could disconnect the CB and the only thing visible was the plug end.

 

[Maverick1701]

The new truck only has a GMRS radio mounted so far (Midland MXT275). I haven't moved my dual band over to my F150 and have been using a little handheld HAM in the mean time.

The GMRS is mounted in the center console. The "mic" of the radio contains all the controls so I can snake the cord out of the console via a cord hole and run the radio with the console all closed up.
The 6db antenna is mounted on the rear stake hole using a breedlove mount.

 

[kiloxraysierra]

Yaesu FTM-400XDR with body mounted under the console, speaker behind the center stack and remote head unit and mic using panel mount pass through RJ-11 adapters to the console. Larsen NMO 2/70 center of the roof on my 2017 Ram 1500.

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[craig333]

Nice, I don't know why so many people are reluctant to cut a hole.

 

[kiloxraysierra]

Nice, I don't know why so many people are reluctant to cut a hole.

It wasn’t so bad. I have a waterproof cap I can replace the antenna with if I ever need the clearance. Figure I’ll just put a rubber plug in after removing the NMO mount when I sell it. Ex-police vehicles do this all the time.

Also, maybe measure 3 times before cutting the hole. I got lucky when I was eye-balling it. Any further over the support beam and I would have been in trouble.

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[sonoronos]

Nice, I don't know why so many people are reluctant to cut a hole.

Water infiltration and residual value come to mind!

 

[DaveInDenver]

Water infiltration and residual value come to mind!

I've heard people either just leaving the NMO or just doing what they do with cop cars and stick a rubber plug, either way just telling the buyer it was for a cell phone antenna. With these little rubber plugs you barely notice and it's usually on the roof so I bet no would ever know.



The water inflitration, not sure, never happened to me with NMO mounts and antennas. It's a pretty solid system. Now the rubber plugs, I dunno, I could see a bit of RTV and the plug being fine. No first hand experience with it. In my last truck I just left the NMO, actually the radio and antenna went with the truck to a friend in the 4x4 club.

Measure once, cut twice. Or something like that. Do definitely take the time to look behind the headliner before placing and drilling. I put mine on either side of a beam that was right in the middle of the roof. So one wouldn't have been quite exactly in the middle anyway.