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

luk4mud

Explorer
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

Adventurer
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

Explorer
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

Adventurer
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
 
Last edited:

luk4mud

Explorer
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.
 

doug720

Expedition Leader
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.
 

Attachments

  • P1100264.JPG
    P1100264.JPG
    155.7 KB · Views: 75
  • P1100260.JPG
    P1100260.JPG
    151.4 KB · Views: 72
  • P1100261.JPG
    P1100261.JPG
    155.7 KB · Views: 67
  • P1100262.JPG
    P1100262.JPG
    167.8 KB · Views: 66
  • P1100263.JPG
    P1100263.JPG
    167.1 KB · Views: 70

Gutarplaya39

New member
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).

20150325_023147.jpeg
 

Maverick1701

Adventurer
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.

70354293_10103906654605038_9177631206383026176_n.jpg
70544853_10103906654570108_9147919215334785024_n.jpg70643536_10103906654585078_4612387090234081280_n.jpg70769066_10103906654485278_1682797083112767488_n.jpg71169179_10103906654470308_1372612633735200768_n.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 71101025_10103906654530188_8095218822664945664_n.jpg
    71101025_10103906654530188_8095218822664945664_n.jpg
    124.1 KB · Views: 14

Maverick1701

Adventurer
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.



20200312_161533.jpg20200312_161459.jpg20200531_141616.jpg20200531_141557.jpg
 

kiloxraysierra

New member
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.

54dfb1814bee3a0be870486a58ef2f0b.jpg


195cbe0c606b1c49c4bfa79ab66565c6.jpg


0b8826ab3ee1fe83bb17a059e1d6dd55.jpg


d5dfb2c0313cba93886b2f0aa3c19b3a.jpg


4525a2b086e48ae497f719de1ea95694.jpg


2560afacb2a4d3e88f7a711c70125692.jpg


b13f07b41140fee4d2ca32ddf599622e.jpg


8058a00959d8921ebed01b8185ea7dd7.jpg


24f3a712afed5dbb5c2c4f85d6c30f79.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

kiloxraysierra

New member
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.

a79fbd3a9033f9ef83c820bdd49dda92.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
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.

iu.jpeg

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.

IMG_0231_mid.jpg

IMG_0233_mid.jpg

IMG_0277_mid.jpg
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
185,539
Messages
2,875,663
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top