Installing a Mobile Ham Radio - Notes

 Things I've learned from ham radio mobile installs: 

Radio - I really like the TYT-TH9800 - another Chinese radio but for the cost (I paid $232) the radio is extremely capable and I'm very impressed. The features it comes with would run me about $600 usually. 

I also have a Yaesu FT-400 - it has a beautiful LCD screen, but for what I'm doing which is mostly talking on repeaters, the screen is more of a luxury than a necessity. 

Ultimately, if the goal is to get up and running, doing it for the least cost is going to be the best plan of action.  You can always upgrade later, but jumping into high-end radios from the get-go doesn't seem to be the wisest course of action. 

25W is good, both mine operate at 50W, but 25 watts will get you out there for most situations.  

I put my radio body on the side of the center console down by my feet so it doesn't interfere with my driving, but it also gets access to the AC blowing down on my feet to help keep it cool, also with the speaker oriented towards me so that I can hear it more clearly.  

I mounted the faceplate of the Yaesu FT400 with a Lido Mount so it holds it up on the passenger side of the center console but looks similar to a police car computer in terms of the orientation and the mount. 

In terms of wiring and grounding, I ran positive off the battery, negative to the battery to ground it, and haven't grounded the radio to the body beyond mounting it to the center console.  Being able to move your face-plate around a bit is pretty nice if the sun is shining on it. 

In terms of antennas, there were three options I found really that applied to both of my vehicles (a Ford van and an Acura TL).  

Mag-mount quarter-wave Tram antenna that goes on the trunk of the Acura.

And a lip-mount Comet antenna that I put next to the vehicle antenna to the side of the hood.  I found that batteries exude a ton of RFI, so putting the antenna near the vehicle's antenna works really well, the vehicle's antenna was put there because it has a clear signal so it also works with ham. 

The other option is to drill an NMO mount.  I'm not a fan of drilling into my vehicle.  Tons of hams told me that was the way to go because it gets a better ground-plane, but then, they aren't going to be dealing with the headaches I have that come from drilling through your car's body, and most hams I see have mag-mounts anyways. 

I did have ferrite chokes, but once I got the antenna wire ran correctly, interference went down pretty substantially.