Is there anything I haven't thought of?

The truck needs a VHF radio. I'm considering an icom 706, because I can eventually run HF, but that'll be after it's actually able to drive further than the auto parts store, lol.


I'm considering (in no particular order):
ft-2800
ft-2900
FT-7800
FT-7900
IC-2200
ic-2300
ic-v8000
ic-2710
ic-2720
tm-281
some other kenwoods, no idea models

I'd prefer a remote-face radio, so I can minimize the losses from coax.

I have 2 7800's.
Decent radios. Wish they were dual receive.

I have a 2720 with blown finals which I have seen a few on ebay and the net with this issue.

Works really good as a receiver.

I'm thinking the Yaesu 7800/7900 is going to be the ticket.

I have a V-8000. Nice radio and 75 watts of 2 meter goodness. Non removable face, but it does have front firing speaker. Thats a real nice thing.

Yeah, I just took the 2900 out of my ak47 box and mocked it up. I think the 8000 is a good option, if I can find a decent place to put it. The ramcharger doesn't exactly have a lot of places to put it.

I've got an ft-7900 not much I'm 10 meter fm. I'd go with the 7800

I think you mean 8900 and 8800. :P

The front of the plastic console?

 

That's the only place I could reasonably put it.

love my 7900. Its been in my jeep for a long time kicking around in the dust and grit under my seat baking in heat and its never once skipped a beat. wide RX is awesome too. along with remote face. great radio.



 

Use decent coax, and it's non-issue.

For example, 10 feet of LMR-240 has only 0.3 dB of loss at 150 MHz - or just 0.5 dB at 450 MHz.

Derek45 recently posted he has a 78 or 7900 that he's getting ready to move. FWIW there are some nice higher end mobiles (HF) in the EE

May as well just raise your price $50, and get a TM-V71A.  


You know you want it.

Potentially. If I exhaust the used market I'll go to new. The $300 price point covers pretty much all dual-band v/u radios, but only used.

That GPS head is sexy stuff.

Mcs 2000

I recently bought a B-stock Kenwood TM-v71a from MTC for $305

Save $50 more dollars and buy a dual band rig like a FT8800 or TM-V71a. Having a cross band capability can be very beneficial. Both radios have it.  I would probably go with a Yaesu FT-8800 for a mobile installation since it usually comes with a free separation cable and hardware.

I'm going to get a 7800. One of the members here is selling his. If I don't like it, I'll move that to the AK47 box, and sell the 2900 currently in it, then buy an 8800 or an icom that does x-band repeat.

Nice, tell D45 my addy is good in QRZ for the commission chk

The GPS head is on the 710, that's over $600.

You can get the Yaesu FTM-100DR for $400 at HRO and have the GPS, APRS, and C4FM capability as well as standard wide and narrow band FM for $400 if you want to go that route.

Going price on a high power VHF Astro Spectra is about $300 (complete). That's 110W out and 50W of sit on the mic for 4 hours straight. Plus, you're digital capable.

If money is tight the ICOM IC-V8000 is about as good as it gets for a 2m only radio.
If you want to save a little more and get the best, get a Kenwood V-71 for the best all around radio for VHF and UHF.

I have a FT-2800 (65 watts) in my vehicle because I didn't know any better at the time.  There is nothing
the 2800 will do that the smaller FT-1802 (50 w), or FT-1900 (55 w) will do.  The smaller radio has all
of the same features, but is much easier to install.  It takes less space.

You'll never miss the 20 watt difference.  At VHF frequencies it is all line-of-sight and antenna.  Power
makes little difference.  Especially that small difference, which is about 1 db, at most.

The smaller radio will give you many more mounting options.

+1

I have had both the 1900 and 2900.  I sold the 2900 several years ago and standardized on the 1900.  I currently have three.  One in my Jeep.  One in my shack.  One in a radio go bag.

While I am sure it is different for every AO but I find a simple but solid mono band 2m mobile rig to work just fine for 95% of mobile operation.  If you want HF go HF, but HF is HF and I have always found that separation from my 2m rig and HF rig to be worth the space.  Even when operating HF I keep my 2m rig on the local repeater, but then again I rag chew on the local machine when I have the time.

On that same note I find a simple 5/8 wave whip antenna, mounted NMO style in the center of the roof to provide just about the best performance you are going to find for mobile VHF.

I don't really buy into the whole HF mobile operation.  Way to much distraction scanning bands or tuning, or whatever.  If I am going to be operating HF and making contacts I want to be in my shack, or gorilla portable, not trying to merge onto the highway.  Its one thing to throw your mobile on a repeater and chat, or even leaving it on simplex freq, and while I might get some flack for this,  feel that intricate radio operation is no different then texting while driving.  Its a distraction.  Program your frequency's prior to throwing it to D or 1st.  


Dual band is worth it, if 70cm is active with repeaters in your AO.  Mine has one, which is linked into our 2m system (technically its the link and isn't as easy to "get into" as the 2m side.  So for me, in my AO dual band is useless.  All my HTs have it if needed, but aside from GMRS compatibility I really don't need/ use it.

YMMV.

And regarding the Yaesu 2m rigs, the FT-1802M has been out of production a couple of years now.  It was replaced by the FT-1900R.  They are the same
size, pretty much the same features.  They swapped position of the WIRES (an absolutely useless feature!) and POWER buttons.  The main difference,
and it is negligible, the 1802 was 50 watts, the 1900 is 55 watts.  No one would be able to hear a difference.

Similarly, the larger FT-2800M is also out of production.  It was replaced by the FT-2900R.  They are the same size, same features, and again, swapped
position of the WIRES and POWER buttons.  The 2800 was 65 watts, the 2900 is 75 watts.  Again, no one would be able to hear a difference between
the 2900 and 2800, nor will they be able to hear a difference between the 2900 at 75 watts, and the 1802 at 50 watts.

I have the FT-2800M in my vehicle, the FT-1802M in my shop next to my HF base rig, and another FT-1802M as part of my go kit.  It is in a separate
container, just for transport, and using a window line Slim Jim from N9TAX, plugging into the power on my HF go kit, I can use it if needed, or leave
it packed away.  My daughter found a small Pelican case (1200?) on an auction site for just $12 that it fits in perfectly.  Only drawback, that case is
ARJedi Orange, but for the cheap price I can live with it.  I'd rattle can it, but paint won't stick to it.

Next mobile 2m rig I buy will be the smaller FT-1900R size.

HRO is the Devil!!!   Give the devil his due.

V-8000

2730-A

ETA:
I recently bought the Yaesu FTM-100 DR to play with Fusion.  Nice radio, but for me Fusion is meh and not worth the extra money.  ALL of the Fusion repeaters in my area are set for AMS on the input and FM only on the output, which makes digital basically valueless.  The repeater trustee and I had a chance to experiment with the DR-1 before it goes into service and I found the digital voice to be less pleasant than FM even in wide mode.  Since no one around me has a Fusion radio, we were unable to play with the data features and the club didn't buy the Wires-X box, so no Internet capability.

The point I was trying to make above (since your edit seems to be in reply to my comment) is that the FTM-100 has a built in GPS and APRS for $400, rather than the $600 Kenwood is asking.

That's pretty much me in a nutshell. Though have been known to have 3 mono band radios in a single vehicle...I generally just select the channel and maybe edit the PL on the fly. I stick to a 1/4 wave antenna. Haven't noticed much of a difference between it and a 5/8 wave in the flat lands. The truck sits at almost 7 feet at the top of the roof anyway.

I wasn't directing my reply to anyone in particular.  It was intended to be a general comment on the FTM-100.  I've never used APRS, so I totally missed that part of your response.  Sorry.  I was lured to it by people here putting up Fusion repeaters, so that was my focus.