The current Mobile setup consists of:

  • Yaesu FTM-400XDR (2m/70cm/APRS)
  • Diamond SG7500NMO Antenna w/ Diamond K9000 Antenna Motor Drive
  • Radio Shack 20-011 Vehicle Scanner Antenna (Used as needed with handhelds)

Since my current radio has two tuners, generally speaking, I use the left side for monitoring local non-ham frequencies or the local repeaters, the second receiver is either running APRS or is monitoring a second repeater depending on where I am and what I am doing. The radio does 50W on 2m, 70cm and a few watts on 220.

Yaesu FTM-350AR mounted in W6AER mobile

I drive an SVU and since I regularly have to go into San Francisco and fit into tight garages, I opted for a motorized antenna add-on for my mobile antenna.

Diamond SG7500NMO Antenna w/ Diamond K9000 Antenna Motor Drive

The motor drive for the antenna is controlled with a simple up and down switch, which frankly could have been built a little better. But the rest of the unit is very nicely done.

For the Radio mount I used once which attached to the mirror. It is a mount made by Lido. And the microphone is mounted on the side of the center panel. Main unit is under my seat and I had to use a longer cable (Simple cat 5 cable) to extend it due to run length.

In addition I do have a loose cable I can use to connect a secondary scanner or I can replace the screw off antenna and mount something for the specific band I want to use on it. This does not get as much use as I would like it though.

Please check out the ham shack, portable operating pages and the antenna farm while you are here.

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