I’ve been running a dual-band setup in my truck for several months, but I have been wanting to upgrade it and add to it. My radio is actually a quad-band Yaesu FT-8900 but I only use the 2m/70cm bands on this radio because I don’t have the 10m or 6m antenna on my truck.
Through a random series of events, I found a good radio-mounting system made by a company called Havis Shields. They make and supply lots of the police/fire/emergency radio mounting systems that cities and counties use in their vehicles. I picked one of these up on ebay, used, for about $80. This specific model is called a Havis Console, and it is made to mount in between 2 bucket seats. I mounted mine to the seat frame, after I removed the middle cushion on my bench seat in my pickup truck.
So far the inside of the console is empty. I mounted my Yaesu FT-8900 to the front of the console, so that I could easily reach it after putting my center-console armrest down. Only the bottom cushion was removed, so I still have my center-console in the truck. My plan for the inside of the Havis Console is for a Motorola XPR-4350 Mototrbo radio, and a 900MHz radio of some sort. I have a XPR-4580 coming, but I am not sure I want both Mototrbo radios in the truck, even though one is 440MHz and one is 900MHz. I would rather pickup a Kenwood TK-981 900MHz radio to put in the truck and keep the XPR-4580 in the shack. But I haven’t decided yet. I’ll probably also throw a trunking scanner into the Havis Console at some point.
I’ll take more pics soon of the whole setup.
You mite wont to thank about a Motorola SPECTRA with a ID# D37 it is a 30 watt radio you will get 25 – 28 watt’s on 900 MHz Ham Band out of it were the Kenwood will get 9 or 10 watt’s out of it. You will wont all the WATT”s you can get on 900 mobile.
Hi Gary
Thanks for commenting.
Actually I run the TK-981 in the truck right now on about 12-watts and it does just fine. The high power Spectras are hard to come by, so I haven’t had a chance to make a comparison between a 12-watt model and a 30-watt model. Of course the higher power would do better, but I am impressed with the distance I can achieve on only 12 watts.