Best HF MOBILE Ham Radio 2024 | Best HF Radio for Vehicle 

Yep

Weird the IC-7000 never got a D-Star option.

Great radio

No it isn't bad that you have all of those - I have most of them. Yes I think I meant to say that the 7100 has a built-in sound card, but I said tuner instead. Not the first mistake I have made. Yes, a good HF Mobile Antenna video would be a great idea.

You can never have too many radios.

@@HamRadio2 Thanks Jason. Great video

Great , hows the separation kit ?

BTW-I think it should be IC7030 if it’s for the 30 year anniversary.

That was a good radio back in the day but I think they had some issues with the screen

My wife and I still go there

Yes

Excellent question

Not yet but you're not the first person to recommend that, so I'll work on something

Came to the comments to say the same. I love my 7100 and I have a LDG IT-100 tuner attached to the radio body with 3D printed brackets.

Internal sound card

That's what I talk about in this video

I'd like to find one of those myself.

You got a good deal for $650. I love mine. WB5NOE.

What would be great updates would be to have multiple faces available for the unit with a slide in/out mounting bracket. Let’s face it these radios are EXPENSIVE. A lot of us can’t afford to have several thousand dollars tied up in multiple radios for the shack and car. We end up having to make a choice between having one or the other. Or different types for mobile rather than shack. If the mfg’s focused on having a shack in the box that you could easily take from the shack and bring to the car and back you accomplish a lot. One place to program, one radio to learn how to use and maintain and minimize the rather huge investment needed to get into the more exciting areas of our hobby.

Why not the 7100?

@@Z28videogates two big issues. 1. It's design and mounting. Cumbersom 2. Power output due to alc design issue has tendency to cut back power out. See forums concerning this issue. Also 7000 head is smaller and easier to mount in limited space, and design of screen information is better adapted to tuning Tarheel. Add to that is a solid modulated 100 watts which the 7100 seemed to limit at full modulation due to alc design. Receive on 7100 is very good but matched by 7000. That's my experience. If only HF needed, FT891 is a good match and priced right.

I really appreciate the detailed answer. Regarding ALC issue I heard there is an ALC mod you can do but even the other reasons are good reasons favoring the ic7000. I like the 7000 display quite a bit too out of all of them@@williambingham2459

Not sure about the 7100, but older radios like my Icom 7410 have limited functionality. I believe the 7100 and 7410 are from the same vintage, but the 7419 has been discontinued. The software display has way more controls than my radio will allow.

Yeah that is a great idea

Haha, she is my POTA mascot!

The IC7000 doesn't do pot. If it smokes, something is seriously wrong with it. This goes double if it inhales.

Yea sorry autocorrect pota

No longer in production

It's decent but not my favorite radio

The 7000 is an overall better radio but the 891 is newer with better filtering

Yes

Winning

I have an FT-857D + ATAS120 in my tiny '98 Toyota Camry and have had an absolute blast with it! I only listen while driving though I have occasionally pulled off the road if there's rare station on the air. I have a CS800D under the font pax seat and the large screen mounted on a flexible stalk. The head for the 857D is mounted just above the large CS screen/head. I have a TYT 7800 2m/75cm mounted on the center console just under the AM/FM car radio. For POTA use I can quickly pull the radio from the trunk and slap the original head on it. I also have a battery installed for portable use. I've operated summer and winter field days for up to 8 hours from that battery!

I haven't looked at anything that old, but having used one of those for a while I can say that does not surprise me

Divide by 300, then find the Amateur Band that is closest. 300/10(meters) is 30. Our 10M band is around the 28-29MHz mark.

Not really a mobile radio...

HF? or VHF/UHF? All of the Mobile Radios will work great as Home Base radios, you just have to use a power supply with them. That is how most people do it

@@HamRadio2 sadly, I'm not that familiar with ham. I've been researching it to find what would be best to get for a bit over a month. As many options on the radio as possible for him to enjoy. When he was serious about it last, radios were very expensive and we got hit hard financially at the time back in the 90s.

@@DragonHunter42 Start here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LLIxRV_a_R0.html

@@HamRadio2 Many thanks!

I don't have a list of what other RU-vidrs use

Only does 60M? What do you mean?

@@HamRadio2 dis I read it wrong on Yaesu's website? The only HF band it does was 60m I thought?

No it's 160-10, 6 plus 2M/70cm

It would have to be Number 6? I would put it ahead of any of the discontinued radios.

Not really a mobile radio

Ok

They're all the same, since they are all 100w. The 200w Kenwood should go farther, but it depends on the antenna, more than it depends on power

Not sure if the 718 is "new". It's the same as it was, just back in production

Correct

A friend of mine has one and we searched all over that radio and manual one day but never found a way to enable the built-in tuner. Conclusion - The IC-7100 is prepped for tuner use but does not include one internally.

Good, but not best

I love my g90 in my truck.

Agreed, but that tuner though….

@@tulrich2 in a recent video on emcomm boxes I saw someone put a 1/4 wave 2m whip on the g90 and it tuned it

Yeah that would be acceptable but I would also like the DSTAR removed

Yes

Yes

Correct

GerDay Jason, This WILL be long and I hope you have time to read it. I actually really enjoyed this video because unlike many similar clips one might stumble across on the "EweChube", you've touched on the strengths and weaknesses of each, rather than go the "fan boy" route as many "reviewers" do, so full marks to you for that! As I wrote to TO on one of his clips last night, I come from a somewhat different perspective than most when it comes to mobile operation as I operate (MOSTLY) actually mobile, on the run, if you like, currently in a Kenworth T909 with 2 trailers in extremely harsh conditions. I have been both a long distance (y'all call it Over The Road - although calling where I go "roads" is a bit precious) truck driver for a bit over 4 1/2 decades AND a licenced Amateur for about the same period of time ...... and have operated in the mobile capacity for the vast majority of that time... and I spend most of my "on air" time whilst actually driving in my truck.

During all those years, I have had numerous combinations of radios and antennas as the environment is hell on earth as far as equipment goes. Just a small selection of the radios I have owned and used are FT757GX (probably the worst radio I ever had for my application as it LOOKED fantastic, but had a terrible propensity for going "microphonic"), FT747 (which was a vastly better radio) FT891, Alinco HF (I forget the model number now), Icom IC7000, IC725 (and a couple of others) and various Kenwoods, including a TS120V, a TS130S and the TS480. I will (briefly) discuss antennas I use, and why, later. As you can see, the vehicle I drive is very large and most people would assume that also means plenty of "real estate" within the truck for mounting radios and antennas but, surprisingly, there's probably LESS than is available in any standard, smaller 4 wheel drive because space in the cabin is a premium because you have so many other NECESSITIES for living "on the road", so remoteable radios are my go to option. Accessing high current power souces from within the cab area/workplace/living area IS much easier, however, because PACCAR/Kenworth very conveniently supplies an in cab busbar behind the dash that you could run an arc welder off!!!!!!!!!!!

From an OPERATIONAL perspective, when you drive something like this, with all the controls required, lots of steering wheel movement and (in my case) an 18 speed FULLY manual, more or less "crash" (if the revs aren't right it just will NOT go into gear), gearbox, you NEED a radio that uses the KISS principle. In MY application, in addition to ease of use, they also MUST be extremely robust and able to handle extreme variations of temperature, enormous levels of vibration (I'll discuss this more when I write about antennas) and dust. Kenworths have great door seals and the like, but when you work in bulldust, SOME is going to end up in the cab, regardless. Oh - and did I mention extremely high ambient acoustic noise levels????? :) :) So, as you can see, my requirements are significantly harder than the average Amateur, and have been for in excess of the last 45 years, so my perspective is probably different as well, however SOME things, I believe are consistent if you're actually going to operate whilst driving, regardless of whether you drive a multi trailer combination such as I, or a 1/2 ton rice burner on city roads. The key here is that normal, operational things MUST be simple. Volume, band change, any filtering adjustment, frequency adjustments and things like the ability to reduce mic gain, attenuate incoming signals, noise blankers and suchlike.

As I said, I have had various radio and antenna combinations in various iterations of my mobile operation in ... I dunno how many trucks over the years. It's a shame that few of the manufacturers of HF radios are now TRULY in the mobile market, although I do understand why. Generally they go for the IC7300/FTDX10 style of thing where they're purported to be a mobile radio, but (mostly) designed and intended for use in a radio shack. This is NOT denigratingt the 7300 as I hear so many of them, but the reality is that they are NOT truly something that will be ideal in a mobile and I am damned sure won't handle the environment. Of those that are currently available, the little FT891 is in a class of it's own, in my opinion. It's solid, well constructed (in fact, built like a brick shithouse) and they perform very, VERY well. Both received and transmitted audio is excellent and so on BUT .... they are an absolute pain in the arse to operate ACTUALLY MOBILE.. Their menu, sub menu and sub sub menu systems are a total and absolute crock of smelly brown stuff. I KNOW you can set "hot keys" and suchlike, but the truly basic, every day adjustments (such as simply changing bloody bands) are just ridiculous and virtually impossible to do with accuracy. I feel like they were designed by geeks and are loved by geeks who want a whole lot of bullshit for the sake of having it, but are impractical for true mobile use.

For true MOBILE operation, I have ditched the little FT891 as being impractical, and gone back to the TS480HX, mostly and simply because it is a breeze to operate from a mobile perspective. I ONLY use conservative power, so the 200 Watts is actually not even a factor in my decision at all. My 200 Watt radio idles along, all day. at about 90 Watts (maximum) PEP, running cool as a cucumber, saving the PA, in my opinion, but the thing is dead set simply about as good as is available for doing what you need to do, mobile. You wanna change bands? Hit the UP (or down) arrow at the right of the faceplate. You wanna step by 5 Kc at a time, rotate the "multi" knob ... and so on. NOTHING else matches that sort of user sensible operation. It has proven to be extremely versatile AND tough, without a single failure in I dunno how many millions of miles in my extreme application. (Now that I have written that, I've probably put the mockers on myself)!!!!! Again, because my application is NOT like your average USA Amateur, driving about on well formed, bitumen/asphalt/concrete, RELATIVELY smooth roads, my antenna requirements are considerably more stringent than yours. Oh, BTW, I HAVE driven over there so I do have a comparative knowledge base. ALL my antennas are mounted on what we call bull bars. In the past, I have used home brew whips that I made myself that worked well, but lasted, maybe, a day or three before they shook themselves to bits, commercially made monoband whips (that lasted a bit better - but not much), Terlin "Outbacker" (which were extremely robust and I still have a couple that work fine but LOOK like they've been through world war 3), "normal" "screwdriver" antennas (that don't last a day), Tarheels (one of which is still on my personal F350) but that I've never, ever been game to go off the bitumen with and, finally, what I currently run on the truck, a Codan 9350.

Not many, but these are all great

Correct