Great setup Hayden. I place my speakers under the drivers headrest to minimise other occupants complaints. My radio internal speaker audio circuitry has the broken out to prove external outlet, then created special pcbs combiner/separator units for 2 audio, ptt, head control signals, to remote head the 8900 with a standard computer network cable. Have tested up to 30m in length. This provides me a means to still have radio body in the vehicle, while running the head unit whilst on outdoor field days/checkpoints under shade. Thanks for the video.
Yep the 8900 is a great radio. I had two at one stage. It works very well and never had an issue. The remote head even sits on the dash in the Australian sun all day and still no issues at all. Very happy
Love the older Subaru's. I ran a 95 Impreza for years. Most reliable motor I ever had, just a gutsy B*****d as all Subaru's are. You hardly see them here now as they have all rusted away to nothing.
Haha you still see some of the early vintage ones driving around here. Some of them haven't quite turned into rust buckets, but they aren't far off it!
You might want to reduce the number of RF adapters used around the diplexers. And also if you don't need to change band between 10m and 6m, maybe a switch is better than another diplexer? As for antenna mounts, many prefer NMO, and especially so for through hole mounting on the car metal surface. I suspect either the 2/70 antenna isn't good, or you didn't get the ground connected to the car metal surface. Your 6 m whip isn't tapered, and that's why it flexes so much, like the K40 antenna. You can get a good 6 m mono antenna, if you don't mind the length. I suspect the fake SG7500 isn't as good as the real diamond ones, but that's just my hunch. For me, I try to reduce the need for diplexer etc if I can help it, by using multi band antennas, and then change it out to better performing mono ones only for the occasional need. Thanx for your video. The van is very interesting.
Nice personal car setup, I also run a FT-8900 but with either a Comet UHV-4 (Quadband) touring or Diamond HV-4S (Quadband) city. If you want have a look at my inside setup go to QRZ. Cheers, Adam VK2YK
Your car is getting like a Squad Car, any police watching a blade type antenna doesn't cause any wind resistance or wind noise as it lies flat against the roof which it uses as a ground plane and works like a vertical antenna.
