so after about three weeks of messing around i finally got my FT-7900 mounted in the truck and it's actually working pretty well. ran the power cables direct to the battery with an inline fuse like everyone said to do and the RF noise from the engine is basically gone now. had a terrible alternator whine before that was driving me nuts.

the antenna is a NMO mount i drilled through the roof which was honestly terrifying but it came out clean. running a Larsen 2/70 on it right now. hitting the local repeater fine but i'm maybe 15 miles out and sometimes the audio is a little rough, not sure if thats just normal or if i should be looking at something. the radio is putting out 50w on high.

also not sure where to point the squelch. i have it maybe 3/4 of the way up and wondering if thats too high or too low. im pretty new to all this, got my tech in march so still figuring stuff out. any thoughts appreciated

congrats on getting it all sorted, drilling that first NMO hole is nerve wracking for sure lol. on the squelch thing -- set it just barely above where it opens on background noise and leave it there. you dont need it cranked up. running it too high means you'll miss weak signals that are perfectly readable. just find the point where the static cuts out and back it off a tiny bit, thats basically the sweet spot.

the rough audio at 15 miles could be a few things. are you moving when it happens or is it stationary too? sometimes its just multipath from being mobile, signal bounces around and you get some picket fencing which is pretty normal. if its doing it parked too then maybe worth checking your antenna connection at the mount. those NMO connectors can be finicky if they're not fully seated. also what repeater are you hitting, is it a busy well maintained one or kind of a neglected club machine? sometimes the problem is on their end.

nice work on the direct battery run, a lot of people skip that and then wonder why everything sounds terrible. i made that mistake with my first mobile install and the noise was awful.

one thing i'd add -- if you haven't already, make sure your coax shield is grounded well at the antenna mount. on a roof mount sometimes people forget that the NMO body needs good contact with the vehicle body or you lose efficiency and can get noise issues. i had a similar setup on my jeep and a loose ground there was causing me all kinds of grief before i figured it out. tightened it up and the difference was noticeable.