so i've been running a little handheld clipped to my visor for like two years and finally broke down and got a proper mobile rig, picked up a used Yaesu FTM-400 and honestly kind of intimidated by all the options on this thing. got it mounted on a RAM mount between the seats for now which feels a little janky but it works.

the antenna situation is what im actually unsure about. i drilled a NMO mount through the roof which was terrifying but it's done now, running a Tram 1185 dual band whip. seems to get out okay but i don't really have anything to compare it to. was on a local 2m net last night and a few people said i sounded a little noisy but nobody could really say why.

also the radio is pulling power directly from the battery with an inline fuse on the positive lead, ground goes to a bolt under the back seat. did i do that right or should the ground be somewhere else? i feel like i read somewhere the ground point matters a lot more than i thought

the ground thing is real, dont underestimate it. under the seat bolt is usually fine as long as theres good metal-to-metal contact and you scraped off any paint or coating where the lug sits. a lot of noise problems in mobile installs trace right back to a bad ground, either high resistance or a ground loop from running the ground too far from the radio. some guys run both power leads all the way to the battery and swear by it, personally i do the same, positive with fuse close to the battery and negative straight to the battery negative post, keeps everything clean.

the Tram 1185 is a decent antenna, nothing fancy but solid for local work. if people are saying you sound noisy it might be worth checking if the noise follows your engine RPM, that classic alternator whine usually means you need a ferrite choke on the power leads or possibly a filter on the line. also make sure that NMO mount has a good ground plane connection, sometimes the threads dont bite all the way and the coax shield ends up floating a little

oh man i went through almost the exact same thing when i put my FTM-300 in my jeep last spring. the RAM mount between the seats actually works pretty well once you get used to reaching for it, i eventually added a little extension arm so it sits a bit higher and i can glance at it without looking down as much.

one thing nobody told me was to run the mic cable away from the power wires if you can, i had mine kind of bundled together under the dash and it was picking up all kinds of garbage. separated them and most of the noise just went away. also the FTM-400 has a built in DSP and some noise reduction settings in the menu, might be worth poking around in there if you havent already, though the default settings are honestly pretty okay for most situations