so ive been running a TM-V71A in my car for about two months now and the antenna situation is still kind of a mess. right now i've got a mag mount on the roof which works okay but i keep reading that mag mounts are terrible long term and i should do a proper mount. thing is i really dont want to drill into my car, its a 2019 honda accord and i'd like to keep it looking decent when i eventually sell it.

ive been looking at the trunk lip mounts and the hatch mounts but im not sure which ones are actually good vs just cheap junk. also my SWR seems a little high on 70cm, hovering around 1.8 or so, not sure if thats the antenna or the coax routing or what. the mag mount is a Tram 1185 if that matters.

basically just looking for what other mobile ops are running on sedans without drilling. and if anyone has thoughts on that SWR reading id appreciate it.

The trunk lip mount situation is actually pretty solid if you get a decent one — I ran a Comet RS-790 on my old Civic for like three years and never had a problem. The key thing people mess up is the ground, you gotta make sure the mount is actually making good contact with bare metal. Sometimes there's paint or a rubber seal right there and your ground is terrible and then you wonder why SWR is all over the place.

On the 70cm SWR, 1.8 isnt the end of the world but you should be able to do better. with mag mounts specifically the coax routing can detune things if its pinched in a door or has a sharp bend near the base. also some of the cheaper Tram antennas are just kinda mediocre on 70cm even when everything else is fine. might be worth borrowing a dual band antenna from someone at your local club to compare.

yeah i had the same dilemma on my camry. ended up going with a NMO mount through the roof anyway because i got tired of messing around with compromises, but i get it if thats not what you want to do. the trunk lip mounts work, just not quite as clean electrically.

one thing nobody mentioned to me when i was figuring all this out — the coax you run matters more than people think in mobile installs. if youre using the cheap coax that came with the mag mount for a real install youre leaving performance on the table.