so i've been running a little handheld clipped to my visor for like the past 8 months since i got my technician and honestly it worked fine but i always knew i wanted a proper mobile setup. finally pulled the trigger on a Yaesu FT-7900R and spent last saturday getting it all sorted out in my truck.

the head unit is mounted on a RAM mount on the dash which i'm pretty happy with, ran the cable through the firewall which was honestly the most annoying part of the whole thing, took me like an hour just to find a decent grommet spot. power goes straight to the battery with an inline fuse which i know is the right way to do it but crimping those ring terminals in the engine bay was not fun.

antenna is a Tram 1185 on a mag mount for now, eventually want to do a proper lip mount or maybe NMO through the roof but not ready to drill holes yet. and i gotta say the difference between this and the HT is just night and day, i can hit repeaters i could barely scratch before and the audio is so much clearer. anyway if anyones about to do a similar install and has questions feel free to ask, i made plenty of mistakes so i can at least warn you what not to do lol

congrats on the install, that radio is a solid choice, been running one in my jeep for a few years and its held up great. one thing i'd say when you're ready to ditch the mag mount — seriously just do the NMO through the roof. i put it off forever too but once i finally did it the difference in signal was noticeable and you stop worrying about it sliding around or scratching the paint. there's a roof rail on my jeep that made it easy but even on a regular roof its not as scary as it sounds, just go slow with the hole saw.

also on the power run, did you do separate fuses for both the positive and negative or just the positive? i ask because i've seen some installs where people skip the negative side fuse and then wonder why they get weird rf noise. might not matter but something to keep in mind.

ive been wanting to do basically this exact same setup, been on the fence about the 7900 vs the Kenwood TM-V71A for a few weeks now. how do you find the UI on the Yaesu? i've heard some people say the menu system is kind of buried but also some people dont care at all once its programmed. mostly gonna use it for local repeaters and maybe some simplex during commute so nothing crazy.