So after about three months of hemming and hawing i finally pulled the trigger on a Yaesu FTM-300DR and got it mounted in my truck last weekend. overall pretty happy with it but there's a couple things bugging me and im not sure if its normal or if i did something wrong.

First the antenna situation — i went with a Diamond NR770HNMO on a lip mount on the hatch of my SUV. seems to work fine, hitting the local repeaters no problem, but i keep reading that trunk lip mounts are not ideal and now im second guessing myself. the feedline is just run through the door seal which i also read is bad but i honestly dont know where else to run it without drilling a hole and i really dont want to do that to my truck.

Second thing, the radio is doing this thing where it sometimes displays a low voltage warning when i start the engine. i ran the power direct to the battery with 12awg wire and a fuse close to the battery so i thought that would be fine. maybe the wire isnt heavy enough? its not a super long run, maybe 8 feet total.

anyway if anyone has dealt with either of these things id love to hear what you did. been licensed about a year now, mostly just doing local stuff on 2m and 440.

The lip mount thing — yeah its not perfect but its not the disaster people make it sound like either. youre losing maybe a dB or so compared to a proper ground plane but for hitting local repeaters it really doesnt matter. ive had a lip mount setup for years and never had a complaint. the feedline through the door seal is fine as long as you use a flat coax or just be careful not to pinch it. lots of people do exactly that.

The voltage warning on startup is almost certainly just the voltage dip when the starter motor cranks — thats completely normal and the radio is just being sensitive about it. once the engine is running and the alternator kicks in it should read 13.8-14.4v and be happy. 12awg is a little on the light side for a higher power radio but for a 50 watt rig on 8 feet its probably okay. if it keeps bothering you on the warning thing you can sometimes adjust the voltage threshold in the menus on those Yaesu radios, worth looking through the settings.

i had almost the exact same setup in my old jeep, lip mount and feedline through the door, worked totally fine for like two years. dont stress it too much. the voltage thing yeah thats just startup, my ftm-400 does the same thing every time i crank it, drives me a little crazy but i just ignore it now because everything works fine once its running.