so ive been going back and forth on this for a few weeks now and just want to hear what people are actually using day to day. currently got a mag mount diamond NR770H stuck on the roof of my truck which honestly works fine but im kind of done with the cable routing situation and the fact that i always forget to take it off before pulling into the garage. happened twice already and somehow the antenna survived but the cable is looking rough.

thinking about doing a proper NMO hole in the roof or maybe a lip mount on the trunk edge. the truck is a 2019 F150 so the roof is pretty accessible. im in a situation where i use this mostly for local repeater stuff on 2m and occasionally hitting the 70cm machines when i drive through the next county over. nothing exotic, no satellite, just reliable everyday use.

the NMO option seems cleaner electrically but im not sure my wife is going to love a hole in the roof of a vehicle we still owe money on lol. lip mounts i know have some compromises but ive heard they work pretty well if you mount them in the right spot. anyone gone from mag to NMO and noticed an actual difference on VHF, or is this more of a cable management and permanence thing than an RF thing

did the NMO hole on my last two vehicles and honestly it's the only way to go if you're serious about it. the lip mounts work okay but the ground plane situation is never ideal and you can tell, especially on UHF where it actually matters more. the difference versus a good mag mount is probably not huge on 2m, your repeater contacts wont care, but the NMO just feels solid and the coax routing is so much cleaner. i ran mine through the A pillar and down under the dash and you'd never know it was there.

the hole thing sounds scary but it really isn't if you use a proper NMO mount with a good seal. i used a Larsen NMO mount with the self-sealing gasket and put a dab of silicone around the edge just for peace of mind. three years and no leaks. if you ever sell the truck you fill it, color match it, and most people would never notice. i use the Tram 1185 on my current rig, dual band, works great, reasonably priced. but honestly the antenna matters way less than the mount and ground connection.

lip mount guy here, dont regret it. i put a comet CP-5 on a trunk lip mount on my sedan a couple years back and for hitting local repeaters it does everything i need. yeah its not as clean as an NMO and the ground isnt perfect but it came in like a 7 or 8 db difference at most compared to my buddys NMO setup when we tested back to back on 2m, and that was on a bad day. honestly depends on what your goal is. if you're trying to hit distant repeaters or doing anything weak signal then yeah spring for the NMO. if youre just doing local stuff and dont want to drill into a truck you still owe money on, lip mount is totally reasonable.