Ashley Johnson

I had almost the exact same problem in my Tacoma with a 7900. What finally worked for me was a wedge mount bracket that sits between the seat and the center console — feeds the head unit cables down through there cleanly and the control head ends up right at arm level. Not sure if the F-150 console geometry would allow it but worth measuring. The mic cord thing I just gave up fighting and got a coiled replacement mic cord, keeps it from going everywhere.
On the antenna, honestly just drill it. I put it off for two years and finally did it and it took like 20 minutes and the performance difference over the mag mount was noticeable, especially on weaker signals. Just get a good grommet and seal it well and youll be fine.

yeah the inverted-V thing is real, the closer those legs get to horizontal the more it shifts. at 30 degrees from horizontal you're going to see a noticeable drop, some people use a correction factor around 0.95 or so instead of the standard 468 constant when theyre doing an inverted-V, so maybe try 444/f and see where that lands you. trees being close will also load it and pull the resonance down a bit, electrically they kinda look like a lossy ground plane hovering near your wire which isn't ideal but its not a disaster either.
as for the tuner question — honestly if you got a decent choke balun on there and the swr isnt like 5:1 or something wild, the built-in tuner is fine for casual use. but if you want to really understand what the antenna is doing, trimming it to resonance first teaches you a lot more and you'll have a better sense of its actual bandwidth. i'd trim it. takes like 20 minutes and you'll feel better about it.

So I finally got activated for a real event last weekend, not just a drill. There was a pretty bad storm system that knocked out power across a few counties and our EC called everyone in to help staff the Red Cross shelter and provide comms backup for the EOC since their main repeater was having issues with the backup generator or something, I wasnt totally clear on the details.
Anyway I've been a member of our local ARES group for about 8 months now and done maybe 3 or 4 training nets plus the ARRL SET last fall, but this was completely different. Like even just showing up and not knowing exactly where to stand or who to report to was kind of awkward. My EC was great but he was obviously pulling in a lot of directions at once.
I ended up on HF doing some traffic to a neighboring county group which was actually cool because I dont do much HF normally, mostly just 2m/70cm stuff. But I felt pretty useless for the first hour or so just kind of sitting there waiting to be told what to do. Is that normal for a first activation? I kept second guessing whether I should jump in or just wait.
Would love to hear how other people handled their first real deployment, whether it was a shelter gig or something else. Also wondering if there's stuff I could be doing now to feel more prepared for next time.

The IC-7300 has a great feature set and very good performance. A zillion have been sold so there's a broad user base who can help you if you have problems. Right now there's an Icom factory coupon bringing it down to $1100, plus a $100 rebate, so great timing! For 100W rigs you'll be fine with 120V - only need 240V for legal limit amplifiers.

yeah doppler on a linear transponder confused the heck out of me too when i first started. the way i do it now — i lock my uplink frequency and only chase on the downlink. the idea is you pick a spot in the passband and stay there, so other stations can find you. if you're moving both vfos you're kind of all over the place and it gets messy. gpredict is great but real time doppler correction is the way to go if your radio supports CAT control, i run mine through a laptop and it makes a huge difference, basically hands free tuning.
2 to 2.5 watts should honestly be fine for a decent elevation pass, people work these birds with less. if you're not hearing yourself in the passband thats the first thing to sort out before you call anyone — you gotta hear your own downlink echo before you can really operate effectively. the delay is tiny but its there and it tells you your signal is actually getting in.

congrats on passing general. so the vanity system is actually not too bad once you understand the basics. the 2 year thing you heard — thats for the callsign to be released after a silent key, yeah, though there are some nuances with whether the family has requested it be held or whatever. AE7Q is just a really useful third party site that tracks callsign availability and lets you see when a call is expected to become available, its not an official FCC thing but practically everyone uses it.
as for license class, yes it absolutely matters. 1x2 callsigns (like W1AB format) are only available to Extra class licensees in most cases. as a General you'd typically be looking at 1x3 formats or 2x3. there are some exceptions depending on your call district and whats available but generally speaking you wont be able to snag a 1x2 until you upgrade. the application itself goes through the FCC ULS directly, you fill out a 605 form and submit it, and you can list multiple preferred callsigns in order of preference. some people use a service like W5YI or similar to help submit but its honestly not that complicated to do yourself once you know what youre doing.

so ive been noticing 10m and 12m doing some interesting things over the past few weeks and im not sure if im reading too much into it or if we're actually starting to see some real solar cycle 25 action. had a few contacts into europe on 10m last tuesday around midday and i wasnt even really trying, just had the radio on while i was doing other stuff and the DX cluster started lighting up. checked the solar flux and it was sitting around 170 which isnt crazy high but definitely not bad.
thing is, the very next day conditions were garbage. like completely dead. same time of day, same antenna, nothing. i know propagation can be unpredictable but man the swings have been something else lately. anyone else seeing this or is it a regional thing? im in the midwest so my path to europe is probably different than you guys on the east coast. also been hearing some stuff about a geomagnetic disturbance messing things up around that time, maybe thats what killed it the second day.
either way im cautiously optimistic about where we're headed with the solar cycle. my old elmers always talked about how crazy 10m gets at solar max and i feel like im finally starting to see what they meant. curious what others are experiencing on the higher HF bands right now.

yeah 10m has been doing things I havent seen since the last solar max, honestly. worked Japan twice last week on just 100 watts and a dipole up maybe 25 feet. my wife thinks ive lost my mind because i keep running to the shack every time the cluster starts pinging.
re: the Icom thing, i think youre talking about the IC-705 successor rumors? or maybe something different, theres been a lot of speculation floating around. I wouldnt put too much stock in Facebook group stuff until theres an official press release or someone actually handles one at a show. Hamvention is coming up and thats usually where stuff gets announced properly. that said if they do a smaller HF rig with built-in tuner at a decent price point ill be first in line probably.

so i've been keeping an eye on 10 meters for a few weeks now and honestly the last couple days have been something else. worked Japan twice this morning just sitting at my desk with a 100 watt radio and a wire dipole thats barely 20 feet up. like i know we're near solar max or whatever but it really hit different today seeing JA and VK stations coming through so strong.
also heard someone mention on 75m roundtable last night that there might be a new Yaesu HF radio announcement coming soon? something mid-range priced, not the FTDX10 tier but above the FT-891 maybe. nobody seemed to know much, could be total rumor. has anyone seen anything legit about that? trying to decide if i should wait or just pull the trigger on a used radio i found locally.
anyway if you havent been on 10m recently, seriously get on there. even my crummy little setup is making contacts i wouldnt believe six months ago.