WRYZ926

Well I was trying to keep things as simple as possible so that everyone would understand and also so they would know what does and does not work. I kept it simple so everyone would understand. Some got confused when I tried explaining impedance matching in the past. And yes yo are correct that stereo to mono plugs do not combine two channels and that is why a single mono speaker will not work. The stereo speak will work since it has a left and right speaker. Which is what I though and mentioned in previous posts.

Okay I have an update for everyone. A dual mono to single stereo y adaptor will work BUT only if you are using a true stereo external speaker with two speakers. Here is the y adaptor I used: J&D 3.5mm Stereo Female to Dual 3.5mm Mono Male Audio Cable, 3ft 1/8" TRS Female to 2 x 1/8" TS Male Y Breakout Cable Splitter Adapter Speakers I tried: Icom SP35 - mono plug, single speaker Xiegu GY03 - stereo male plug, single speaker Anker portable wireless speaker - connected with stereo cable, dual speakers I could only get sound out on the radios left -Side A with the Icom and Xiegu speakers. There was no sound output on side B. The true stereo Anker speaker worked just fine and I had equal volume from side A and B The volume was not cut back/ sound muffled with the J&D adaptor like there was when using a mono to mono y adaptor. But you definitely need to use a true stern speaker with two speakers for it to work.

Just my opinion. I feel that LMR400 is mostly recommended because people don't want to spend the money on Heliax. GMRS users can be as tight as amateur radio operators when it comes to spending money. It really boils down to using the best that you can afford. And for most, LMR400 and equivalent is good enough. I will agree that Heliax is definitely better, especially for repeater use. We use 7/8" Heliax for our GMRS repeater with the antenna at 400 feet above ground. 1 1/4" Heliax would perform better but the 7/8" was free.

Those 9 -10 ah UPS batteries work well for 20 watt and QRP radios. Expert Battery/ECI batteries ar good and reasonably priced on eBay. You can get 12v 10ah lead acid battery for $27.49 or a 12v 10 ah lifepo4 battery for $38.99. One guy has been using the ECI lead acid 12v 10 ah batteries for his QRP radios for years. I use the lifepo4 versions for my Xiegu G90, Wouxun KG-XS20G and my WRP radios. ExpertBattery 12V 10AH Battery 2500+ Cycles Rechargeable 12V 10Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery I know buying replacement batteries from the UPS manufacturer are expensive and close to the cost of a new UPS system.

The metal underneath your antenna doesn't even need to be a solid. I run my Comet 2x4SR on a magnet mount stuck to the expanded metal cargo rack on the back of my Honda Pioneer 500. And it works well on 2m, 70cm, MURS, and GMRS. And @WRUE951 is correct, you only need 6 inches of metal all the way around an antenna for 70cm and GMRS. You will want 18 inches all the way around for 2m and MURS. But a good ground plane all the way around your antenna is not 100% needed. Yes the antenna will be a bit directional without a full ground plane but it will still work Yes a no ground plane antenna will work better when you don't have good ground plane but they will benefit from having one.

A cup holder mount is not the only option. A seat bolt mount usually works too. And there are plenty of other options available. A radio with everything built into the mic or a radio with a removable head unit will definitely make install easier.

I have even less space in my 2023 Ford Escape. I ended up putting my dual band and my KG-1000G main units under the driver seat and have the remote heads mounted on a Lido seat bolt mount. I did have to find space for external speakers since I can't hear the builtin radio speakers with them under the seat. I use a couple of Icom SP35 speakers mounted on the kick panel below the steering column. One thing about the KG-1000G, and probably the KG-UV980P, is that you will need two speakers since Y adaptors do not work when trying to get both sides into one speaker. I don't know if the Comet SBB-1 antenna will be short enough for you or not. I know that antenna just barely clears my 7 foot garage doors. It works well for 2m and 70cm and mine will work on GMRS with an SWR of 1.8. Here is my Lido seat bolt mount with two remote heads attached.

And using cables with the Prolific chip can be problematic to get running on Mac's. It's easier to deal with Prolific drivers on Windoze computers than to get them to work on Mac's. I haven't even bothered trying to run any version of Windows in VMWare on my M4 Mac. I kept my Intel based 2108 Mac around for that.

I fully understand not wanting to drill holes into your vehicle. I have yet to get the courage up to drill my 2023 Ford Escape. Plus I don't feel confident removing the headliner with all of the curtain air bags. Having a sun/moon roof definitely restricts where you can drill a hole for a NMO mount. If you get acceptable results with a mag mount at the back edge of the cab then the third brake light mount will work for you. You will still have to deal with pulling at least part of the headliner down to run the coax though. Only you can decide if the third brake light mount is worth the money, time, and effort. If it was me, I would look into a NMO mount since you have to remove the headliner for either one.

I mostly want the IC-9700 since it is 100 watts and it does SSB. Plus I don't like the all band "shack in the box" radios. where you put all of your eggs in one basket. My Icom IC-7300, which replaced the FTDX10 with a bad USB port, has served me well.

Adding a fender washer to a NMO mount is a smart thing to do especially if your cab is aluminum. I looked at the third brake light mounts when I had my 2020 Ranger but decided not to get one, mostly due to the price. Plus I would have had to run an even shorter antenna on the Ranger than what I run on the Escape.

The last time I setup VMWare and any virtual machines, VMware did ask me if I wanted to pass through networking and USB ports. It was not automatic when setting up everything. This was with VMware on my 2018 Mac mini and my M4 Mac mini.

I would love to purchase an Icom IC-9700 but that sure is not in the budget anytime soon. I haven't even looked to see how the tariffs are effecting my other hobbies such as model railroading.

I wasn't for sure about Parallels since I've never used it. But I do know that you sometimes have to double check those settings when using VMWare. Though generally VMWare will ask you to allow passthrough when first setting up a virtual machine.

Some retailers have already increased the prices on Yaesu radios. Others still have the pre tariff prices listed.

There is not a lot of room in any newer vehicle. I know space was very limited in my 2020 Ford Ranger and even more limited in my 2023 Ford Escape. I ended up going with radios with removable head units since I run multiple radios. It was either radios with removable head units or radios where everything is in the hand mic.

The bed will not act like a ground plane since it is lower than the cab of the truck. The ground plane needs to be directly underneath the antenna. Sometimes even mounting an antenna to a luggage rack is not enough of a ground plane.

For those using Parallels, VMware or any other virtual machine software, make sure to allow pass through for your USB ports from the host Mac to the virtual machine. That is a common and easily overlooked thing when running virtual machines.

The antenna wax will be right next to the cans of squelch. In other words there is no such thing as antenna wax. As others have said, there is no easy way to test the SWR of hand held antennas. And your body actually acts as part of the ground plane when you use a hand held. As far as aftermarket hand held antennas, it really depends on the radio it self if the antenna will make an improvement or not. I have some radios where the longer Nagoya antennas helps and some radios where the stock antenna works better.

Yes these mounts do work. But as mentioned, you still have to drop the headliner and you will lose have the ground plane. Losing half the ground plane is not a deal breaker as you will still get out but your antenna will be more directional to the front of the vehicle.

It is definitely a known design issue.

The rub is that they charge $900 to repair a $1300 radio (pre tariff price). The bigger issue is that Yaesu knows it is a problem which is most likely caused by them during the manufacturing process. They solder a capacitor in place that is only used to program the USB controller. But Yaesu does not program the chips themselves, they use the factory programming from Silicon Labs. So there is no need for Yaesu to even put that capacitor on the board. Several people that have had their radios repaired by Yaesu for the bad USB port was told directly by the Yaesu repair tech to not use the built in USB port. He told them to use an external sound card instead. This is a common issue with the FTDX10, FTDX101 and FTDX991. I'm really surprised that we haven't started seeing the FT710 have the same issue.

And sometimes a simple fix will cost 2/3 the price of a new radio. Myself and others have ran into that when contacting Yaesu about blown USB ports of the FTDX10, FTDX101, and FTDX991. Yaesu wants to charge $900 to fix a bad USB port. And their fix is to replace the entire board. The chip is a standard run of the mill Silicon Labs USB chip. Yaesu will only repair the blown USB chip one time under warranty and after that they will charge $900. To make it worse, they know it is a defect but won't fix it.

A spectrum analyzer along with a good oscilloscope would be nice to have. But I really would not use either one often enough to justify the cost. I've been wanting a QRP rig for a while and ended up ordering a Xiegu X6200 last week. I've been quite happy with the Xiegu G90 and the X6200 gets good reviews. I looked into the Icom IC-705 and it has VHF and UHF where the X6200 does not. But the IC-705 costs quite a bit more and I can always use a HT for VHF/UHF.

I ended up using some small L brackets to mount my GMRS and 2m/70cm remote heads onto the Lido seat bolt mount. I don't think I would want to mount an entire radio onto the Lido flexible seat bout mounts though.