amaff

Fair, from that picture. 1. yes, and it's literally not a problem. It's got plenty of volume. Most of the time I have it to less than half. And the speaker is mounted under that surface so it's not like it's actually touching the seat. 2. It's not as close as it looks. It's not super clear in the picture but I have the bracket velcroed to the console. So it has the same air-gap to the heat sink as it would mounted to any other surface. So far it's been there a couple months. Maybe I don't spend as much time on the PTT button as others, but even after having a, for me, lengthy conversation, the case was warm but never hot to the touch. Even on high power.

Radioddity's programming software works. It's a little clunky, like a lot of CPSs, and doesn't allow keyboard-shortcut copy and pasting, but will, using a mouse. Annoying, but if you're like me, once you get the thing programmed the cable won't get used again for years. RE mounting it, it's small and light enough that you might be able to get away with some good Velcro...in the space between the center console and the seat.

The TD-H3s have 2 different roger beeps. 1 is a traditional 'melody', the other is like that old Motorola noise. Some radios have a 'Repeater Confirmation' or 'Squelch Tail' setting that will, near as I can tell, make the radio transmit an extremely brief burst of static similar to (but not nearly as ear piercing as) the Motorola sound, that I find less annoying. I have a couple of radios that really make zero sound when you let off the PTT that I have used that option on so there's SOME audible indication, without a full on roger beep.

I run a KG-905G in my race car with a Midland 'ghost' antenna (and a helmet 'headset' setup using semi-custom ear buds and a mic on the chin bar). ...I'm not sure that's what you're going for. For testing, I reached out on a couple local repeaters at 20 and 50 miles. It works at the track pretty well too In the past I ran a Nagoya UT-72G mag-mount on the strip of body work between the rear of the top and the trunk lid, and that worked well too.