WSES772

so the car wash finally ate my nagoya magnet roof mount and mtxa25. which is wild since its been through several hundred washes. pretty sure an over agressive top roller got it and *yoink* go bye bye so its time to finally do a permeant mount . looking for a thru the roof option and i see two basic solutions https://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Antenna-Installation-Extension-Kenwood/dp/B077P26SY3/ through mount with attached cable or something like this https://www.amazon.com/Anina-Connector-Assembly-Adapter-Mounting/dp/B0DFLMTLD4/ nmo->SO239 and just use a good quality pl259 cable with like a 90 degree adapter on it? i will be drilling the roof of both my silverado crew cab and a 2013 sonic hatchback and burying the cable under the headliner. am i missing a better option? any experience doing a mount like this - good, bad or indifferent? i do have steel offroad bumpers and could mount there on my truck, but i'd rather go thru the roof to get the antenna height, especially for around town when i dont have my MTXA26 whip on the roof and i'm running the little stubby. just trying to avoid losing *another* $50 antenna and $35 antenna mount, while not having to dismount it off the roof every time i wanna get a carwash also- i do have a fiberglass topper on the bed of the silverado, wouldnt be against mounting on there, but that would mean i'd need a ground plane of some type. i dont want to do a mount with the 3 ground plane stubs coming off it, and know that something as simple as a peice of metal (like even using a baking pan with a magnet mount for outdoor/non vehicle usage) can work as a functional gorund plane. would it be possible to mount said ground plane inside the fiberglass topper and have it functinal? or would it need to be external to be useful? Just making sure i'm not overlooking an easy option that allows me to skip drilling a hole in the cab of my truck if need be. TIA for all your feedback!

so just out of curiosity which motorola radios can you buy for $160. are you referring to used options?

fair. but i'd like to think i can trust the manufacturer when they say their product is pinned to accept Kenwood style pinout accessories? i'll definatly keep it in mind if i notice any discrepancies.

ya i'm gonna give that one on amazon - direct from the kenwood store - a try and hope it fits my temporary needs. thanks!

ive already got a nagoya RB-50 NMO mag mount, running a midland MXTA26 whip on it. when i'm not in the truck i'm using signal stick's. so i think i got the antenna side covered for the moment, short of going to a hard mount system anyway. i can hit most repeaters at 30+ miles ive been tempted by the DB series (like the db40g or similar) from radiodidydidityeh - or however they spell it, names like that are mean to those of us with dyslexia lol -but have been reading a lot of things about how difficult their radios are to program. like i totally have chirp nailed, along with the T6UV cps... but yea... got me a bit nervous. so i'm hoping for a $50 or less option to get me by for now... if one exists... or maybe i just need t hold off and buy once/cry once and just get it done with a proper mobil unit.

so while i'm currently undecided as to what to get for a long term mobil radio, i've been running my HT in the truck with an exterior mag mount antenna. found out that i need to use some kind of mic as i've dash mounted it (via the belt clip onto a mic mount on my dash) and all i currently have is a cheapo-delux that came with one of my beoufwhangs. as a mic it functions well, but the speaker part of it is... well.. pure chinesium. looking for a recommendation for a Kenwood style 2 pin mic that would hopefully work for me? not looking to spend top dollar, but not afraid to make an investment in a reasonable quality peice of equipment for the long run either. any feedback would be appreciated, thanks! -Berne WSES772