Hello Folks,

I spent the past few days installing a mobile Ham radio rig into the truck. I documented my effort briefly for anyone that needs some help down the road.

 

This release works on the Superduties as well. For the drivers rear seat.
The antenna was the hardest on my install since I have a cap. I ended up using an aluminum bar on the inside of the shell under its mount bolt, and attached my antenna to it.

 

You're more committed than me. I went the easy route and used a fender mount from Comet and mounted it on the front, driver side fender. I have an ICOM IC-2730A. I mounted the radio in the console on a side wall so it's out of the way and mount the control head unit on the dash. I did the same thing on my 2016 F-150. I bought my F-350 in January and am just now installing the radio in this truck. All wiring went through the large grommet on the driver side of the firewall. I liked your video and the how-to towards the end. Someday, I intend to put an HF rig in (or just change to an ICOM IC-7100 for HF, 6m, 2m, 70cm) but I need to figure out how I'm going to mount HF antenna(s) on the bed. I have TracRack ladder racks and a Backflip Revolver X4. I don't have access to use stake-pocket mounts. I might have to use an offset stake-pocket mount or bumper mounts, neither of which look particularly good.

Thanks for posting,
K8MEJ

 

would love to see pics of your mounted head unit in your F350 as well as your mounted radio.
Mike

 

 

 

I've never tried posting pictures here before, so hopefully I don't screw this up.

 

 

The fender mount is ok. My truck sits high and I don't feel like getting a tilt-over mount to put on the roof, or running coax through the headliner. Truth-be-told, in Ohio, 2m and 70cm FM is nearly dead so I'm not going to put a great deal of effort to optimize the installation. And I don't care much about D-Star or DMR since I'm mostly interested in local communication. I am considering 20m and 40m with some Hustler resonators but not having access to the stake pockets is kind of a drag. It's low priority right now, anyway :-)

 

thanks fir the pics. Gives me some ideas...
Mike
K4MAS
BTW - nice color truck