2015 Subaru Forester

My 2001 Grand Marquis was getting a bit...rusted, to put it lightly. So I replaced it with a brand spanking new 2015 Forester last April. Got rear ended in June, but that's another story.

ANYWAYS, What's the best thing to do to a new car? Drill some holes, of course! Let's start with running power. There's a nice grommet under the front driver's side wheel well to push some chunky power cables through.



Almost looks OEM....

Radios are going to be mounted under the driver's side seat. There's 2 threaded posts embedded on the floor for mounting the OEM amp. I made an aluminum mounting bracket (sorry, no pics of that) that holds the two radios plus a RigRunner securely. No Velcro or double-sided tape on this install.



So with that out of the way, let's drill some holes in our brand new $20k+ vehicle! This is on the passenger side hood. I wanted a place where I could mount my Larsen 2/70 nmo and still be able to get into garages.


Coax is run over the driver's side to go through the same grommet that power was routed. There's a wonderful channel on the hood that runs pretty much completely across the engine bay, so the coax is mostly hidden from the engine.



Coax run through the same grommet as power.


Driver seat removed and trim removed to route coax from the roof antennas. You can catch a glimpse of the radios and the mounting bracket in the upper right corner.


First hole on the roof drilled.


NMO installed


Some time later, and both holes drilled, NMO mounts installed, and antennas installed. I put a 440 (front) and 2m (rear) 1/4 wave whips so I could get into garages. The 2m antenna will clip most garage doors, but it's just the tip.


One year later.....
Here's what she looks like. 2/70 on hood.


I switched over to Larsen antennas for the roof because 1) They're Larsen and 2) the silver looks better.


Kenwood mounted on the top of the cubby. 4 screws hold it in place. I initially used the sticky-tape provided by Kenwood, but it just didn't stand up to the Ohio summer.


Yaesu mounted in the pocket left over from the useless sunglasses holder.


Shot under the driver's seat. You can just make out the tops of the radios.


Since the Kenwood's mic attaches to the body, rather than the head, I mounted the mic to the front of the center cubby and just ran the cable down in between the driver's seat and the center cubby.

Very Nice.

You did an awesome job, sir! Be proud!

Mike

Nice Install!

Awesome!

Your my hero for drilling holes in a new vehicle. If you can't do it right,
don't do it at all.

radact said:

Your my hero for drilling holes in a new vehicle. If you can't do it right,
don't do it at all.

Click to expand...

By your statement here, you are saying that if a ham operator cannot drill holes to mount antennas (such as when clearance above the roof is an issue in parking garages or the like) then they just shouldn't have radios at all. Interesting. While, yes, it may be the best way to install antennas, there are limitations that people face preventing them from doing such and those should not prevent them from having a radio in their vehicle.

Blanket statements are never safe to make as there are always exceptions and reasons it can't happen the way the statement claims.

"If you can drill a hole to mount the antenna, that is by far the best route to go!"

Great looking install here and great choice of radio with the v71a. One question, though - you have two dual banders, both just analog. Just wondering why that is? I could understand it more if one was, say, a System Fusion radio or something but two analog has simply piqued my curiosity. Certainly not dissing it at all, because I can think of some advantages, but simply wondering!

03msc said:

Great looking install here and great choice of radio with the v71a. One question, though - you have two dual banders, both just analog. Just wondering why that is? I could understand it more if one was, say, a System Fusion radio or something but two analog has simply piqued my curiosity. Certainly not dissing it at all, because I can think of some advantages, but simply wondering!

Click to expand...

Mark me down as another inquiring mind on this subject and a double thumbs-up on the install job.

Very nice install. I am also a Subaru Forester owner about to plunge into the world of mobile radios so this was quite inspiring.

Why 2 vhf/UHF radios? I had the ft7800 in my past few vehicles, and its does great. The Kenwood spent the first few years of its life in a hardly used go box. When I got the Forester, I was looking for mounting locations, and I identified 2 good ones. As I was gathering tools and parts to put the ft in, I tripped over the go box and thought "that would get more use if it was in my car". So in it went.

It came in really handy when I was a SAG wagon for various bike events. I had the Kenwood setup for crossband repeat on the main net, and the ft on the medical net. I was always in radio contact with the main net, even when repairing bikes or getting them loaded. Plus I had a good picture on what was going on elsewhere, and where to head for potential pickups.

When not doing public service, its nice to be able to scan 2m and 440 simultaneously, or be yacking on a net and still have something scanning.

KC8UQX said:

Why 2 vhf/UHF radios? I had the ft7800 in my past few vehicles, and its does great. The Kenwood spent the first few years of its life in a hardly used go box. When I got the Forester, I was looking for mounting locations, and I identified 2 good ones. As I was gathering tools and parts to put the ft in, I tripped over the go box and thought "that would get more use if it was in my car". So in it went.

It came in really handy when I was a SAG wagon for various bike events. I had the Kenwood setup for crossband repeat on the main net, and the ft on the medical net. I was always in radio contact with the main net, even when repairing bikes or getting them loaded. Plus I had a good picture on what was going on elsewhere, and where to head for potential pickups.

When not doing public service, its nice to be able to scan 2m and 440 simultaneously, or be yacking on a net and still have something scanning.

Click to expand...

Your reasoning is pretty much what I expected. I figured you had a good reason, I was just curious as to what it was. Sounds like a useful setup that is serving its purpose well!

03msc said:

By your statement here, you are saying that if a ham operator cannot drill holes to mount antennas (such as when clearance above the roof is an issue in parking garages or the like) then they just shouldn't have radios at all. Interesting. While, yes, it may be the best way to install antennas, there are limitations that people face preventing them from doing such and those should not prevent them from having a radio in their vehicle.

Blanket statements are never safe to make as there are always exceptions and reasons it can't happen the way the statement claims.

"If you can drill a hole to mount the antenna, that is by far the best route to go!"

Click to expand...

After a few mag mounts and lip mounts, I'm done with temporary-ish mounts. Nothing beats the performance of just drilling the hole. I think drilling actually does the least damage to the vehicle. True NMOs are water-sealed without an antenna, and caps make the mounts less ugly. Granted, you're still drilling holes, but it doesn't damage the paint or warp a lip edge. Plus, NMOs kind of force you to pull trim panels and route the coax properly.

But, on the flip side, the installation time and skill is significantly lower with other non-drilly type mounts. Works for some people, but I'll stick to drilling the holes and just be done with it. If I don't do it right, it will bug me until I do it right.

I really don't care what anyone else installed (provided I'm not actually riding in the vehicle..). If mag or lip mounts and Velcro or sticky tape works for you, knock yourself out. But there are tradeoffs with everything.

KC8UQX said:

After a few mag mounts and lip mounts, I'm done with temporary-ish mounts. Nothing beats the performance of just drilling the hole. I think drilling actually does the least damage to the vehicle. True NMOs are water-sealed without an antenna, and caps make the mounts less ugly. Granted, you're still drilling holes, but it doesn't damage the paint or warp a lip edge. Plus, NMOs kind of force you to pull trim panels and route the coax properly.

But, on the flip side, the installation time and skill is significantly lower with other non-drilly type mounts. Works for some people, but I'll stick to drilling the holes and just be done with it. If I don't do it right, it will bug me until I do it right.

I really don't care what anyone else installed (provided I'm not actually riding in the vehicle..). If mag or lip mounts and Velcro or sticky tape works for you, knock yourself out. But there are tradeoffs with everything.

Click to expand...

I don't disagree with this one.

KC8UQX said:

Why 2 vhf/UHF radios? I had the ft7800 in my past few vehicles, and its does great. The Kenwood spent the first few years of its life in a hardly used go box. When I got the Forester, I was looking for mounting locations, and I identified 2 good ones. As I was gathering tools and parts to put the ft in, I tripped over the go box and thought "that would get more use if it was in my car". So in it went.

It came in really handy when I was a SAG wagon for various bike events. I had the Kenwood setup for crossband repeat on the main net, and the ft on the medical net. I was always in radio contact with the main net, even when repairing bikes or getting them loaded. Plus I had a good picture on what was going on elsewhere, and where to head for potential pickups.

When not doing public service, its nice to be able to scan 2m and 440 simultaneously, or be yacking on a net and still have something scanning.

Click to expand...

I'm with Mark 03msc - I knew you had a reason and didn't want to assume anything. Since I just spent yesterday as SAG/sweep for a 100-mile bike event, I can certainly identify with your reasoning. I even have a version of your set-up with an ICOM D-Star dual-band, backed up by an ICOM VHF commercial programmed for 2-meters. All so I can monitor various functions of communication support for these events.

On our biggest event in June, there will be SAG, safety observers, and rest stops on different repeaters. There is also a special offering for the fast burners to get a Tour de France-like experience with police escort in a quest to do the 100-mile ride in less than 5 hours. The communications support for that ride will be on DMR since it will be concurrent with the rest of the event, on the same course but with an early start.

Nice installation in that Subaru. I run two analog radios myself. It comes in very handy to have one scanning while talking on the other. My NMO mounts are trunk lip though, sunroof makes it hard on my car to use a roof mount.

Thank you for posting/sharing.

Nice work!