My main mobile radio is currently a Kenwood TM-D710A that I have installed in one of my trucks, but that truck is only a weekend trail truck for me. I recently moved to a new house, that has considerably lengthened my commute (went from roughly 15 minutes one way to 55 minutes one way), and am now considering putting a mobile in my commuting truck as well.
For me, ham was always about the utility aspect from day 1, largely due to the extreme limitations of CB radio while in the back country and the desire to have better communications abilities in the case of emergency, so having a radio in my daily driver that was virtually always in cell phone range was never really a consideration of mine (plus I didn't really want to start popping holes for antennas and cabling in a vehicle I had quite a bit of money wrapped up in, lol).
Fast forward a few years, that daily driver truck has taken a bit of body damage after using it as an off road/camping vehicle for a bit, and eventually I figured a couple 3/4" holes for an NMO in the roof was the least of my value destroying considerations and I now have an NMO mount in the roof along with a bed stake hole mount I made up about a year ago, and for a short time I had the Kenwood in it along with a cheapie CB for trail use.
I eventually moved it all over to the trail truck when I bought it, and am now back to considering what to put in the DD for the commuting time as I'll be leaving the Kenwood in the trail truck.
I started looking at new mobile radios to see what's available, and found that I'm looking at around $300 starting for dual band mobiles now, then realized I could buy a TM-V71A for about $350 locally at HRO. I remember reading that the D710A head could be used on V71 body, and it got me thinking....while I don't foresee myself with a need for the additional features of the the D710 while commuting, having the "just in case" ability would be nice, along with not having to learn how to use another radio.
Would it be a feasible idea to install the V71 body in the DD, then just transfer the D710 head back and forth between vehicles as needed? Seems simple and logical enough to me, but having never done such a thing, I don't know if there are gotchas in there that I'm not thinking about.
For me, ham was always about the utility aspect from day 1, largely due to the extreme limitations of CB radio while in the back country and the desire to have better communications abilities in the case of emergency, so having a radio in my daily driver that was virtually always in cell phone range was never really a consideration of mine (plus I didn't really want to start popping holes for antennas and cabling in a vehicle I had quite a bit of money wrapped up in, lol).
Fast forward a few years, that daily driver truck has taken a bit of body damage after using it as an off road/camping vehicle for a bit, and eventually I figured a couple 3/4" holes for an NMO in the roof was the least of my value destroying considerations and I now have an NMO mount in the roof along with a bed stake hole mount I made up about a year ago, and for a short time I had the Kenwood in it along with a cheapie CB for trail use.
I eventually moved it all over to the trail truck when I bought it, and am now back to considering what to put in the DD for the commuting time as I'll be leaving the Kenwood in the trail truck.
I started looking at new mobile radios to see what's available, and found that I'm looking at around $300 starting for dual band mobiles now, then realized I could buy a TM-V71A for about $350 locally at HRO. I remember reading that the D710A head could be used on V71 body, and it got me thinking....while I don't foresee myself with a need for the additional features of the the D710 while commuting, having the "just in case" ability would be nice, along with not having to learn how to use another radio.
Would it be a feasible idea to install the V71 body in the DD, then just transfer the D710 head back and forth between vehicles as needed? Seems simple and logical enough to me, but having never done such a thing, I don't know if there are gotchas in there that I'm not thinking about.