Picked up my (first?) mobile unit for my F150 last weekend… a new Kenwood TM-V71A. I was kind of leery about going for a radio that has basically been around a decade, but when factoring in the dual receivers, the price-point, and not willing to commit to any of the digital options for the mobile unit (not yet, at least), the decision felt pretty “right.”
On Sunday, I got it all wired up with the wire fed thru the firewall, into the passenger area, across the door sills, and behind the back seats to where I have it mounted to a piece of plywood under the back seat. I ended up getting the extension set (PG-5F) for the extra length for the electrical and the microphone, and then (yet more spending) the mounting kit (DFK-3D) for the control unit, both because it let me use a single cord so that I didn’t have coupler dangling right near the controller, as well as it gave me the sub-panel to attach the unit to. In total about $100 more which didn’t thrill me, but gives me a pretty “clean” solution.
Photos of the radio mounted on the plywood are below. It came out pretty well… the radio has air flow around it, and it is out of sight if someone looks in through the rear windows. I can hear the speaker from the radio pretty well, but I will probably add an extension speaker closer to me at some point. Cables to the control unit and mic are under the rear floor mat, along the right side of my seat. I have the microphone mounted next to my right knee, and I have the cable for the control unit running up strategic spacing to the top of the dashboard, and for now secured with black gaffers tape.
Since I’m new to the radio, I found myself repeatedly referring to either the paper manual, or the copy on my phone, to search out key strokes that I couldn’t get quite right. After a few days of this, I went through the manual and summarized the major functions that I expect to use on a cheat sheet that I can stuff into door pocket… Putting the TM-V71A Cheat Sheet here, so maybe can help someone else out.
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