I've touched base with the local Ham club and got opinions before deciding what to buy. They have also offered to show me enough to get me up and running. I got an Icom 5100a radio and a SG7500NMO Dualband Mobile Antenna. I have a roof rack/RTT, so a roof mount is out so I opted to go with a hood mount up near the cowl (had to be able to clear the awning and mirror so it took a little experimentation to get it in the optimum location) for now. I'm in the process of mounting the radio body it under the passenger seat. I'm running it from my sPod and using Anderson power poles for my power wire extension. I'm making a bracket to get it up as high as possible without interfering with the seat function. The head unit will be on the dash mounted onto my Vector Offroad dock (along with my gps for on road nav, my tablet mount for off road (I remove it for daily driving), and a place to mount my hand held gps or iPhone). The mount for the head unit is a mix of RAM mount and Icom mounting fixtures and it will be in the center of the dash under the rear view mirror.
Although the inside of my Jeep is starting to look like the cockpit of the space shuttle, it gives me many different ways to configure my electronics depending on the need, plus it is just so darn cool! lol
I had to work today but hope to finish the install tomorrow.
I appreciate all the help I've received from everyone both on the forum and from local Hams.
