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New for 2011 is a F150 XLT 4X4 (360HP FlexFuel 5.0 and averages 18+ MPG around town and 22+ MPG on highway)
FT-857D control head is mounted on a ProClip mount. All cables are run neatly under the carpet in in the dash. There is a high power Motorola speaker mounted at the base of the center of the dash which is just barely visible. Also the radio audio is routed to an aux input to an iSimple MediaGateway (this is how I integrated a Sirius radio to the OEM stereo with full control from stereo) which can route the audio to the stereo if needed.
The FT-857D RT is mounted on a strudy bracket I built under the back seat.
Power is via 8 guage wire direct to the battery and ran through a convient unused grommet, from there it runs under the dash, under the passenger sill plate and under the carpet and moulding to the radio. Extensive use of 1" wide strap was used to ground and bond the radio to the chassis, the frame to the bed, frame to cab and frame to exhaust, all in several locations.
LMR-240 was used for the coax runs. They are encased in a wire loom and then run through the frame rails to the rear. The GeoTool mounts were used for a tough and secure antenna mounting points in the stake pockets. Grounding was paramount and liberal use of 1" strap was used along with star washers and Industrial Communications Engineers anti-oxidant conductive paste to ensure a excellent and long lasting connection.
For HF a Geotool ISM-1 is used to support a Hi-Q 3/80 RT and a VHF-1 for a dual band V/UHF antenna. The plastic covers were reused as dressing.
Original cover plates were carefully cut to refit.
Hi-Q 3/80 RT nstalled. The controller box I made (middle of last picture) has 3 switches, one for Up, one for Down and the middle one uses the "TX Request" feature of the 857D to put a carrier out that helps quickly tune the antenna with 1 hand.
The Hi-Q in the above configuration is 48" in length and tunes from about 3.750MHz to 29.7MHz with low SWR. The Shunt Coil is in a box in a cavity below the tail light. It is about 1.25" diameter and 2" long with 9 turns. I used a AIM 4170 antenna analyzer to quickly find a sweet spot for the shunt coil. Once tuned it never gets touched again.