I went to the Dayton Hamfest and bought a Yaesu FT-8900R. For those who know what it is - no explanation is needed then. For those who don't, it's a radio tranceiver that mounts in your car and runs off of your car battery - kind of like CB radio, except amateur radio requires an FCC license which gives licensees the privelege of using many radio bands (sets of frequencies) that the average person can't use.
Anyways, I've decided upon mounting the actual radio in the trunk of the car, and running cables to the front of the car to the remote control head with mic and speaker. The remote control head is not going to be permanently mounted to the front of my car. Instead, I'm going to use hole-less mount solutions.
Anyways, it's not the inside I'm worried about as much as the outside. I will need to mount a quad band antenna. I've decided on the Diamond brand CR8900A (an antenna designed specifically for this radio). It's 50" tall and chrome plated with several "traps" (they look like little tapered tubes on the antenna).
Here is a picture of the antenna:
This is the radio:
Bear in mind that the front part of that comes off and will be connected to the rest via cables that will be hidden in the car's chasis.
Here is the antenna mount that will be on my trunk:
Ok.... so, the whole question is - how bad is this going to make my Infiniti G35 Sedan look? Is it going to look bubbafied? Or will people not really notice all that much? I'd rather they not notice to be honest, but be honest in your opinion.
I'm thinking women are going to see my car and just automatically assume I'm a weird guy.