Slide-out mounts

[AE7GL]

Anyone have any experience with slide-out mounts in a vehicle? I am mounting an Icom V8000 in a Ford Bronco. I am considering a slide-out mount because I don't like leaving the radio in the vehicle all the time. I want to also be able to use it in the house as a base. My concern is two-fold. Is the radio less secure in these mounts? (Obviously someone determined to steal it will regardless of the mount.) And is there any downside to using the electrical connections built into the mount? Can I use the power and antenna connection built into the mount or should I run power straight from the radio to the battery, etc?

The mount I have is made by SDI and appears to be well made. http://www.sdi.cc/radio_slides.htm

Any insight would be appreciated.

[K5LXP]

The right thing to do is buy a rig for the house and the car, and be done with it.  Here's why.

As neat as these things sound, you will find you won't use it the way you thought you would.  Even as quick and easy it would be to install and remove the rig, you will get lazy and either won't bother putting it in, or taking it out.  Think about how many times you get in and out of your car- are you *really* going to haul it out of the house, put it in the car, drive to work, remove it and put it in the trunk, and after work reverse this process every day?  Remove and reinstall it during every errand trip on the weekends?  Go outside and fetch it from the car at night after you've gotten all comfy and decide you want to work 2M?  By having this bracket you are almost bound to removing the radio anytime you're not in the car to prevent easy picking.  That's a lot of in and out, more often than not you won't bother "just for this trip" and end up not operating as much as you would had you just permanently mounted the rig in the car.  Per Murphy's law, the rig will always be were you aren't when you want to use it.  Plus I think quick mounts are plain ugly, and limit your installation options.  Rigs are cheap- use this as an opportunity to either buy two of the exact same rigs for operating convenience or two completely different rigs that suit your mobile and base operations.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM

[W0FM]

Mark is correct.  In addition, I have found that the critical connections on slide mounts (antenna and power) tend to corrode and/or bend and soon become unreliable.  

And, for close to the cost of a "quality" slide mount, you can probably pick up another used rig at a hamfest and operate more fixed and mobile as Mark has suggested.

Good luck,

Terry, WØFM