I just did a temporary install in my 2020 F150 and I figured sharing some of my setup tips in case it helps others.
I bought the Kraken antenna setup with my SDR. The antenna quality is pretty freaking good. I’m also using the new iOS app which seems pretty consistent. I went with the raspberry pi 5 and have zero problems with CPU. I’m using the backseat outlet to power my Starlink mini, rpi5, and the KrakenSDR. My roof is aluminum so it’s not magnetic. I have a light bar mount that I already use for my ham antennas so I had a friend create a metal mount based on the antenna template using a plasma cutter. It’s basically a metal version of the template with each position slotted perfectly to fit the magnetic mount antennas. We added two holes for mounting hardware but we will also be working to add a suction cup mount or magnetic mount as alternatives.
My plan is to run some power cable to a distribution block with some buck converters to power everything under my read seat. Similar to how I use to make amp racks for car audio. Right now, everything is in my backseat lol. The antenna wires are fed through my back sliding window because it seals fine without damaging the antenna coax.
One thing I did was, I used tailscale to create a tailnet between my devices. By installing tailscale on my phone and rpi for instance, i can manage the my config/spectrum seamlessly without my phone using the WiFi network. This made it easy to ssh into my rpi from my laptop and reference it by the tailnet hostname I assigned without my phone consuming bandwidth since I’m not on an unlimited bandwidth plan. Additionally, I can use it without cell coverage because of Starlink being satellite.
I recommend modifying the default WiFi ssid and password. You can spin up a hotspot (or use a Starlink) and add the network to the rpi pretty easily. It works best if you connect the rpi to a monitor and keyboard/mouse first. If someone sees you have an antenna array, it would be trivial for them to connect in and screw with your setup.
Anyhow, I’ll update more on the thread when I do the permanent install and make version 2 of the antenna mount. Figured I’d just share some of my progress!
