Tony Laubach
EF5
I was cleaning out my car the other day and got to thinking about how much my interior configuration has changed, namely downsized, particularly over the last couple years. Gone are the days where I had multiple radios, a permanently-mounted laptop setup, and now I could almost pass for a middle-aged man on a Sunday drive during storm days.
Up until my most recent vehicle, one of the first things I did with every new car was to install the laptop desk. I've had various setups with that dating back to JottoDesk, eventually going over to RamMount. However, with technology basically shrinking all the gear, it's significantly decluttered the interior. I still occasionally mount a full-size video camera to the windshield for a dash cam, but I opted to hold off on the laptop desk for this season after I got my new ride back in May to see how it worked and I think I am going to go into 2026 without it.
Here are some points on how my latest setup has differed (shrunk) down...
For the last couple decades, the laptop was the single-most important piece of gear behind the vehicle itself. This was vital for not only getting data on the fly via GRLevel3 and NWS Chat, but so I could quickly edit and turn video for my stations. In addition, any streaming I did do was run through the laptop. Now all that is basically obsolete. With current smart phones having video capabilities and quality similar (if not better) than the Prosumer video cameras, not to mention those same 'cameras' have the ability to edit and send directly to clients. In addition, better, higher quality radar apps (Radar Omega) are available on phones/tablets, eliminating that need for the laptop. Lastly, NWS chat migrated over to Slack, another app available easily on phones.
Basically, anything that required a laptop now can be done on mobile devices. When I switched from AT&T to Verizon over the summer, I was able to keep my old Galaxy phone from AT&T and didn't have to trade it in, so that became an extra phone that I run Radar Omega and occasionally directly stream from. It mounts easily on my dash along side my regular phone and doesn't actually tie up my workhorse phone anymore. I am completing a tablet for a little bigger screen, but I haven't made that move yet, either. That would be the 'upgrade' route I would choose to go over a laptop, and it's mainly for the increased screen size.
Video editing; for my purposes, if I need to quick-turn video, I can shoot/edit/send directly from the phone. There's no time wasted in transferring clips from a camera to a computer, so it's all-in-one and I could do that in mere moments. Bigger editing projects I can still pull out a laptop and do in the car somewhere, or in most cases, just wait til I get in later in the evening and do the heavier edits from there. For the "I need it now" stuff, the phone will do in 95% of cases. The 5% of time I miss having a laptop available to me is for a quick photo edit from a Nikon or I have something on a non-phone video camera I need to pull immediately.
HAM Radio: Honestly this has been the most difficult 'let go'. I very much miss the days of HAM-to-HAM combat, it was one of my favorite aspects of early years chasing. As time has gone on, less and less use it to the point where the HAM radio in my car was basically a glorified Weather Radio. I have yet to install my HAM into the new vehicle and other than having a weather radio, it hasn't taken away from my chasing. No one used it with me for years, and yeah, occasionally I'd get into an area with a Skywarn net or something to that effect, but in terms of me personally communicating out with it, I have no need for it in reality other than the old man in me trying to grip onto some nostalgia. Similar to the scanner, which was heavily used in earlier rigs, but I stopped using years back.
I personally have never had a HUGE interior setup... usually the biggest thing for me was the laptop setup and radios. But with this latest vehicle, neither have been installed. While I'm still going back and forth on the HAM idea (again, hanging on to the past), I am pretty well sold on the idea of NOT putting a permanent laptop setup in the vehicle moving forward (anyone wanna buy a Ram Mount Laptop desk?). The highest 'priority', if you will, for me will be swapping the extra phone for a tablet with a little bigger screen, but I haven't looked into how I wanna mount that yet.
Oddly enough, in the downsizing of my interior setup, I upsized in size of the vehicle as a whole, upgrading from the 2016 Forester to the 2023 Ascent (which drives like a cloud, btw). Where I would normally invest money into the initial setup costs (and I did have an inverter installed), I used that money to Line-X the hood and roof, to alleviate some of the hail impacts to the horizontal surfaces (and at the same time, gave the ride a nice look).
For me, I love the simplicity... although I do miss the annual vehicle shakedown and installation that always greeted a new season. Now, technology, and a lot of the unmentioned wanting to simplify things, have eliminated the need for so much of it. It's also nice when I am using my car for personal, NON-chase stuff, that I don't feel like I am inhibiting passengers from a comfortable ride. I think that plays a bigger role than perhaps I've mentioned; in my 'off time', I want this to be a normal car; comfortable on the inside and not cluttered with gear and mounts. The laptop desk could be removed, but the pole was a permanent feature that made the passenger a bit cramped at the legs.
So yeah, who else has downsized and why? How do you chase now compared to your early years?
2002-2005 Setup
2011-2016 Setup
2016-2018 Setup
2018-2025 Setup
Current Setup
Up until my most recent vehicle, one of the first things I did with every new car was to install the laptop desk. I've had various setups with that dating back to JottoDesk, eventually going over to RamMount. However, with technology basically shrinking all the gear, it's significantly decluttered the interior. I still occasionally mount a full-size video camera to the windshield for a dash cam, but I opted to hold off on the laptop desk for this season after I got my new ride back in May to see how it worked and I think I am going to go into 2026 without it.
Here are some points on how my latest setup has differed (shrunk) down...
For the last couple decades, the laptop was the single-most important piece of gear behind the vehicle itself. This was vital for not only getting data on the fly via GRLevel3 and NWS Chat, but so I could quickly edit and turn video for my stations. In addition, any streaming I did do was run through the laptop. Now all that is basically obsolete. With current smart phones having video capabilities and quality similar (if not better) than the Prosumer video cameras, not to mention those same 'cameras' have the ability to edit and send directly to clients. In addition, better, higher quality radar apps (Radar Omega) are available on phones/tablets, eliminating that need for the laptop. Lastly, NWS chat migrated over to Slack, another app available easily on phones.
Basically, anything that required a laptop now can be done on mobile devices. When I switched from AT&T to Verizon over the summer, I was able to keep my old Galaxy phone from AT&T and didn't have to trade it in, so that became an extra phone that I run Radar Omega and occasionally directly stream from. It mounts easily on my dash along side my regular phone and doesn't actually tie up my workhorse phone anymore. I am completing a tablet for a little bigger screen, but I haven't made that move yet, either. That would be the 'upgrade' route I would choose to go over a laptop, and it's mainly for the increased screen size.
Video editing; for my purposes, if I need to quick-turn video, I can shoot/edit/send directly from the phone. There's no time wasted in transferring clips from a camera to a computer, so it's all-in-one and I could do that in mere moments. Bigger editing projects I can still pull out a laptop and do in the car somewhere, or in most cases, just wait til I get in later in the evening and do the heavier edits from there. For the "I need it now" stuff, the phone will do in 95% of cases. The 5% of time I miss having a laptop available to me is for a quick photo edit from a Nikon or I have something on a non-phone video camera I need to pull immediately.
HAM Radio: Honestly this has been the most difficult 'let go'. I very much miss the days of HAM-to-HAM combat, it was one of my favorite aspects of early years chasing. As time has gone on, less and less use it to the point where the HAM radio in my car was basically a glorified Weather Radio. I have yet to install my HAM into the new vehicle and other than having a weather radio, it hasn't taken away from my chasing. No one used it with me for years, and yeah, occasionally I'd get into an area with a Skywarn net or something to that effect, but in terms of me personally communicating out with it, I have no need for it in reality other than the old man in me trying to grip onto some nostalgia. Similar to the scanner, which was heavily used in earlier rigs, but I stopped using years back.
I personally have never had a HUGE interior setup... usually the biggest thing for me was the laptop setup and radios. But with this latest vehicle, neither have been installed. While I'm still going back and forth on the HAM idea (again, hanging on to the past), I am pretty well sold on the idea of NOT putting a permanent laptop setup in the vehicle moving forward (anyone wanna buy a Ram Mount Laptop desk?). The highest 'priority', if you will, for me will be swapping the extra phone for a tablet with a little bigger screen, but I haven't looked into how I wanna mount that yet.
Oddly enough, in the downsizing of my interior setup, I upsized in size of the vehicle as a whole, upgrading from the 2016 Forester to the 2023 Ascent (which drives like a cloud, btw). Where I would normally invest money into the initial setup costs (and I did have an inverter installed), I used that money to Line-X the hood and roof, to alleviate some of the hail impacts to the horizontal surfaces (and at the same time, gave the ride a nice look).
For me, I love the simplicity... although I do miss the annual vehicle shakedown and installation that always greeted a new season. Now, technology, and a lot of the unmentioned wanting to simplify things, have eliminated the need for so much of it. It's also nice when I am using my car for personal, NON-chase stuff, that I don't feel like I am inhibiting passengers from a comfortable ride. I think that plays a bigger role than perhaps I've mentioned; in my 'off time', I want this to be a normal car; comfortable on the inside and not cluttered with gear and mounts. The laptop desk could be removed, but the pole was a permanent feature that made the passenger a bit cramped at the legs.
So yeah, who else has downsized and why? How do you chase now compared to your early years?
2002-2005 Setup
2011-2016 Setup
2016-2018 Setup
2018-2025 Setup
Current Setup
