Batboard

Tell me the feasibility: Here's the idea, I get two syntor 9000 units, two hand made programming cables running to a data switche, other end of data switch attached to a mounted laptop. I know Monty will jump down my throat about good quality cables (in all honesty I trust factory for my service work) however I've heard (only heard never witnessed) that syntor 9000s are hard to kill, would this setup work/incur grievous risk?

Check Mike B's site for a phone cable programming setup. Other than that, I wouldn't. I had 3 x9000 in the truck. Yes they are hard to kill, but all you need is a wayward voltage spike/static electricity coming from that programming cable and its toast.

The x9000's can't have a programming cable attached when you are TXing on them. The Rib grabs the mic audio...no mic audio = you don't go out
What you could do is get a 3 way data switch and keep it off both when you're not using them that should work.