View Poll Results: Where should I put antenna

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  • Hood mount

    1 9.09%
  • Door mount

    10 90.91%
Results 1 to 15 of 18

Thread: Opinions on Antenna Mount Location

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  1. #1
    Member Since
    Jun 2009
    Location
    2000, Kaiser, #0016
    Posts
    645
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    Antennas 101 taught me the best place would be to drill thru the middle of the roof and mount up top. That would put the antenna up high and also provide the greatest ground plane, but would be kinda ugly. Mounting on the roof rack would be iffy, you would lose some ground plane action, but if you ran a copper ground strap from the metal mount to metal on the roof, the difference would be negligible. Those would be best for radio propagation IMHO.

    However, IMHO the rear mount looks best, but again for best grounding, run some copper to the metal on the body from the mount. Mounting on the rear of course will block some signal ahead of you, prolly measurable signal loss if your a perfectionist. Use a SWR meter to measure the diff, you will see it!

    The front looks just OK IMHO, I prolly wouldnt put it there.

    I'm coming from a amateur HAM radio background and the serious amateurs dislike any sort of "lip mount" such as you are employing. Same for those magnetic mounts you often see around. Not only can they damage the surface they are mounted on, but unless you run a ground to the metal of the vehicle, it is often impeded by the paint etc, and never makes for a decent plane.

    The ultra hardcore (of which I am not one) say that if your not willing to drill into your metal to ground the base directly into its hole, you are not worthy of mobile operation (or i should say, compete in mobile operation competitions)! Of course that's an extreme attitude, but the science behind it is sound.

    Thats my 2¢
    Last edited by Grif : 08/20/2010 at 07:09 PM

  2. #2
    Member Since
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Former owner 2001, Foxfire Red, #0663
    Posts
    7,311
    Thanked: 33
    Firestik cust service guy told me the same Grif...put my mag mount antenna smack in the middle of the roof for best ground plane. OK, tried it, put it through the roof rack, worked OK, looked stupid, wouldn't work with spare tire anyway.

    So moved it to rear of roof. "Oh don't worry lady, that strong mag mount will stay put, you'll need 2 hands to remove it!"...HUH! Tipped over before I was even off my dirt road. NEXT!

    Got lots of good info from other CB mounting threads and Mark Hardeman had great pics of CB antenna mounted to Yakima LoadWarrior bar. Called Firestik cust serv again, described plan...said it wouldn't work because I was putting some black spongy drawer liner stuff around the Yakima bar...sure as heck didn't want to goober the finish all up! Said I needed metal to metal contact between Yakima bar and antenna mount I tried it anyway...worked great, so did Mark's.
    SWR meter tuned it and it was easily within range. Worked great in Moab.



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    ....the adventure BEGINS ANEW! ...2015......
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