Opinions on Antenna Mount Location

[VX KAT]

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.

[Grif]

Glad it works well enuff for you Kat, that's all that matters.

[RamAirZ]

That large an antenna looks ridiculous that high. I would get a whip antenna (notice the spelling HAHA) and mount it in the front bent back and attached to the back

Well considering you want the longest antenna you can get (that works for you) mounted as high as possible, that's where it's got to be, plus it's not any higher than most of the rack mounted ones most people run on here. Add the crossbars plus the rack then a 3ft antenna or so and it's probably higher than mine. And I didn't even notice the spelling of the thread, I get to typing fast and that happens, oh well fixed now I PERSONALLY think a 102" whip antenna bent front to back will look ridiculous. And your not going to get the full effectiveness of the 102" whip with it tied down so why have it? The best setup would be the whip on a 6" pot-belly mount (with the internal strap that keeps the antenna constantly connected to the mount, all those little 3-4" ones without the strap are garbage really, yes it's metal but a poor antenna extension IMO) mounted in the center of your roof. Also the 102" whip is really meant to go with the 6" spring which would put it at 108" which is almost perfect. But I know alot of 4x4 groups and parks banned the whip antennas for trail rides. If I ran one it'd only be strapped when I was going to be in parking garages or through trails, otherwise it'd be up all the time.

I say mount that DirecTv dish right up on your roof.... it matches color, and can receive signals from space!!

I thought about that,. I could then watch NFL Sunday Ticket if I'm out and about!

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¢

I have installed/tuned a few CB's before so I'm familiar with the SWR meter and I will be using it once I finalize installation. I already have some braided copper straps for grounding the mount, it's screwed into the body inside the channel which should help out too. If I was getting REALLY serious about it I would run a few straps from the frame to the cabin, doors to cabin, hood to cabin, fenders to cabin etc etc and then the center roof mount antenna but I don't need anything like that. I ran a Wilson Flex4 on a modified mirror mount on my spare tire rack and a Midland compact CB for a little over a year and it worked great for my needs, got me a tad over 5 miles through the mountains (talking to someone who was 5 miles away with mountains in between us) and an swr of 1.3 before the ground strap on all channels and after a ground from the mount to frame it dropped to 1.0-1.1 on the meter on all channels. I think the front would give me a better ground plane but I don't really like it as much. I don't mind drilling on the VX for certain things just no obvious gigantic holes and I'd like them to be hidden like in the rear door channel or fender etc that you won't really see. I think this setup will work for my trail rides and some highway chatter.

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.

Yours looks good Kat! and like Grif said, if it works for you that's what matters!