Opinions on Antenna Mount Location

[RamAirZ]

K guys, been working on my CB install; and I originally used a fender/hood gutter mount up front. I like it up there because it'll probably give me the clearest signal out of my 2 location choices (I'm not 100% sure on a roof rack and I don't want a roof mount, I also like Jollyroger's setup but I don't wanna drill external body panels/cladding on this one) and I don't think it looks too bad. Now my other choice is in the rear door channel, I think it looks better back here except for the "lean" thanks to the body shape of the VX (I'd have to bend the bracket across the width to fix it which I don't think is going to happen lol) but there will be more of the vehicle blocking the antenna. What do you guys think:

Hood mount:






Rear door mount:

[VX KAT]

I vote rear door, looks better/logical to me...

[Tookie]

Found some more of my install



Antenna is a 42" Diamond, on a Diamond mount that swivels on both axis, so pretty perfect mount for back there. Pretty dang tall antenna though so I hit ceilings kinda often. Has a pull out swivel thing at the bottom so if I really wanna jump out each time I can put the antenna down so it hangs across.

[RamAirZ]

can't see anything lol

[Tookie]

Haha, I suck at forums, so I learned the site faq and made it better for you hahaha

[Riff Raff]

Hmmm, both locations have their pros/cons. One advantage to the hood-mount location is the driver can immediately tell if the antenna will get hung-up on a low profile entrance (garage, carport, fast food drive-thru signage, or low hanging tree branch, etc) and can quickly stop before impact. The rear-door location is totally hidden from the driver's view for any advance clearance warning (until it's already too late). The hood-mount location is on the same side as the hood-support rod, so the antenna really won't interfere with any under-the-hood engine maintenance that the hood-support rod already does.

The rear-door location does look more "traditional" for an off-road vehicle (like Jeep's have done for years on that corner location). Plus, the antenna propagation would be better as the VX's roof ground plane would focus towards the left-front reception pattern (great for advance Smokey-The-Bear reports on the freeway, and to stay in contact with convoy leader). Trying to hide the long cable-run may also pose some interior challenges with carpet/body panels. If you decide to go with the rear-door location, try to slightly bend the bracket or use some sort of shim, so the antenna is a perfect 90-degree vertical angle and not leaning to one side.

Either method would work. You'll have to weigh all the pros/cons and see which one would work best for your lifestyle. I concur with you that drilling a hole in a body panel/cladding might make the VX bleed. Just my 2-cents.

[vt_maverick]

And on a less technical note, I like the hood mount location better. It sends a very clear message of "If the lift and big tires don't tell you I'm a man, look at my 4' mast."

[RamAirZ]

Well with the help of a torch and a gigantic adjustable wrench (to use as my pry bar of sorts), the antenna looks like this now, I'm gonna stick with the rear mount I think. I used a cable clamp on the coax using one of the rear taillight screws and I didn't need to drill any holes in the rear plastic since there was this neat little spot that already had a small gap and the cable fit perfectly. I pulled the side paneling out just enough to slide the cable all the way under to the front and then ran under the carpet over to the CB. I mounted the bracket in a way that I could run the cable real tight without any binding so very little is actually exposed outside the truck.

[RamAirZ]

And on a less technical note, I like the hood mount location better. It sends a very clear message of "If the lift and big tires don't tell you I'm a man, look at my 4' mast."

hahahaha that's awesome

[vt_maverick]

Well thank you.

Btw, can you create a 4th thread detailing this mod? J/k, nobody is as bad as that sleveritt guy, he creates one for sale thread for each and every individual part he has for sale. Not a problem until he bumps them all, then I've got to click several pages down to find the real threads. Luckily you have so many threads on this subject you won't get lost easily.

Okay T/J over.

[RamAirZ]

lol. Well I wanted to start one for the CB install so if someone searched they could find it easier (instead of searching through all the pages of a build thread) and then added it to my build thread. Then I wanted opinions on the antenna mount so decided to make a poll lol sorry

[circmand]

lol. Well I wanted to start one for the CB install so if someone searched they could find it easier (instead of searching through all the pages of a build thread) and then added it to my build thread. Then I wanted opinions on the antenna mount so decided to make a poll lol sorry

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

[Tookie]

I've wanted to do that for awhile, but also to get NVIS, pretty much radio propagation that bounces off the layer that I'm forgetting now and comes back down in a down. And cuz I think an antenna bent like that would look sick. Just gotta find a ham whose smarter(that's easy) than me to figure it all out.

[Luna X]

lol. Well I wanted to start one for the CB install so if someone searched they could find it easier (instead of searching through all the pages of a build thread) and then added it to my build thread. Then I wanted opinions on the antenna mount so decided to make a poll lol sorry

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

[Grif]

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¢