Idea for antenna mount

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Boss73 on October 18, 2010 at 3:51pm

I am also interested in this but I am too new to know much of what I am talking about... I am watching htis thread...

Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 18, 2010 at 4:20pm

The fact is, I do not know what could be used as "extension" in this setup. Maybe just a pipe of the correct length? Should it be flexible or not?

But, don't you have a roofrack? If you do, there is a simple solution:
http://www.cometantenna.com/products.php?CatID=1&famID=9&ch... look at RS-560C or something similar. The only issue I see is where to enter with the cable.

In my opinion a good antenna is the best possible and most important investment you can do. Much better a handheld hooked to a excellent antenna than a high-power mobile unit with a mediocre antenna.

Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 18, 2010 at 4:20pm

The fact is, I do not know what could be used as "extension" in this setup. Maybe just a pipe of the correct length? Should it be flexible or not?

But, don't you have a roofrack? If you do, there is a simple solution:
http://www.cometantenna.com/products.php?CatID=1&famID=9&ch... look at RS-560C or something similar. The only issue I see is where to enter with the cable.

In my opinion a good antenna is the best possible and most important investment you can do. Much better a handheld hooked to a excellent antenna than a high-power mobile unit with a mediocre antenna.

Permalink Reply by opg4759 on October 25, 2010 at 2:57pm

The issue you would run with this is the extension would have to be a nonconductive material as to not interfere with the antenna RF properties with SWR, beam-width, and radiation pattern. Also if you were to run a cable through a pipe it would need to be PVC since any metal pipe will act as a RF choke . You also would want to minimize the amount of connectors as to keep you losses to a minimum.

This would only be something that you could truly use on road since the high might give you issues with clearance in tight off road situations like low tree branches or parking garages. I already smack the hell out of my existing antenna.

As I've stated before I've had really good performance with my comet antenna on my bandi mount(non-allpro). APRS wise I've hit a station 177 miles away on 2 meters without even trying. Granted I probably had some good tropospheric propagation in that case, but still.

Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 25, 2010 at 3:04pm

Do you know a (preferably) dual-band antenna, that is totally flexible and would not get damaged at all if it came in contact with branches (for example I could make a knot on my HT antenna, it is about 2mm thick and quite flexible)???

In this case one could accept "lesser" gain, just to use it in areas with low trees etc.

Permalink Reply by opg4759 on October 25, 2010 at 3:42pm

I have never seen a mobile antenna like that not to say it doesn't exist, but if you look at the HT rat tail antennas that you are referring to the are a low power 10w max. So a mobile version that could handle 50 to 100 watts your not going to get the same flexibility since you will need a thicker metal conductor for power handeling let alone keeping it vertical at highway speeds.

There are mobile rubber duck style antennas out there that are fairly flexible, but tend to only be unity gain however they are built for abuse. The other option would be a hockey puck style antenna, but again minimal to no gain.

Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 25, 2010 at 4:38pm

well I understand, but I might accept the limitation of gain and max power as this antenna would be for special use only. On the freeway there aren't branches I need to take care of and I could use the normal antenna. In any case can you name one of the "mobile rubber duck style antennas built for abuse" that I can see online?