Another antenna location question…

[ManUtdWY]

I have a Land Rover LR3. Roof is mostly glass, but there is a section in between the front and middle sun roof that I would like to place either a 1/4 wave whip or puck style GMRS antenna to meet ground plane requirements.

I’ll be using a 15w Midland mobile GMRS unit. My goal is to achieve results that are no less than a hand held used in the cabin, which is what most of my group uses. My problem (I think) is that I will eventually install a Front Runner or ARB base rack style roof rack that I anticipate would cover the puck, and if I went 6” whip, would likely stick up through one of the slats on the rack. Roof rack could possibly have a roof top tent, but at a minimum, would have various storage boxes, fuel cans, etc.

Has anyone done something similar that could comment on performance? I’m not trying to accomplish maximum performance, but logic says there will be a lot of interference and I don’t want to drill a hole in my roof and then have worse performance than a handheld in the cabin.

Mounting on the rack itself is a better solution, I’m sure, but I don’t want to wait, nor am I interested in a re-wire. Lip mount on hood is another option, just not the look I’m after, so really hoping the roof location I’ve described will be good enough.

Thoughts?

 

[nwoods]

I clipped a mount to the edge of my lift gate, using a mount similar to what is in this video, around minute mark 14
It clipped right to the edge of the glass.

Note: the small little mag mount anntennas are something like 1.5 dB sensitivity, and the small cylinder unit is 3dB, and the taller (16") antennas are 6dB. Taller is better, higher is better, clear flat ground plane is best.

 

[ManUtdWY]

That’s another good location idea, just hoping I might could get away with roof top like I’ve described.

 

[JimBiram]

Diamond makes a great mount that attaches to upper tailgate. I have two on my LR3.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DaveInDenver]

Having the antenna between slats on a roof rack is going to perform poorly.

The lift gate lip can work fine but might limit antenna options. For example simple 1/4λ whips aren't going to work well and might present a bit of challenge to tune. More or less similar to fender and bumper mounts, though.

One thing to consider is if you're thinking magnet mount on your roof you could eventually move it to a lip on the roof rack. That's a pretty decent option, too.

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