Ham antenna in factory am/fm antenna spot?

[preacherman]

So I have a fj62 I am building up and I am almost to the point of installing my dual band ft7900r radio. I will have a cb and a ham radio in this rig and I do not want too many antennas. I saw the wagon gear cb/am/fm radio antenna kit and it got me thinking. What if I removed the factory radio antenna and installed a dual band antenna in its place? I have not used a am/fm radio in years because I use xm radio and I also have a blue tooth stereo that allows my iPhone to stream my playlist and pandora.

Has anyone seen a clean install of a dual band ham antenna in the factory antenna location?

Thoughts?

The only downside I can see is if by some crazy twist of fate there was a local emergency that was broadcast over the local radio stations. My ham has the weather stations however so if a local storm hit, I still have local weather at my fingertips.

 

[1911]

Never tried it myself, but there's no reason it shouldn't work on a 60-series body. At least you'd have a good ground plane with the hood and fenders, though your radiation pattern will be somewhat elliptical. If I were going to do that, I would drill out the existing antenna hole to 3/4" and put an NMO mount there. The only downside I see is that it would catch a lot of trees, but that is not a big concern in west Texas.

 

[irish_11]

Where are you planning on mounting the body of my 7900 in the 62? I just got my 7900 and am thinking of putting the body under the drivers seat. I have the separation kit and am mounting the face off the mirror. But the body is something I am trying to figure out. Also, are you going with an external speaker? Any good locations in the 62?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Can't think of a reason it wouldn't work other than mechanical, e.g. the size of the hole and shape of the fender. On my truck the fender is not flat where the antenna comes through, so it wouldn't be very mechanically stable without some kludging of a mount. It's really no different electrically than a lip mount or fender tab that are often used.

You could put an antenna switch inline and have two leads, one for normal use with the Yaesu and a second that goes to your AM/FM radio, a VHF antenna would work well on FM broadcast and probably no worse than the stock antenna on AM.

 

[preacherman]

Where are you planning on mounting the body of my 7900 in the 62? I just got my 7900 and am thinking of putting the body under the drivers seat. I have the separation kit and am mounting the face off the mirror. But the body is something I am trying to figure out. Also, are you going with an external speaker? Any good locations in the 62?

I was thinking about mounting it under the seat as well but I want to put the face on the dash somewhere, I just have not figured it out yet either.

 

[4RunAmok]

Not cheap, but here's an option
http://www.actioncommunications.com...de=NBVHF&Category_Code=mob-stico-fender-mount

 

[1911]

Not cheap, but here's an option
http://www.actioncommunications.com...de=NBVHF&Category_Code=mob-stico-fender-mount

Sti-co makes some very good stuff, but they make and sell for the emergency and commercial radio services so you must cut their antennas for 2m. I use their "Flexi-whip" 1/4-wave antenna on the top of my FJC and it is great.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Sti-co makes some very good stuff, but they make and sell for the emergency and commercial radio services so you must cut their antennas for 2m. I use their "Flexi-whip" 1/4-wave antenna on the top of my FJC and it is great.

I have not seen the linked antenna up close, but they do say they are vehicle specific. I know Sti-Co makes a lot of public service products and so I was assuming that would mean their targets would be Crown Vics, Tahoes, Chargers, etc., typical cop cars. I sort of doubt they'd have the right profile for a FJ-62. Otherwise, I agree 100%, they do make good products. They have an interesting option, what they call the HF model, that apparently works 30-50MHz along with retaining the commercial broadcast radio. For as little as I use CB that would be cool. They also list a dual band option that has two duplexers, one for AM/FM and V/UHF and a second to split VHF and UHF, that is probably pretty inefficient.

 

[WanderingJim]

A CB-AM/FM Splitter would solve the stock radio problem. (This not the "tuner" box that is supposed to make your CB work on the vehicles AM/FM antenna.)

http://www.amazon.com/FireStik-AR-1A-Matchmaker-antenna-splitter/dp/B000RF26FK#productDetails

[I read about using these on a Jeep Liberty forum where an owner swapped hos AM/FM for a CB antenna.]