how close can a cb & ham antenna be?

[1leglance]

Hello & howdy all,
I have a drivers side rear door hinge mount cb antenna for my FJ Cruiser but I am finding that is causing me to project very directionally out from the passenger side front corner.
I bought a wilson 1000 roof mount but as I was looking at where I wanted it I realized that I was soon to be putting some ham antenna up there also. Not to mention my new wilson mag mount cell antenna.
So my question is since I only have about a 3 ft wide side to side by 2ft front to rear area to mount my antennas....how close can they be?
I can keep the rear hinge mount for the cb as it has a blue firestik antenna that is body color and the setup looks cool....but I like best functionality also.
As to the ham bands I am only looking at tech so far but I may study for general so I can go tri-band on the ham....still learning on the bands & req antennas so please offer all advice possible.
I would like to stay about from fender/hood lip mounts as I don't mind drilling the roof. I do have an arb front bumper but my understanding is that is a poor choice ( low & forward).
Please education me..
enjoy & thanks in advance,
1leglance

 

[k6uk]

The answer is that they should be spaced as far apart as feasable... and you need to retune each antenna for lowest SWR after they are both in place.

No mobile setup is perfectly ideal, and having a couple antennas is going to alter your radiation/pickup patterns to some extent. Make sure that the antennas will not touch each other no matter what though.

Alot of hams have cars resembling a porcupine - so no worries on a couple of antennas - but they will interact with one another to some degree.

Photo courtesy HamSexy.com

 

[gary in ohio]

As long as your not on the same bands your will be ok. NOw you dont want the antenna's touching but a foot or more will be fine.

 

[mountainpete]

There are usually guidelines from the antenna manufacturer. My rule of thumb between antennas is as much as possible - ideally 3 feet. I wouldn't go anything less than 18" personally - especially steel whips. You don't want to take the change of them bouncing around and hitting each other on the trail during a transmit.

Pete