Antennae question

[ebg18t]

Life is full of compromises.

What's your definition of “Screwed”? likewise what do you need for “better range”? What kinds of distances are you talking about?

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Maybe screwed was the wrong term. I don't want to drill a hole in the roof and I need to be able to get into my garage. Thus the lip mount with a 'flexi' antenna. Can I add a copper strap to the back of the lip mount? As for reason, yeah just looking for better range for when we travel in areas with little to no cell service. I guess I don't need, but desire more opportunity for increased range. As for range looks like some areas it would be nice to get 50 miles.

If it were me, I would definitely upgrade to the SBB-5NMO antenna, like Gary said. I think it would definitely help. I'd probably stop there. However, I see you have a BajaRack or some similar type roof rack, depending on how much time / energy I had I would consider migrating the mount up there above the roof line. That's what I did with mine, so no drilling required.

The SBB-5NMO has the fold over which would work for access to my garage. But for me to clear the garage I need to have atleast my fridge, recovery gear, spare tire and my weight in the truck. Otherwise I don't fit.. So I opted for the lip mount as I wouldn't clear the garage with it mounted on the rack, even if folded over.

Can I increase the plane with the lip mount some how?

 

[DaveInDenver]

Yeah, screwed is much too harsh. It's all a matter of compromises really, but lip mounts are least ideal performance wise but often the easiest to deal with otherwise. It's more important to figure out something you can live with day-to-day and work from there and going through a big procedure to deal with an antenna every night parking gets old quick.

Just make sure the set screws are making good contact with the sheet metal and then run a length of copper braid from the door to the body. The hinges are usually very poor conductors.

http://www.dxengineering.com/search...inned-copper-braid?autoview=SKU&keyword=braid

This is what I'm running, the 70cm is short enough to clear the garage door header and the 2m Flexi-whip can almost be tied in a knot without breaking, so it just lays over under the garage door and pops back up.

You could put an artificial ground under the antenna, but it would be a disk or radials about 19" long, so not very practical.

Would kinda look like this.

 

[SWITAWI]

...The SBB-5NMO has the fold over which would work for access to my garage. But for me to clear the garage I need to have atleast my fridge, recovery gear, spare tire and my weight in the truck. Otherwise I don't fit.. So I opted for the lip mount as I wouldn't clear the garage with it mounted on the rack, even if folded over...

I just mounted an SBB-5NMO on the back door of my FJC using a Diamond Antenna K400SNMO mount (http://www.diamondantenna.net/k400.html). Not sure about prospective signal/range loss due to a lower-than-roof antenna base height or the fact that it is so off-center from the ground plane of the roof, but the combo works great for clearance because the mount is low enough to bring the fold-over section below the roofline. If the truck will clear an obstacle, so will my antenna. This is specifically why I went with this type of mount and antenna.

The spring in the antenna is pretty strong and if you tried to drive with the antenna in the folded-over position it would pop back up if you didn't use some kind of leash to keep it held down. I've got a weak bungee that's just about the right length so that I can hook it between the antenna's coiled section and my spare tire mount without it really pulling on the antenna, just keeping it from popping upright if I don't want it to.

 

[ebg18t]

Just make sure the set screws are making good contact with the sheet metal and then run a length of copper braid from the door to the body. The hinges are usually very poor conductors.

http://www.dxengineering.com/search...inned-copper-braid?autoview=SKU&keyword=braid

What is the suggested method for attaching this copper braid to the vehicle? I could run thus from the lip mount, down the hatch, over the hinge and to the body of the truck. Would I also need scrape the paint at the contact points?

All 4 set screws are pretty solid into the back of hatch.


Switali - I might end up doing the same thing with a bungee..