roof rack mount options?

[MOguy]

I would be surprised if today's roof rack mounts provide low impedance/good conductivity between the rack itself and a metal roof. Many roof racks use combinations of channels and swedged in hardware, breaking that electrical path. This is done by manufacturers to address corrosion. That said, not all are the same so a VERY close inspection is required.

And then we have the move to aluminum bodies ...... No more mag mounts.

Anything on the rack to help from damaging whatever it is mounted to will affect the RF ground.

 

[4x4junkie]

If you have a good RF ground you would be fine on a rack, tire carrier or whatever. The OP stated he didn't want to drill holes and was using a magnetic antenna. The post is titled rack mount options. A magnetic antenna will not perform as well as it could stuck on a rack that is not properly grounded.

I'm not seeing anything from the OP implying that he was going to stick his magnetic mount antenna to his roof rack...

He stated he currently HAD a magnet mount antenna, and was inquiring about different antenna options that could possibly mount to his roof rack instead since he had a (unfounded) concern about rain affecting the performance of magnet mount antennas. I & others stated there's no issue with rain & magnetic antennas, so might as well just stick with a magnetic antenna (if not necessarily the one he currently has) since it's simple, effective, easily removable, and won't require he check to make sure his rack is properly grounded.

 

[AlbanyTom]

If you have a good RF ground you would be fine on a rack, tire carrier or whatever. The OP stated he didn't want to drill holes and was using a magnetic antenna. The post is titled rack mount options. A magnetic antenna will not perform as well as it could stuck on a rack that is not properly grounded.

...and just so as not to confuse folks, I'd restate that as "An CB or HF antenna will not perform well mounted to a rack that isn't grounded well." I say that because for CB/HF, it doesn't matter if you're talking about mag mount or bolted, both need what they are attaching to to be grounded.

If you take it out of the CB/HF context, to 2m or 440 ham or GMRS, there's a good chance that the rack is big enough that the ground doesn't matter, because the wavelength is so much shorter. The rack is likely all the counterpoise/ground plane you need. Go to 800+MHz, like a cell phone antenna, and anything farther away than about 4", and lower than the antenna, doesn't matter. I know this has all been about CB, I just wouldn't want someone to go through 43 hours of grief welding their roof rack to the top of their truck to improve the performance of their scanner antenna.

is the horse dead yet?

 

[MOguy]

I'm not seeing anything from the OP implying that he was going to stick his magnetic mount antenna to his roof rack...

He stated he currently HAD a magnet mount antenna, and was inquiring about different antenna options that could possibly mount to his roof rack instead since he had a (unfounded) concern about rain affecting the performance of magnet mount antennas. I & others stated there's no issue with rain & magnetic antennas, so might as well just stick with a magnetic antenna (if not necessarily the one he currently has) since it's simple, effective, easily removable, and won't require he check to make sure his rack is properly grounded.

the title of the post?