bpuharic wrote:
On Sat, 5 Feb 2011 17:08:14 -0800 (PST), wrote:
There really are no good solutions for these newer toy
cars.
yep. i'm starting to think this may be the case. i've seen tow hitches
used, but this interferes with the hatchback AND, since it's low, the
ground losses are huge
Not necessarily.. you can use something that has a lateral member to put
the antenna at the corner of the car. Or have a pivot to allow you to
swing it out of the way.
As far as the losses go.. just put the base of the antenna (feedpoint)
up higher (mount the antenna on a stalk, as it were). You WANT the
current in the stalk to couple to the car body. The losses in a few
feet of wire to connect the ground aren't a big deal (after all, the
antenna itself is just a piece of wire, and the losses in that are
presumably acceptable)
One way to think of a mobile antenna is as a dipole with a wire on one
side and a very odd shaped ball of wire on the other.
The real thing on the whole grounding thing is to make sure that all the
pieces of the car are grounded together, and that your antenna "ground"
is connected to a big piece of metal. Bumpers, for instance, are often
electrically isolated from the rest of the car by the shock absorbing
mounts.