"Merlin-7 KI4ILB" wrote in message
news
It would not be mounted on the bumper.
My thinking is that since the first 1/3 of an antenna does the most
radiating, get it as far away from any metal (broadside) that you can.
It would be mounted in a stake-hole (one of the 4 square holes in each
corner of the truck bed.
Joe

A 1/8wl antenna mounted in the center of your roof will probably work
better
than the 1/4 lambda antenna on the bumper.


To each his own, but I don't agree with the "bottom" of the antenna doing
the radiating. The bottom, *if* I understand it correctly--and I am not
here to prove anything or start a flame war (I ain't got time for that
)--is the voltage portion, the top would be the current (RF) portion.
Witness what happens if you grab an antenna (dipole. The current at the
ends can reach levels to produce serious burns! Grab a mobile antenna below
the loading coil while transmitting. You won't feel a thing! Grab it at or
above the coil, it will burn the hell out of you ( X-numbers of milliamps of
RF current). The next thing is, IMHO, if your antenna is radiating from the
bottom, WHY would you even NEED the rest of the antenna? LOL! Next there's
those pesky ground proximities that tend to "grab" a signal and just spoil
everything.

Now I am not trying to start a war, prove anyone wrong, annoy anyone, or
engage in a "I'm-smarter-than-you-and-I'm-not-gonna-yield" etc, etc. I'll
yield because it is 1) not important to me) and 2) cuz I ain't got time to
get into a theory war today! But, I am just of the opinion that the RF
is where the thing will burn the crap out of you if you grab it!!! I've been
burnt plenty of times, and it ain't pleasant!!!

73

Jerry