gb wrote:
Mike -

VERY USEFUL INFORMATION.

Yes, fiberglass is worthless for the required ground plane of a 1/4 wave UHF
antenna - and requires additional materials.
PCTEL based in the Chicago area is a major antenna mfg. and suppliers (e.g.
MAXRAD, Antenna Specialists).

They have 2 suitable products specifically made for fiberglass body vehicles
and antenna mounting (Page 44 of their catalog)
http://www.antenna.com/lm_cat/pdf/lmr_catalog.pdf
Ground Plane Kit Model K-67

Ground plane kit for fiberglass-bodied vehicles. Complete with instructions
and sufficient adhesive backed foil for one low-band/high-band or six UHF
ground planes (3 inches x 44 ft). Includes metal clips for circuit
continuity.

Ground Plane Disk Model K-332

Provides ground plane for fiberglass-bodied vehicles.

THIS NEEDS TO BE ADDED TO THE "BILL of MATERIALS that you are ordering from
the "local company" supplying the radio and antenna materials

=======================================

Greg, w9gb

Thanks, Greg.

I've printed out their catalog and noted the products you suggested.

Yesterday afternoon I had an opportunity to examine our busses more
closely and found a couple different types of antennas in use. Several
look very much like the ASPRD1610 shown in the catalog. The others look
like the ASP-7654, but perhaps with a different base. I have always
understood that when it comes to antennas, the longer they are the
better(in general). The short ones appear to be between 4-6 inches in
length. There is some variation in their lengths. Given their varied
mounting locations on the busses combined with what I learned yesterday
about how things have been done here, I can only assume that very
little is actually "right". At this point, I'm not very confident that
the local supplier pre-cut the antennas, although they may well have. A
phone call will answer that.

As an aside, this particular company appears to make little if any
investment in their people. The manager here must get prior approval
from the regional manager to purchase string for the weed-eater. This
may well help explain why there has been no service contract in place,
nor has there been any attempt to fix the problem(s) with the radios.
This makes me think that other than our remounting the antennas
properly and cleaning connections there may be little we can do.
Perhaps that will be enough to get our communications to a point of
being adequate for our needs.

Anyway, thanks for the information. I'll let you know what we find.

Mike