Bill Turner wrote:
So how about this: I have a '95 Thunderbird
which I dearly love and don't want to cut holes in. I've been think of
going to a welding shop and having a metal piece made which I could
bolt to the frame in the back and which would stick out about six
inches or so behind the rear bumper, and installing a ball mount on it.
This will keep the lower part of the antenna about a foot away from the
body and allow a nice, long whip overall. The loading coil would be in
the center, homebrew of course. :-)

The only way to improve on that on 75m would be to mount
a piece of sheet metal on fiberglass poles connected at
the ends of both bumpers. The piece of horizontal sheet
metal, located 13.5 feet from the ground, would have the
same footprint as the T-bird and would be used as the top
hat. You do want optimum performance don't you? :-)
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp