On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 00:57:16 GMT, "Ed G."
wrote:



Fiberglass topped jeep? There are a couple options. I don't like glass
mount. Personally, I have experienced poor matching or excessive losses
with these. If I had your vehicle, I would consider a 1/2 wave base
loaded antenna for 2M that doesn't require a ground plane. These are
readily available from most decent mobile antenna manufacturers. Also, I
would consider a trunk lip mounted antenna fastened to the edge of your
hood if possible. There's enough metal on the front of the jeep to make
that fairly effective..... more so than a glass mount antenna, in my
opinion. Or if you didn't mind drilling a 3/4" hole on the hood space
between the front windshield and the hood itself, you could mount a decent
NMO type mount there. That, too, would be reasonable effective. I don't
think the Fiberglass top of the jeep would impact any front mounted
antenna enough to be concerned. Only concern is RF radiation to the cab
occupants. If you don't run too high power, or tx too much, that should
not be an issue, either. Good luck.


Ed WB6SAT
I second the motion for mounting on the hood. When not wanting to
drill a hole my new vehicle and also not wanting a mag mount I used a
Diamond K-400 mount with a Larsen 2M/440 antenna (half wave) and have
found it to be suitable. With luck, there's already a hole in the
firewall to pass the coax through. If only using an HT I wouldn't
worry about RF exposure.

Howard KE6MAK