Antenna relocation

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Jun 1, 2015
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53
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Athens, GA
I want to delete the factory power antenna from the passenger side, especially since I am looking at possibly doing an OEM snorkel. I have read about people just swapping out a Firestik or rubber antenna instead of the OEM antenna, and I have also read about using the splitter so you can use the Firestik for AM/FM and CB. I am wondering if I could delete the factory antenna, and use something like @yodaTEQ 's antenna mount for the rear drivers side, have a Firestik mounted back there and use that antenna for Ham as well as AM/FM?
 
You could. I hear bad things about that Firestik splitter though. It messes with SWR and significantly lowers FM/AM reception. I'd maybe shoot for a nubby on the roof for the radio and a CB antenna in a yotaTeq mount.

Edit:
Searchfu
 
What about having two antennas mounted on driver's and passenger side rear? Dedicated AM/FM and dedicated CB/Ham? Would it be a pain to wire from the back of the truck to the head unit?
 
Better off separate antennas, especially if transmit is part of the cake.

Consider the front bumper, if ARB or similar. There's a nice spot at the outside corner on each side where a three foot stick fits nicely, doesn't bang against anything and gives decent SWR with some tuning. Easy to drill into the flat top of the bumper with no holes in the body. It even looks good if you give it time to grow on you a bit.
CBant3.jpg
 
I want to delete the factory power antenna from the passenger side, especially since I am looking at possibly doing an OEM snorkel. I have read about people just swapping out a Firestik or rubber antenna instead of the OEM antenna, and I have also read about using the splitter so you can use the Firestik for AM/FM and CB. I am wondering if I could delete the factory antenna, and use something like @yodaTEQ 's antenna mount for the rear drivers side, have a Firestik mounted back there and use that antenna for Ham as well as AM/FM?

WagonGear sells what you need: http://wagongear.com/shop/antenna-mount/

-A
 
That's for the front mount. I won't be able to use that if I get an OEM snorkel, will I?
 
That's for the front mount. I won't be able to use that if I get an OEM snorkel, will I?

Why not?

I was told my Safari wouldn't clear, and it fit absolutely fine.

Does the OME one sit much higher?

Worse case scenario you could heat a metal pipe and mold the clearance needed to slip the antenna past.

Much cleaner look then having an open half covered hole.
 
The OEM snorkel is further up on the car and is designed for non-US spec vehicles so it covers the antenna I am pretty sure.

What antenna do you run with your mount?
 
The OEM snorkel is further up on the car and is designed for non-US spec vehicles so it covers the antenna I am pretty sure.

What antenna do you run with your mount?

Fire stick with the splitter for CB / AM / FM.

I have to say it's not "great" for any of the frequency's but does the job. I don't really listen to AM/ FM and only use the CB for direct line of sight transmission on the trail.

HAM or Cell for anything else.
 
Right, so is it possible to re-route the AM/FM antenna to the rear of the vehicle?
 
I mounted a cb antenna on rear slee bumper. 3ft firestick. Initially ran to a splitter and then to a cobra 75 I think. Found I had better swr without the fm splitter however not by much. I still have a tock antenna bit plan to go oem snorkel and you definetly cannot use factory snorkel with it. I am debating just using the splitter vs installing a hidden fm antenna option. Watching this tread to see if there are any other options. If not I will probably just use the splitter. I ran coax in far passenger side and followed wiring harness up the side. Fairly easy to do.
 
Do HAMs require a different type of antenna or can I use a Firestik? This is all so different to me- I just installed an SSB radio on my sailboat, using the backstay as a 65' antenna!
 
Do HAMs require a different type of antenna or can I use a Firestik? This is all so different to me- I just installed an SSB radio on my sailboat, using the backstay as a 65' antenna!
Different.
 
Do HAMs require a different type of antenna or can I use a Firestik? This is all so different to me- I just installed an SSB radio on my sailboat, using the backstay as a 65' antenna!

I'll elaborate a little.

Different radio services operate on different ranges of frequencies. Antennas are designed to be resonant, or to be some specific fraction of the wavelength of each frequency range. Higher freqs need shorter antennas, because the wavelength is shorter.

Shortwave like on your boat is actually a pretty long wavelength, it was just shorter than everything else being used at the time, so it was considered "short." AM broadcast radio is even longer. CB is at the top of the shortwave band. FM is way higher than that.

That said, there are ways to make an antenna electrically "longer" by adding a coil, for instance. That's the knobby thing you see on some CB antennas. It's also why you can find CB antennas from very short, for a handheld CB, with a coil inside to make it seem longer to the radio to about 8' long, which is your old school tall whip antenna that is a 1/4 wave based on its length alone.

Firestick makes Ham antennas, too, IIRC. If not very similar antennas to CB ones like the Firestick are available. They look similar, but the different coils make them act differently. The Firestick and many other antennas allow the antenna to be tuned for the lowest SWR. SWR represents the power reflected back into the transmitter, which you want to minimize or it will damage the transmitter. Sometimes you simply cut the antenna tip. The Firestick has a small screw in the tip that you turn to adjust the coil instead.

Many people tune for the center of the antenna's freq coverage to be Channel 19, which is the common road/trucker's channel. It's also about halfway between the lowest and highest channels, 1 and 40, so gives pretty good performance across the CB range. You can also tune to another channel if you'll be using it a lot. However, if you tune to 40, performance on channel 1 may suffer.
 

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