Cheap Custom CB antenna mount (pics)

[gbell210]

Well, I finally had a nice day to move my CB antenna mount from my 88 4Runner to the 94 LC. I didn't have to change anything, just find a good place to drill a few holes. Hopefully this can help some others, or you can just give me your opinions.
First off here is the CB I transferred over. Its a Midland one that is all built into the handset. The other nice feature is you can detach the bottom half and slap on the battery holder it came with and use it as a portable CB.

Now here is the mount, made out of aluminum and a Radio Shack whip.

Additional benifit that I had not planned on is that I can go into underground parking garages too as you can see. I may put some rubber bumpers on the whip, since it can hit the body. if you pull it out and back. When it swings back it will whip the hatch/roof. But you have to get it really swinging for that.

-Gary

 

[stuck in GA]

Yeah helpful hint cause I use to have a whip on my tahoe is to put a tennis ball on the whip by drilling a hole in the ball and sliding it down. It will prevent it from hitting. Nice setup!

 

[alia176]

that radio is a nice one indeed...very portable when you need it. Nice job on the install.

 

[RavenTai]

how is the reception with that antenna mount? I have been considering doing something similar but it does not give much of a ground plane,

 

[CDN_Cruiser]

you could probably improve it by running a ground strap from the antenna to the frame

 

[offroadkid]

Nice work, but I was always under the impression that the best spot for reception,(besides the roof) was on the front of the car eg. the front bumper or somewhere close to the end of the hood.

 

[stuck in GA]

Well the reason for having it there is because the hood acts as a big plane for reception because the metal on the hood attached to the metal anntenna help it have better reception. I have a magnetic one on my hood now that works amazing but im thinking about moving to a stick on the arb bar soon.

 

[gbell210]

Currently I don't have an SWR meter wihle going to grad school here in OH. My dad had one that we tuned the antenna while it was on the 4Runner, but I'm sure it has changed , now that its on the LC. As far as the best place to mount it (I hadn't looked into it) but following advice from my dad, I was under the impression that the field is stretched or directed depending on where it is on the vehicle. Meaning in this case it would stretch toward the front drivers side and toward oncoming traffic on the highway. Of course it doesn't just hit this area, but that is the strongest.
Is this correct?

Also, I really didn't want a magnet mount up on the roof, since they tend to scratch up the paint from vibration.

 

[stuck in GA]

Yeah I have my magnetic one on my hood of my car oppisite my radio antenna and it works fine. No scratching or marks of any kind. Great reception too. My only complaint is it gets wacked off by trees sometimes when wheeling which is kind of annoying.

 

[offroadkid]

I bought a SWR meter from Radio Shack, it's easy to use. I was trying to find a pic of my old 80 where I had the antenna drilled into the stock front bumper. I did the "tennis ball" trick and slid it down against the headlight. I hope to eventually get an aftermarket bumper of some sort for my present rig and mount the antenna there. Like on the top of an ARB or something. I also do not like the magnetic mount.

 

[Kalawang]

I'm pretty sure a gutter mount would solve your problems in most cases, though you can forget the bullwhip for that kind of mounting. Problem with gutter mounts though is that you develop rust so you have to service it regularly with nail polish or paint.


Kalawang

 

[97 FZJ80]

The metal mount for the microphone looks kind of dangerous. It's in a spot that could slice up something serious in case of an accident.

 

[Kaderabek]

I think your reception of signals coming from the DS/front might be a bit weak, probably no big deal though. And that whip antenna won't be allowed at TLCA events if memory serves.

TJK

 

[TX_TLC]

I think your reception of signals coming from the DS/front might be a bit weak, probably no big deal though. And that whip antenna won't be allowed at TLCA events if memory serves.

TJK

What type of antenna does the TLCA recommend/allow?

 

[Kaderabek]

Correction (I think). TLCA says "Antenna Length: Not longer than 54", unless both ends are firmly attached to the vehicle." GSMTR says "CB Radio (no whip antennas)." Sorry for the confusion.

Get a 4' Firestick II and you won't have to worry about it.

TJK

 

[waldrtw]

I had my antenna mounted on the ARB but looking at that thing just drove me crazy! I mounted it on the back bumper. Don't really need distance becuase I only use it when talking to people I am wheeling with. I will use the ham for that.

Tim

 

[CDN_Cruiser]

As you noted, for most trail use, even a poorly tuned antenna (high SWR) with poor placement will likely be fine. Tuning the antenna is the next best thing to do.

The placement of the antenna on the truck is important if you really want to get the most range out of the radio. I found this (antenna location comparison) interesting page/picture to show you the impact of different locations (the 'reference' antenna is a permanent mount on the roof anything that is a '-db' is bad and '+db' would be good). As you can see, all other mounting points are 'bad' (don't know this for an absolute fact given that it's 'internet research', but I would believe it - although it appears to be tested for an 800Mhz antenna which is a far higher freq than CB - still the same pic in relative terms).

Interestingly enough, a centre mag mount is the next best mounting location (-0.2db vs reference antenna). I would think that the placement of an antenna on the bumper / at the rear would result in even worse performance than any of the locations shown on the car. I think this would be the case as much of the signal would effectively be blocked by the big truck that sits in front of the antenna (a general rule of thumb i've heard is that no less than 50-60% of the antenna should be below the roof line)

I guess the front mount theory (which likely suffers from the same ground plane problems as a rear bumper mount) may be better as the radiating 'lobes' of the antenna would be pointing forward (and the rear would be blocked) vs. on the rear bumper where the front lobe would be blocked. So it depends if you're the first on the trail or the last

I run a mag mount CB antenna that is zip tied to my roof rack to prevent it from falling off when it hits branches on the overgrown trails we tend to use. I have a higher-end mount (tilts forward, backwards, etc) that I use for 2M that is mounted on my thule roof rack (I'm sure my ground plane isn't great, but I get fine reception as is with 5W) with the antenna cable fed between the rear slide windows - slick install.

Cheers, Hugh

Cheers, Hugh