Advice needed with a Ham Radio Antenna on a TJ.

I have a Diamond dual band 2m/70cm antenna on a Comet trunk lip mount on the top edge of the tailgate. It does very well in that position with no signal complaints on simplex or through distant repeaters. I also have a Motorola ball mount on the pass. side rear fender for a 10m/11m whip. Likewise it does very well in that location. I looked at the mount from Quadratec you mentioned and decided that it would probably be too lightweight for my application and that I also was considering other taillight options that would not be compatible. Also, I may get a Wilderness rack and that would likely interfere as well. I will post some pics if you want to know how it looks.

Shawn KB8UDE '97 TJ

The local ham shop sold me univeral lip mount that i used on the side of the hood. All the wires go through the firewall, and no need to route all around the car. Easy and clean, works very well.

This is what I would recommend since it's FM you shouldn't have engine noise trouble. (RFI)

I use an RS 19-210 mag mount, removed from it's magnet, and installed in a 3/8" hole in the fender. Once code goes bye-bye, I'll use my 2950 for

10 meters using my Firestik KW-7 on the back bumper. Both antennas work real good for their respective bands. Right now, I have an IC-2100 for 2 and a TRC-451 for 11. The scanner runs off a 2/440 POS mag mount.

Well I have a 2/440 Kenwood with remote mount on a TJ hardtop with the antenna a glass mount on the right side. Works fine with low SWR. But I needed to mount a Motorola business class radio also. The radio shop put the antenna for it on the left front fender using a funky bracket so it would be close to the hood, the screws do not show when the hood is closed. They use this method on all the police Durango's, SUV's etc. It looks like it would have bad SWR, but it doesn't. All police SUV's here in the mountains of North Carolinas that I've seen use this method.

-- msosborn at msosborn dot com

Chrysler has a similar tech write-up. Don't know where to get it though. Maybe one of the 'Jeep' techs that post here can get a copy??

The harnesses run in different places than the GM's. Even full sized GM vans are opposite to the diagrams in the link, their radio harness has to run on the passenger side.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Matt, Osborn wrote:

Hood antenna Mounts

I use a magnetic mount antenna. While wheeling in the open it sits in the center of the roof. In forested areas it gets repositioned onto the hood near the cowl so that it doesn't get knocked off.

I don't have any problems with my GE radio

4 watts

I have a Larson 2m/70cm mounted just above the passenger tail light. The radio is located in the add-a-trunk. The wires are fed through the tailgate via the existing rubber gasket.

The Larsen dual band is a flimsy antenna. I notice at highway speeds, it whips back and forth slightly changing polarization. It sometimes hits the hard top. When this occurs, the signal fades in and out ~1 db. If you mount here, make sure you purchase a thick and sturdy antenna.

Also note, I'm receiving some RF noise on acceleration. I may need to run a dedicated ground wire from the battery to the radio. Right now, the radio negative terminal is grounded to the chassis (trunk bed).

When time is available I plan to fix the above items...

Nick

John Robert wrote:

You might try a MaxRad dual band antenna. More heavy duty. Shouldn't whip around as much. Will screw right into an NMO mount.

73, Ed KA9EES Fithian IL