Mike:
The vehicle does have a luggage rack, but I just don't think I can trust the
mirror mount at highway speeds, and like you say, you still have to run the
cable into the vehicle somehow.
Also, I have tried glass mounts on several vehicles we have had, but the
newer ones have the tinted glass which interferes greatly with the antenna's
radiation pattern--or at least that's what I have found.
Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Duke, K5XU" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2013 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: Mobile Antenna Mount Options
>I too have had good success with trunk mounts on several cars. My
> folks had one car, a late 70s Datsun, with which I had to use the
> trunk mount on the side of the lid, rather than in the center of the
> edge near the wind shield. That setup worked as well as any other
> trunk mounted installation I have ever used.
>
> I have seen people configure them to mount on the rear door of a van,
> but don't know exactly how they did that.
>
> Does your vehicle have a luggage rack on the roof? If so, you may be
> able to get a mirror mount that will work there, but then you are
> still back to how to route the feed line.
>
> The simple answer there is that no matter how careful you are, sooner
> or later the coax will break where it goes through the door, and
> become brittle where it is exposed to the elements.
>
> I have never used a glass mount, but they don't work well with certain
> types of modern glass. Even when they do work, they are a compromise,
> more so on 2 meters than on 440.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2013 2:44 PM
> Subject: Mobile Antenna Mount Options
>
>
> Hi, all.
>
> I need to tap into the wisdom of the group here concerning mobile
> antenna
> mounts.
>
> To set the background, the XYL and I have leased a Subaru Forester
> for
> about the last 3 years, and I have been using a magnount antenna mount
> for
> the Diamond 770 dual-band antenna that I have used for years with our
> family
> vehicles. I bought this particular magmount about 2 years ago, to
> replace
> one that had been failing or at least questionable for quite some
> time. We
> put the magmount in the center of the roof of the car, and try to
> thread the
> feedline as carefully as possible into the back door of the vehicle,
> where
> it then goes to a TMV71A underneath the front drivers seat.
>
> This set-up has actually worked surprisingly well, but I'm now having
> a
> problem with the coax feed line to the current magmount. I have
> noticed
> several breaks along the feed line, one or two of which could have
> been
> caused by inadvertently closing the back vehicle door on the coax feed
> line.
> Again, I had thought we were avoiding this problem, but maybe not.
> Also,
> one or two of the breaks seem to be caused by the outside jacket of
> the feed
> line becoming very brittle and actually splitting.
>
> So, I'm now thinking of other possible ways to mount my mobile
> antenna.
> Things, of course, are complicated in that we can't drill holes in the
> leased vehicle.
>
> One option I had thought of is a trunk mount, but I'm having trouble
> envisioning how such a mount would work when you open up the trunk for
> storing groceries and other things. Also, I can't imagine that the
> antenna
> on a trunk mount would work very well anyway, since it is so much
> lower than
> the roof of the vehicle.
>
> Has anyone had experience with trunk mounts?
>
> If I stick to a magmount, does anyone have a magical formula for
> threading
> the feed line from the outside of the vehicle into the car so as to
> avoid
> problems with it getting caught in the door
>
> ?Is there a better-quality magmount out there that has stronger feed
> line
> that might not be as susceptible to breaking or splitting?
>
> Obviously, I've got lots of questions here, so any help would be
> appreciated.
>
> Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
>
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