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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