Looking for a trunk mount with small coax

[bob-the-scanner-man]

For the past year I've been using a Browning BR311 nmo trunk mount for my VHF antenna on my Mercury Montego. Today I noticed that the outer rubber layer of coax had some damage where the coax runs from the nmo mount in between the trunk lid and the rear quarter panel before running inside the car. Apparently the coax(RG-58) is just large enough in diameter that it rubs against the edge of the rear quarter panel on my car. Everything still works fine but I'd like to see about getting a nmo trunk mount that has smaller diameter coax so that it does not get bent/pinched as it runs into my car.

I came across the Diamond K400NMO that uses small diameter RG-316 coax but the price, $70, is way too high; which is why I'm here now. Does anyone know of a nmo trunk mount with small diameter coax that can be had for $20-30? The Browning mount I'm using now has been great so I can't really justify spending a huge amount of money to replace it with something with smaller diameter coax.

[W2NJS]

I would suggest that you bite the bullet and cut a 3/4 inch hole in your trunk lid for a permanently mounted NMO connector. Once you've done this you'll have trouble-free operation for many years with no worries.

[jeatock]

Originally Posted by W2NJS

I would suggest that you bite the bullet and cut a 3/4 inch hole in your trunk lid for a permanently mounted NMO connector. Once you've done this you'll have trouble-free operation for many years with no worries.

I second that, and you won't regret it. Don't worry about resale. Leave the coax and mount for the next guy. Just unscrew the antenna and put a nice chrome cap on the mount when you trade it in.

[bob-the-scanner-man]

Sorry guys, I don't like drilling holes on newer vehicles. Just a personal preference. I'm getting good performance out of lip mounts. Now if we were talking about my older car(a 1995) then I'd have no problems drilling holes.

[jeatock]

Originally Posted by bob-the-scanner-man

Sorry guys, I don't like drilling holes on newer vehicles. Just a personal preference. I'm getting good performance out of lip mounts. Now if we were talking about my older car(a 1995) then I'd have no problems drilling holes.

My Fire Chief got hammered on his 2008 trade-in as the dealer had to sand and repaint the mess where the magmount sat.

He though the same way about his brand new super delux 2012 F150, until something knocked the magmount antenna off on his way to a fire and it swung around and broke out the back glass ... in a rain storm.

Insurance paid for the glass and cleaning up the water stains on the back seat. I only charged him an "I told you so" to drill the hole. The best SWR I ever got on the magmount was a 1.5:1 on a narrow range of freq's. The hole mount got him 1.02 to 1.10:1 across the range and he says he can hear everything better.

Your call.

[FFPM571]

If properly installed a NMO wont leak.

[bob-the-scanner-man]

Guys, can we get back to my original question here? I asked if there was something similar to the Diamond mount I found that had small diameter coax, but cheaper.

I'm not interested in drilling holes in this car. On all of the lip mounts I've used over the years I've had no problems with SWR or anything. It's just that this car has a smaller gap in between the trunk lid and rear quarter panel with causes coax wear. That's it.

[n9mxq]

Diamond and Comet both make mounts that use that style coax.. Searching Ebay or Google for RG-316 NMO should turn up plenty of options.

I'm a fan of the Diamond RG-316 style mounts, and have used them for years.. They even have an extension coax of that size for long distance routing... On my 2001 Caravan I used to have the coax ran under the trim of the liftgate, through the OEM harness boots into the cabin.. Worked a treat.