Attaching antenna to a RV ?

[bearcatrp]

Bought a Omni X to replace my discone. Great antenna but owning a Icom 8600, the coverage is limited. I put my discone back up for now. Thinking of using the Omni X for my RV. Have a ladder on the back of my 5th wheel. I don’t care to drill holes to mount it so wondering if someone makes a clamp that clamps on both sides that can clamp to the ladder and clamp to the antenna. Only used when I get to the RV park and set up Is done. Could strap it to the ladder but dont want the antenna touching the ladder except for the clamp. Is there something like this made?

 

[mmckenna]

Years ago I saw someone use a total of 4 of these:

Quick Fist Clamps

QUICKFIST CLAMPS

quickfist.com

Put two of them back to back and put a bolt trough them and a nut. Now make another set the same way.

One goes around the ladder vertical part. The other holds the mast.

Quick, easy and removable. Just make sure you get the right size for the ladder vertical bar and your mast.

 

[popnokick]

And if you want to spend a little more for a purpose-built RV ladder clamp -
Flag Pole Buddy 106105 Flag Pole Buddy RV Ladder Brackets | DX Engineering

 

[bearcatrp]

And if you want to spend a little more for a purpose-built RV ladder clamp -
Flag Pole Buddy 106105 Flag Pole Buddy RV Ladder Brackets | DX Engineering

Thanks. This might do the job.

 

[W9WSS]

I personally don't have an Omni-X, but a good friend of mine had one and wasn't pleased with its performance. It's not a substitute for a discone or the Scan-Tenna ST-2, which is far superior to the Omni-X. And for the price of the Omni-X, you'd expect much better receive capabilities.

 

[popnokick]

Every time I read about an Omni-X (or any antenna) that didn't meet expectations I have to wonder about -
- What coaxial cable was used and how much loss did it introduce?
- Was it new cable?
- Was it a continuous run of coax or were there splices / barrel connectors used to extend existing (possibly dissimilar?) cable?
- Who put the connectors on the cable and were they checked on both ends with a multimeter?
- What is the measured SWR and / or VNA frequency resonance of the system?
- What is the height of the antenna and distances from nearby objects?
Typically the details above are not covered in the "it doesn't work very well" posts we see here on RR and elsewhere. The majority of posts / reviews I've seen on the Omni-X are quite favorable, leading me to think most of them are properly installed.

 

[bearcatrp]

I used LMR 400 when I had mine up. It worked great as far as I’m concerned. If I didn’t have a Icom 8600, would have left it up. But if you need more than the listed frequencies on the Omni X, this antenna is not for you.