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Do I need to ground my antenna?

Do I NEED to ground my antenna?

  • Yes, I do

    Votes: 5 83.3%
  • No, I do not

    Votes: 1 16.7%

  • Total voters
    6
  • Poll closed .
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Sep 22, 2014
Messages
6
Hello, I just received my 4' Firestik Firefly fiberglass antenna in thr mail today and was considering mounting options for my '01 Toyota Tacoma. Asthetically, the best looking spot for it is attached to the walls of my trucks bed, however, the bed has been covered in a nice spray bed liner ever since the truck was brand new; must I really scrape off the liner to my trucks bare metal just to mount my new antenna?

Thank You,
asianfromthecongo
 

sloop

Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2008
Messages
339
Location
Lewisville, NC
Grounding...YES! Scrape off the paint, probably not. I have a 2010 Toyota Tundra with a spray in liner and I have a 4' fire stick mounted on the inside of the bed. I had a "L" bracket made that would fit just under the rail of the bed using the mounting hole in the side for the optional bed rails. I did not remove any liner, just made sure that the screw threads were clean. The mount used the existing hole and one sheet metal screw to hold it in place. I checked the swr with an antenna analyzer and my swr runs from 1.2 to 1.4 to 1 across the band. I mounted the antenna in the first hole from the cab on the passenger side, a metal tool box is between the cab and the antenna. So try it without removing the bed liner, then you can always remove it (under the mount only!) if your swr doesn't suit you.
 

JayMojave

Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
722
Location
Mojave Ca
Hello A+17: Yeah great advice from sloop there.

The problem is when the antenna is mounted too close to the cab causing the antenna SWR to go up around to 1 to 3, something like that. Yeah the shield / antenna mount needs to be connected to the body, or grounded as you say. I have seen the antennas performance increased when the antenna is moved from a few inches next to the cab, to on top of the cap.

I have a mini truck and use a magnetic mount in the center of the top of the cab. I have made L brackets that mount in between the cab and the top center cab mounted brake light. This works quit well. I routed the coax from the antenna down thru the cavity from the top cab brake light to the radio. And some of these antenna installations have the coax routed on the outside going down the back of the cap, and there is usually a hole in the bottom of the cab that is plugged with a rubber grommet that easy to put a hole in it for the coax and then to the radio.

Good Luck

Jay in the Mojave
 
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