Opinions on this Window Lip NMO Mount

[LIScanner101]

Anyone ever use this mount? I know, it's not nearly as good as drilling a hole in your roof but I would imagine for travel it might be decent (I would change the connector on the radio end to a BNC, right now it's a PL-259):

 

[KE5MC]

I have seen that type of mount in BNC for a handheld HT antenna outside, but not an NMO before. Unless it is one of the shorter NMO dual band antennas I would think the wind loading would be twisting 'things' around and not for the better.

I have a Diamond K412 series lip mount I used on the hatch of my previous Ford Escape and now have it mounted on my Prius. No actual experience with your example or the BNC type.

 

[mmckenna]

It won't supply a ground plane, so they only antenna you could really successfully use it with would be a half wave type. A half wave antenna with no ground plane gives you 0dB. If you are using it for receiving only, it'll work, and likely work quite a bit better than the standard antenna that comes with the hand held scanners.

I think this is one place where I'd recommend a mag mount. Ssssh, don't tell anyone I said that.....

 

[n5ims]

I only knew one guy that used one of those and he swore by it for quite a while. After his antenna hit a low hanging branch causing the antenna to twist the mount making the window shatter he stopped swearing by it and started swearing at it. The heavy rain that was falling at the time didn't help his mood any at all so he not only had to clean up the glass, but also nearly ruined the passenger seat from the good soaking it got.

 

[IdleMonitor]

I have used this similar item but with a bnc connector for my portable scanner with a portable dual band antenna for recieve only. Transmitting. No idea. Recieve. Worked perfectly for my needs at the time.

 

[Rt169Radio]

Never seen a NMO mount for a window until now, I sometimes use the handheld antenna window mounts but I would not recommend using this at all. Even with a short antenna it would be to heavy for the window and will break if the antenna gets hit by anything.

 

[W2NJS]

I've used one of these for years in short-term antenna installations (new car, rental car, extra radio in car, etc.) with an SMA connector and it worked fine on UHF with a stubby antenna in town. An NMO setup just might put more weight on the window but probably not enough to worry about. Main problem with the one I have is that the cable is RG174 -- ugh!

 

[LIScanner101]

Thanks for all the replies - AND the horror stories too! They don't go unnoticed, trust me!

I understand that an NMO will be heavier but I wasn't ever worried about the window breakage issue, just the performance. But I can see a very long and/or heavy scanner antenna leading to something breaking

The BNC is OK but it's not waterproof like an NMO setup.

 

[nanZor]

The braid of the coax cable (common mode outer surface) becomes the other half of the antenna, so a quarter wave works.

If you want to further tweak it, a few turns inside a typical snap-on ferrite choke like the RS #273-105 wound a quarter wave down from the feedpoint helps especially if the cable is the thin RG-174 type.

 

[W8RMH]

I would not place anything on the edge of a car window. It doesn't take much force to shatter safety glass.
Even though many people disagree, I prefer mag mounts, in lieu of actual surface mounts. They also now come with rubber bases which prevent marring the paint surface.

 

[LIScanner101]

The mount shown is listed on the Radio-ware.com website.

They have a very weird way of ordering things there - you can either call in your order or print out a form and FAX it in (seriously? In this day and age?). Anyway, I called to make sure it was still available. A woman answers the phone "Hello?" (already a bad sign ). I ask if this part is still available. She has no idea what I am talking about. I finally navigate her to the website, she says she has to wait until "he" comes back and PROMISES to call me back.

She never did.

I called back the next day. She apologizes, and again says she has to call me back. Didn't!!

What's up with radio-ware.com?