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'06 VW GTI Antenna Mounting

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kc7eph

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Joined
Jun 8, 2008
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Location
Seattle
I'm taking the plunge and mounting up my V7-A in to my car, but I'm having quite the dilemma deciding on where and how to mount the antenna.

Drilling a hole in the roof for an NMO would be ideal, but is totally out of the question. I'm allowing myself no holes where they would be visible or would let water in.

I'm thinking on a lip mount on the hatch door, but I'm not sure that I have the clearance to get one in there. Also, I have a little mag mount gps antenna mounted to the roof with the coax going through the hatch seal, and the coax hasn't fared so well with repeated opening and closings of the hatch door.

Kind of up in the air here, what are some success stories people have had mounting antennas to GTIs, or to hatchbacks in general?

Pictures of installations would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
 

k0tbt

Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
6
An NMO mount, when properly installed, is waterproof, and a "proper" installation is quite easy. When the antenna is removed, the mount is hardly noticeable, and the mount still remains waterproof.

Karl
 

AK9R

Lead Wiki Manager and almost an Awesome Moderator
Super Moderator
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Jul 18, 2004
Messages
9,292
Location
Central Indiana
I'm taking the plunge and mounting up my V7-A in to my car, but I'm having quite the dilemma deciding on where and how to mount the antenna.
As a former owner of an '05 GTI, I understand your issues.

Many will tell you that the way to mobile antenna happiness is an NMO mount in the roof. I won't disagree. I have 10 of them in the roof my Ford Expedition. There are those who will tell you that a properly installed NMO mount won't detract from the car's resale value that much and they may be right. They say just put a cap on the mount or screw on a cell-phone antenn and nobody will care.

Your challenge is that you have limited roof space because of the sliding "moon roof" and because of the amplified AM-FM antenna at the back of the roof. Put your VHF antenna closer than a quarter wavelength from the stock antenna and you may have problems with both radios.

My solution was a Diamond K412 mount on the hatchback. The K412 has several adjustments on different axes of adjustment. I was able to position and adjust the mount so that the antenna was relatively vertical, but still didn't hit the car when I opened the hatch (the hatch opens through more than 90 degrees, so what's vertical when the hatch is closed will be horizontal when the hatch is open). The K412 comes with a length of RG-316 teflon coax, so it's pretty tough stuff.
 
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