Larsen 150/450/800 Mount

[rangers38]

I am interested in purchasing a Larsen Tri-band Antenna to mount on a Ford Van. My mounting options are to use a magnetic mount to attach to the roof of the van and run the cable thru the passenger door which hardly gets used or to buy an "L"bracket and attach it to my ladder rack. My question is would there be any difference in the mounting options as far as reception is concerned? I would think the mag mount would offer a better ground plane, but not sure. I plan on using it connected to my BCD396T. Any suggections would be helpful.

 

[mmckenna]

If you have a ladder rack on the roof of your van, it -may- affect the mag mounted antenna, if you put the mag mount on the sheet metal roof of the van and have segments of the ladder rack surrounding the antenna. Probably wouldn't make a big difference though.

Mounting it on the ladder rack could cause a funky pattern, if it was transmitting, due to the ground plane being offset. I doubt that would affect reception much.

I don't think you'll see much of a difference either way. Personally I think a permanent mount always looks more "professional" than a mag mount.

I'd be more concerned about long term damage to the coaxial cable due to the door, or water intrusion.

 

[rangers38]

I want to go with the mag mount as i do not want to drill a hole in the roof. The ladder rack is spaced 3 ft apart and i was considering mounting the L bracket on the side. I am not to concerned about the cabling thru the door as i don't often use that door, but also understand this issues with cable damage and water penetration through the weather strip. If i go ahead with the mag mount theory, would the reception be better being that there is a large amount of metal under the mount for the ground plane , vs the antenna mounted to the rack with little amount of metal. This is for receive only for a scanner

 

[mmckenna]

I think the mag mount should work fine.