New to HAM, need help with antenna mount

[Kyliee]

Hi everyone! As the title implies I am new to the hobby and primarily come from the world of CB. I just passed my technician test and am looking into the possibility of installing a mobile station in my vehicle which is a pickup. I have limited mounting options available and have pretty much narrowed down to this bracket.
Door jam mount

Which brings me to my question...From what I can tell most of the options for 2M band and especially dual band options do not have a 3/8-24 stud on them and I think primarily rely on NMO mounts. From what I can tell there's maybe 3 antenna's available (including firestik's own design) that would work with this bracket. Is there an option to have an NMO mount that fits in the 3/8th hole that this bracket provides?

Alternatively should I be thinking about this completely differently? I intend to mount this bracket in between the bed/tailgate on one side of the truck with a duplicate bracket to hold a CB antenna on the other side. My truck is roughly 6FT tall and regularly needs to fit in parking garages for work. I also do not really want a magnetic mount if I can avoid it, and I cannot use one of those fender mounts as I later plan to install some gas struts to hold the hood up.


Any help is much appreciated.

 

[KJ4DHF]

If you going to drill truck for that door jam mount just drill the roof and install NMO mount. The NMO mount will be 100% better than any other mount you can put on truck.

 

[prcguy]

I would use a trunk lip mount on the hood near the cowl, which should work better than the bed top rail or probably the door jam thing. Here is a Larsen 2m/440 NMO antenna on my truck.

 

[Kyliee]

I would use a trunk lip mount on the hood near the cowl, which should work better than the bed top rail or probably the door jam thing. Here is a Larsen 2m/440 NMO antenna on my truck.

Shortly before your post I saw this style of mount and was intrigued but had trouble imagining how that would work. I'll have to see if doing something similar to this on the hood is feasible. Thanks for the photo!

 

[AK9R]

Depending on the vehicle you have, there may be a ready-made bracket for attaching an NMO mount to a bolt that attaches the outer fender to the inner fender. This is the line of bolt heads that you probably see along the top of the fender when you open your hood. The cable from the NMO mount slips through the gap between the hood and fender. You can find a list of these brackets here: Vehicle Specific Brackets - Fender/Bracket Mounts | The Antenna Farm

I think @prcguy is using what's known as a trunk lip mount. It clamps to the edge of the trunk lid or hood. There are small set screws on the bottom of the mount that clamp the mount to the hood/trunk lid. Trunk Lip Mount NMO Antenna 17' RG58/U Coax Cable TE Connectivity TMB8U

Another option is a right angle bracket that you attach to the fender where it turns down to meet the inner fender. I used a pair of these on a Ford Expedition for several years. I attached the brackets with stainless steel screws that I had dipped in Rustoleum primer before installing them. When I removed the screws after 8 years, there was no visible rust around the holes. PCTEL Maxrad TGBWP45C-NC Antenna Trunk Lip Mount 17 ft RG58 Coax Connector Choice

 

[mmckenna]

What kind of truck?

Chances are, one of us has already done the hard work and can make a suggestion.

 

[buddrousa]

From the looks of the hood I would say JEEP.

 

[prcguy]

Depending on the vehicle you have, there may be a ready-made bracket for attaching an NMO mount to a bolt that attaches the outer fender to the inner fender. This is the line of bolt heads that you probably see along the top of the fender when you open your hood. The cable from the NMO mount slips through the gap between the hood and fender. You can find a list of these brackets here: Vehicle Specific Brackets - Fender/Bracket Mounts | The Antenna Farm

I think @prcguy is using what's known as a trunk lip mount. It clamps to the edge of the trunk lid or hood. There are small set screws on the bottom of the mount that clamp the mount to the hood/trunk lid. Trunk Lip Mount NMO Antenna 17' RG58/U Coax Cable TE Connectivity TMB8U

Another option is a right angle bracket that you attach to the fender where it turns down to meet the inner fender. I used a pair of these on a Ford Expedition for several years. I attached the brackets with stainless steel screws that I had dipped in Rustoleum primer before installing them. When I removed the screws after 8 years, there was no visible rust around the holes. PCTEL Maxrad TGBWP45C-NC Antenna Trunk Lip Mount 17 ft RG58 Coax Connector Choice

I'm not a fan of the brackets that stick out between the hood and fender, it usually places the base of the antenna well below hood level with no ground plane on one side. The trunk lip mount gets you on top of the hood with more flat sheet metal right under the antenna for a better ground plane. Yes on the Jeep, '21 Gladiator Mojave.

Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?