I drilled one of those whips into a truck bed and yes, it had three mounting holes at 120 degree spacing and a center hole for a hollow bolt and nut that the coax went through.
pcrguy,
Back in the dark ages the 30-70 tactical vhf low band antennas that were about 8 feet long with the automatic band switching matching units at the base didn't need ground planes. They were half wave antennas. No idea what the current ones are.
Of course oh, what was I thinking. It's three holes for the mount but I forgot about the hole I had to drill in the middle of the three holes to run the coax so it was indeed a total of 4 holes. I stand correctedI drilled one of those whips into a truck bed and yes, it had three mounting holes at 120 degree spacing and a center hole for a hollow bolt and nut that the coax went through.
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Edit:
I had forgotten this picture was taken after I sold the vehicle and borrowed it back to do some antenna testing for a day. It never looked this clean when I had it.
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I don't care how much I pay (Too much, Magic Bus)
I wanna drive my bus to my baby each day (Too much, Magic Bus)
I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it ... (You can't have it!)
Thruppence and sixpence every day
Just to drive to my baby
Thruppence and sixpence each day
'Cause I drive my baby every way
Magic Bus, Magic Bus, Magic Bus ...
As for bumper mounting or ball mounts way down low, that really degrades performance but if you were to mount any other kind of shortened loaded antenna down there its going to work worse than the 9ft whip. A 9ft whip on the bumper of a sedan will outperform something like a 2ft or 3ft shortened antenna on a trunk lid and will outperform a 2ft or 3ft whip on the roof in one direction, but the short roof mount will provide a more consistent 360deg pattern and will approach the 9ft bumper mount off to the sides and to the rear. When you get into the 4ft length antennas in the center of the roof they will start to outperform a 9ft bumper mounted antenna in all directions. A 9ft bumper mounted antenna will have the best pattern towards the most metal on the vehicle which is the front.
Sorry I'm late to this one but yep, I can confirm that it's the biggest problem. I have a high quality Breedlove mount (QD ball) mounted into the rear quarter-panel of my Durango and while it works OK I can get get better "performance" with a hamstick and a Diamond K400 mount that's mounted at roof-line. Receiving is about the same but my transmit performance is way better with the latter setup. My QD ball mount is slightly higher than the bumper but not by much.
When I had HF in my Durango full-time, I would bend the 10ft whip over and tie it down to the luggage rack. That actually worked surprisingly well for receiving HF. Transmit seemed very hit or miss.
Breedlove Mount -- worth every penny for the quality!
Can you still get those new? I used to prefer the grey ones meant for VHF-Lo installs but that looks even better. I was going to buy a Breedlove but I'd give one of those Mobats a try.I prefer the high end Motorola ball mount made for the Mobat HF series.
I don't spend any time worrying about what someone else sitting in traffic thinks of my vehicle because it has antennas mounted to it. At the same time I wouldn't be one of those guys who puts a Tarheel on a Corvette either.
Can you still get those new? I used to prefer the grey ones meant for VHF-Lo installs but that looks even better. I was going to buy a Breedlove but I'd give one of those Mobats a try.
For god sakes, don't drill three holes and mount it on the roof of your car.
The Breedlove ball looks awfully small on those. I prefer the high end Motorola ball mount made for the Mobat HF series. Its got a decent size ball and machined Delrin insulator and adequate size stainless backing plate.
I second the Larsen NMO-27. I have one hard-mounted on the roof of my truck for CB. Another alternative antenna I've found for CB is the Browning (Tram) BR-140. I have one hard-mounted on one of my cars and it is a great performer. It is probably not as well-built as the Larsen NMO-27 but I have it on a garage queen that rarely if ever sees rain so I'm not really worried about that.I know PRCGuy has used the Laird CW27w and he reports very positive results, also it has more usable bandwidth than the Larid CB27 and the Larsen NMO-27, which is beneficial that are working a bit outside the CB rules or want to use 10 meters. If I needed a new CB antenna, I'd probably give one of those a try just for comparison. But my 30 year old Larsen is still going fine and I don't have a need to replace it.
Back in the day I used to Use a K40 (not sure if they are still made) but I matched it up and it did a pretty good job
I grew up in Southwestern Ontario and remember OPP cruisers with those antennas. And they were using low band right up until around 1989. Was the antenna actually mounted to the roof or to the light bar?This reminded me of the 1960/70s OPP(Ontario Provincial Police) cars.
They did exactly that, and a 1/4 wavelength 42 MHz whip antenna with a 6 inch spring right smack dab in the middle of their patrol cars.
Three insulator bolt holes, and a big center hole for the pass thru of the RF carrier spring bolt.