2meter antenna on MH

[Romeo]

Oh come on you guys... they're just holes. You have them all over the rig. Why save your rig for some else... just do it. You can always plug it with a chrome hole plug, or plastic black, brown, white. The buyer wont even no you had an antenna installed.

(BTW, I feel the same so I am talking to me as well as you.)

WB7DJV

[wa8yxm]

Well. on my coach getting the height would not be an issue. But I'm not sold on through glass antennas

What I did was drill the mirror arm and mount on a PL-259 type mount there. Works great.. The mirror arm (VELMAC mirror) is hollow and base metal (White metal).. I could have put it on the mirror head but did not feel the plastic was strong enough there. I used a No-Ground-Plane type Diamond (Larson would have worked too) routed the Coax along the mirror heater and control wires into the Motor home via the firewall and all is good..>.... Save the TM-733 crashed and is all locked up.. When I get money it needs to visit Kenwood for service (or I need a new front panel,, one or the other)

Now for the other VHF radio.. I hung a "J" pole on the fiberglass rear cap That has the same gain as a dipole. but it's vertical

[TQ60]

This will require a lot more work, but it will be best of the options and will leave little trace after.

First make a trip to the roof to see what is there to work with.

Locate your roof vent for the ice box as it has a clear and wide opening down to the back of the unit.

Now examine the cover, if it is plastic it should not be used.

Now the creative part.

Locate a chunk of metal, type does not matter, but it should be suitable to support the antenna and the mount and be large enoug to form a ground plane if your roof is NOT metal. If you have a metal roof then a piece large enoug to build the mount is all you need.

A Motorola #TAD-6113 (150 to 162 mhx, 144 will be different) antenna is a 1/4 wave roof mount antenna that is just a wire with a very low profile mount, a 3/4 inch hole in the metal and it is only about 3/8 inch under the mount.

If you have a metal roof the mount can be attached using screws that attach the vent for the ice box, (no new holes), you simple scrape off the sealer, insure good ground connection and mount the plate, after testing seal everything back.

For Non-metal roof one mounts the plate directly to the roof with lap compound, and possible bporrowing a couple screws from the roof vent.

The coax is routed down the chamber to the back of the ice box, securing it away from heat, then from there route it to your unit.

Use eternabond to cover all of the screws and wires as this will protect them and keep it sealed, the lap compound under the plate give it support to compensate for the antenna mount under it.

The mount is industry standard, all manufacturers support this mount and virtually any good manufacturer will have an antenna that will simple screw onto this mount.
At VHF and low power (under 50 watts) the cable losses between 10 and 50 feet do not really matter, but the increased performance of a real antenna mounted to the roof will more than compensate for the additional cable losses.

The antenna above is a stainless steel whip, cut the pall off of the top and it will NOT catch on anything or be any other hazard for damage.

If one wants to go to next step look into transit antennas, these look like a small wing, are about 5 inches tall by 20 or so inches long, they are designed for use on transis busses and there are madels that do not need a ground plane, they are expensive and do not work as well as the above whip, but they could be mounted directly to the ice box vent cover allowing for a hole-less install as the vent can be cheaply changed out or repaired after antenna is removed.

Final comment regarding window antennas.
DO NOT USE THEM.
Most modern glass used in vehicles have built in films or other thermal isolating materials used.

These are almost always a vaporized metal such as silver, these films create a barrier that inhibit the passing of the RF between the 2 plates, the mount is basically a capacitor coupling, does not work well clamped to a piece of steel, the glass acts the same way.

Plus one needs to hide the wire from the window, a difficult task.

Been there done that for many years in the buissiness.

KA6DIJ

[lathe11]

Wayne, best advice yet. I have two classic cars 68 427 camero ss and a 66 chevy11 ss i would do without before drilling in my coach 1999 coachmen sportcoach 38' dp with 20,000 miles