Ok so my Xterra died, and now I'll need to mount my radio and antenna in a soft top Jeep Wrangler.

My biggest concern is getting the antenna high enough, I'd like it to clear the roof line.

Any suggestions?

Vehicle in question:



Thanks!

Oh it has a roof line - just not a metal roof.  I'm looking to get the antenna up for best LOS.

Thanks guys, some great ideas here.

I like it.  Reasonable price, put the antenna up high, and no drilling into the body.  Bonus points because you can order a version for 2 antennas, so I can run a CB as well as my Ham radio.

Great solution - thanks!

That is the route I ended up going.  It came today and my son helped me install it.  It's a well made unit, much nicer than I expected (my son was impressed with the smooth welds - I know nothing about welding so I'll take his word for it).  

I got the dual antenna unit, one side is drilled for a firestick (CB) the other for a 2m dual band antenna (3/4" NMO). The mounting point is situation just over and behind the spare tire.

The unit mounts using the two bolts that mount the spare tire carrier to the rear door.  To install you have to remove your spare, the third light (if you have one - I do), then the two upper bolts on the spare mount. Put the antenna mount's base plate in front of the bolt holes, then put everything back together.  No drilling and you use existing bolts to mount the unit.  VERY slick.

I liked it so much I ordered Rick's radio mount as well.  It's a unit very much like KB7DX's above.  However it doesn't require drilling, it mounts up near the windshield resting on the bars that connect the roll cage to the window.  It's secured using the existing knob bolts (the ones you can see just in front of KB7DX's mount in the shot with the roof folded back).  I'll post info and photos when I get it installed.

I'll take a few of the antenna mount - but the spare blocks the view of most of it.  I probably should have waited till the weekend so I could have taken decent shots during installation.

As promised, shot of the antenna mount:

With the back door opened, looking from the back


From outside, looking at the drivers side mount (CB)


From the rear (CB on the left, HAM on the right)

I don't have the antennas mounted yet.  The 2M will be first (sometime over the Christmas break when I mount the radio) then the CB will follow.

I will note when I used magnetic mounts on my XJ the antennas were similarly spaced apart (if not closer) and they worked fine.

I plan on it.  I have a SWR meter for CB and my buddy has one for the Ham rig.


Yep

I tried to mount my cable over the weekend.  I turns out the NMO mount (with attached cable) I bought is for sheet steel - this is a bit too thick.

I'm planning on picking up another NMO mount, one meant for a 5/8" hole with a N connector on the bottom; which is meant for thicker material.  In my case I'll use two 5/8" Fender Washers so I can mount it securely.

My suggestion?  If you order this antenna mount for your HAM rig, get it with a 5/8" hole rather than the 3/4", and get one of these NMO mounts instead.

Over the holiday I mounted my radio to the radio mount bar, and added some 'optional extras', as well as mounted the antenna.

Antenna:
The Antenna is a Tram 1180





Radio and Mounting Bar:





The Mounting Bar was easy to work with, just remember you have to open your soft top to install the unit.  The mounting bar came pre drilled with 4 holes to mount the radio bracket and one hole on the front side to route the power wires through (note the mounting bar came with self taping screws for the bracket, several feet of wire, a rubber grommet for the hole, an inline fuse assembly, some crimp connectors and assorted hardware).

I was able to use 2 of the pre-drilled holes to mount my bracket. I then drilled a couple other holes to REALLY ensure the radio was going nowhere.  My suggestions, if you can run a drill and have bits, order the mount not pre-drilled for the bracket, it will make things a bit cleaner and only add a minute to the install.  While the mount thoughtfully came with wire, I already had plenty of my own, plus the connectors and wire that came with my Kenwood.  Before running the wire through the rectangular tube I checked the ends of the tube for sharp edges.  I found a couple and used a file to quickly removed them (you don't want your power cord cut through by a rough edge).  I ran the grommet over the wires up to near the connector.  Then I fed the loose ends of the wire into the front hole and down the tube.  Once they poked out a quick pull finished the job.  The grommet was a PITA to install, I found using a very small flat blade screwdriver a big help in getting the inside grommet edge INTO the hole.   Once the wires came out, I cut them off about 6" after the tube, and used shrink tube to hold them together (like a flat ribbon).  I then attached Anderson Power Poles to the end of the wires.  

I also thought it would be helpful to have an extra power socket, so I wired one into the power lines and screwed the socket onto the underside of the bar next to the radio.

For the antenna cable I drilled 3 holes (spaced evenly) so I could use cable holders with pan head sheet metal screws to hold the cable in place.  One ended up being too close to the radio and wasn't used, the next one (about 14" from the radio) worked well as did the one 6" from it (near the bar over the door).

I'll be running a wire from the battery, up the A pillar to a Power Pole,  This will allow me to easily disconnect power, and if needed easily remove the radio mount bar for servicing or adding more radios.

And a special 'Thank You' to those ARFcom Hams that got me hooked on Power Poles. Now I have all kinds of connectors for feeder batteries, recharging batteriess, 12v extension cords, and the like.   Damn things are addicting, Legos for power circuits.

ETA:  I was hitting the Frostburg MD repeater from my home over the weekend, that's 120 miles line-of-sight.  The repeater came in clear as any in my county.

Ground planes on Jeeps?  Lol.   I plan on being a good SWR reading this weekend (my buddy had a good meter), I don't trust the one built into the radio.

It's got some kind of transmitted power meter, not a swr.

Got my radio programmed last night, kinda .

Had a glitch, but I'm starting a new thread on that.

Last night I uploaded the new program into the radio.  It had a few CTSS issues, which were quickly sorted out.

I also noted all the 2M channels were put on the right side of the radio (display), while the 70cm channels were on the left side.

That could have been my problem all along, as till last night I was really only using the left side.  But I found it strange that the 2M channels were put on the right, as the radio would factory boot with 2M on the left and 70cm on the right.

I don't know how/why it did it that way, but no matter I have all the channels and I know how/where to access them.

My thanks to you all, your help and information was appreciated!

I finally have data!

Using a friend's Welz SP-600 I got the following SWR readings.

on 2M:
at 144.0 MHz I got an SWR of 1.7
at 148.0 MHz I got an SWR of 1.1
on the 2M call frequency an SWR of 1.15
On a local repeater that my friends and I use I got a 1.2

I then switched over to 70cm
On the 70cm call frequency an SWR of 1.1
Repeater 1 (rarely used) an SWR of 1.3
Repeater 2 an SWR of 1.0
Repeater 3 an SWR of 1.0

So it looks like I'm not doing too bad, especially on 70cm.

My Kenwood is supposed to be a 50W radio.  However when I switched to the power meter, the best I could manage was just over 40w on 2M.  On 70cm power output was around 35W.  I'll note the low (5W) power level was right on the nose, as was the 10W medium power level.

This is good to know as sometimes I like to monitor two local VHF repeaters.  Is there a setting in the software or some control on the radio that allows this?


Very cool.  I'd like to try that this spring, and possibly the sending of .JPGs via FM using Android devices.



I saw that feature in the programming software, but was not sure how to use it.  I'll go back and read the manual.  Again thanks for the heads up!