| Author |
Message |
    
Johncalifornia
New member
Username: Johncalifornia
Post Number: 7
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 6:11 am: | 
|
I have a Jeep Wrangler. I have tried everything from a 102 on the right rear quarter panel to a Wilson 1000 magnet mount smack in the middle of my hood. I just can't get happy with the performance. The lack of ground plane is killing me. I realize that they make no ground and floating ground antennas, but they look cheap and likely not as efficient at some other possibilities. Let me put it this way... If you had a wrangler and money was no object and just for fun sake lets say you had 2k to go in it... What would be the ultimate (overkill) setup for the wrangler body with fiberglass top?
I have went as far as considered putting a set of co-phased 102's off the rear, or possibly whisky steals? Perhaps Duel Wilson fiberglass rods? How about a 3x3 1/4" piece of steel welded to the roll cage? Copper paint... spark plugs.... a fish tank. I'll take any ideas that you can throw at me other then selling the jeep.
HELP! :-)
|
Vanillagorilla
Intermediate Member
Username: Vanillagorilla
Post Number: 335
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 9:24 am: |
|
Hey fellow Jeeper.. Does the glass top stay on? Your in Calif so I guess not but what about a lug mount going through the glass top then grounded to the roll bar? OR put a nice 3'x3' steel plate on top of the glass top grounded underneath to the roll bar.
If you have money to spend and you DO remove the cap from time to time then how about one of those safari racks that go OVER the cap from the windshield back? I believe they hinge at the rear to allow removal of cap then reattach at the windshield. This would allow you to mount that antenna dead center of the vehicle and the oportunity to have a great counterpoise AND center your ground plane.
Any money left over can be sent to..... |
Tech833
Moderator
Username: Tech833
Post Number: 1103
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 3:37 pm: |
|
Hi.
It has been found that the best performing antenna on a small vehicle like your Jeep is a helical top loaded type like the Firestik. I suggest the 7 foot model, but the 5 footer would be the absolute shortest you could use on your Jeep and still get any kind of performance.
Nothing else seems to work well at all. The military techs have been struggling with this very same thing for quite a while. The helical wound fiberglass antennas are the best bet. |
Duck246
Member
Username: Duck246
Post Number: 94
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2005 - 11:39 pm: |
|
Also, maybe a van ordt powerstick! |
Wildrat
Intermediate Member
Username: Wildrat
Post Number: 373
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, November 25, 2005 - 10:56 am: |
|
I bought a brackett off an auction site that mounts on my rear tire carrier.It puts the base of the antenna at the top of the spare. I use a 5 foot Wilson Silver Load. This is a top load tenna. It also is also tunable. Insulate and Tape the little wire at the base to the tenna.Make sure all your grounds you run are good especially on the tailgate. I used braided bonding wire on the hinges under the covers. I also ran 8ga. ground wires from the new brackett to ground. Everything up front is grounded also. Two 8ga grounds on eng. block to chassis to frame. More 8ga grounds from batery to chassis to frame. 6ga from alt. to batery. I put a brackett I got from one of the 4 wheel places overheasd running from windshield to rear crash bar. I have two 8ga grounds on this brackett going back to the negative on battery, these also goto frame/chassis. My equip is all grounded to the brackett. For power I went to west marine and got this nice covered fuse panel with 20 circuits in it and mounted it on the overhead brackett. I have two 8 ga wires coming from Batt to the this panel. The ground for the panel is also one of the grounds from the brackett. I have an S9 and Texas Star dx500 and a astatic D104(B) mobile mic. I have low SWR, and I talk all over, local 20-30 miles. Skip I talk to whereever it's rolling in from. Sometimes it's Maine,Arizona,Colorado,North Carolina, Pennsylvania,Arkansas,Oklahoma,Ohio, you get the idea.
If I change antennas at some point in the future when the wife memory fades from all I have spent lately I might get that Predator 10K on the 27 inch rod. Right now my Wilson is fine. If they would have had a 6 foot I would have gotten it.
Hope this helps, you could always stop by the house and I'd be more than glad to assist you on your Jeep. I amin Clearwater, Florida a couple of blocks off Gulf to Bay blvd. about 3 miles from the gulf. I am usually home.
I have a 2005 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited. It is the Sahara model Number 89? out of 1000.
Oh well let me know when your in town.
Wildrat
CEF674 |
Heavyweight
Junior Member
Username: Heavyweight
Post Number: 48
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Friday, November 25, 2005 - 12:09 pm: |
|
Why would the 102 whip not work?I have used one on many types of cars and trucks and the performance has better than most if not all other antennas out there.Are you sure that you....had good coax(belden coax low loss 18 foot)..low swr reading(1.7 or lower)maybe you should have run a ground wire from your mount to the frame because with antennas ground is everything!There must be something off with your install,maybe something you overlooked.Dont give up on that whip because if you go off road alot that whip is about the only antenna that will take any tree limb you can throw at it.Anything else will bend or break. |
Vanillagorilla
Intermediate Member
Username: Vanillagorilla
Post Number: 341
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Friday, November 25, 2005 - 6:38 pm: |
|
All good ideas but I thought he was looking to get away from the directional attitude his Jeep had now? Plus he said "if you had 2k to spend"...come on guys! Lets spend the money!
Seriously...a local around here runs his Connex in a Wrangler (Hi "chicken-leg")and swapped his Silverload Wilson for a Wilson 2000 on his spare carrier...I talked to him up to 15mi away before he started to fade...not bad with a mild peak and ground plane away from me...just a thought.
Kinda like the 9ft whip idea myself on a Wrangler..just seems right and CAN'T be any higher than the 10K on my roof with the 13ft clearance problem!
|
Kj7gs
Junior Member
Username: Kj7gs
Post Number: 36
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - 12:06 am: |
|
Would an artificial ground plane (MFJ) be a possible solution? |
