Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

I have a Relentless antenna bracket laying around that I never used if youre interested. Def cheaper than new.

 

How much you want for it? I'm in Oregon, so would need it shipped.

 

Yeah, forgot about those! I put them out of mind. That's what I used to get antennas on my truck at first until I could determine how much work it was going to be to get them on the roof. That ended up being a couple years of procrastination and finding better things to do than break a ton of plastic clips (which I did plenty of)...

I didn't care for ditch light bracket antenna mounts. They're always in view, hitting every tree branch, pack in with snow and it's impossible to get a counterpoise (ground plane) so only 1/2λ antennas tune worth a darn.







Now that I've done such a good job talking them up, I do happen to still have them and am thinking of selling them. They are CBI brackets. Don't remember if I drilled them out to 3/4" or used 3/8" NMO mounts. The cable is RG-8X so I may have drilled them out and used NMO mounts I had since it would seem I re-cabled them. OTOH they must be thick surface NMO so maybe not. Dunno. What I do know is cut slots in the corner window trim to go around the brackets to make it looks less half-assed.





Laird antenna bases fit like they're supposed to be on them. Larsen work OK with o-rings but not their regular rubber washers.

 

I would think the hood would act as the counterpoise. From what little I know, I imagine the problem is it's not anywhere near the center. Seems like a small metal plate on top of the mount would fix that problem. Also it would look terrible.

 

The hood will if it was visible to RF. I have not bonded my sheet metal well yet. I need to get some braid and do that. But even so the antenna feed point at the base of the antenna needs to be well connected. I scraped the powder coat at touch points. It seems the NMO was in good contact with the bracket but not as well through the bolts to the cowl. And the cowl itself to the body and then to the hood. I think what needs to happen is a braid put from the ditch bracket straight to the hood.

But that wouldn't fix the highly irregular pattern. I'd go from full quieting to almost deaf static just turning around a corner. I dislike off center mounted antennas, if it's not obvious.

 

You can do it with about 10" of strap right through the hood latch bolts ez pz

 

My experience is paint needs to be removed and I wasn't ready to open that can of rust worms. I had my previous truck well bonded and it worked for a few years until I had to redo it all as the sheet metal flaked and all my stainless screw started falling out. I didn't want to risk that under factory bolts at this point, this truck has to last!

 

Any chance you have a picture of this setup?

 

He's just talking about a loop with an eye under one of the ditch bracket mounting bolts to one on the hood hinge.

This is a Relentless ditch light bracket so it's already mounted on the hood but the bonding strap would be like this.

 

Where'd ya git that green strap?
Does it come in blue?

Asking for a friend.

 

I bet it will show respectable DC continuity but have you done any impedance checks, especially at UHF? I had to expose steel and use star washers to bite before I could really get any bonding jumpers to work.

 

Yup. It's all set.

 

It's all set, what? What did you do, what was your test, how do you know it's working? There's always hand waving but never explanation. You're an Elmer, describe man!

 

The difference being is mine is for bonding, like you said though. I'm relying on the strap going right into the screw threads, not the bracket surface itself.

 

^

One post up. I use it for general panel bonding. But that screw is uncoated where it touches the scrap and goes straight into female threads. More than enough surface area.

 

This is a big concern of mine. Also one of the big reasons I am not ready to do any drilling.

Thank you both!

 

Serrated washer. The paint has a cathodic mix in it. It'll essentially heal itself around the edges that dig in.

 

I know that's the method we always parrot but how did you test to know it actually did anything?

 

For what? It has both continuity and surface area. My noise floor dropped about one S unit after it was bonded.