Re: magnet mount antenna on a house trailer with a metal ro
I have a friend that works on cars in a storage unit who is an avid cber.The storage units are tilt up concrete with a galvanzied metal roof.
He is a classic scrounger and doesnt like to pay much for anything.We tried various antenna setups on the roof from used garage sale magnet mounts,no ground plane antennas and a wire antenna setup.
THe magnet mount antennas worked ok although he couldnt get the swrs down below 1:5.The no ground plane antenna came in about 1:7.The wire antenna came in at about 1:3 but drew complaimts form the owner of the units.
What he ended up with was a setup made from a Mopar crankshaft pulley that he attached a ball mount to.This worked fine but didnt have the weight neccessary to support it in the plains winds, he then bolted a used harmonic balancer to the pulley and it stays up fine.
Next was the choice of coax and antenna, I gave him some mini 8 coax and an old antron brand 4 ft fiberglass whip.It took some moving around on the roof to find the best sweet spot(which ended up being near the edge) and swrs came in around 1:2.Not being satisfied he got a steel 102 whip and now the swrs are nearly flat from ch 1 to 40.
Our cber freinds shake thier heads as this setup but he talks skip and is one of the louder stations in the city despite being in one of the lowest spots in town
My advice is experiment ya never know what ya might come up with and ya dont have to send a lot of cash to get out.
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Edited by: <A HREF=http://p067.ezboard.com/bworldwidecbradioclub.showUserPublicProfile?gid=flatlandradio>Flatland Radio</A> at: 6/13/04 10:54 am