Antennas: Magnet vs Hard Mount

[davegrantsr]

yeah,.......... 11 meters is a special band,............... the laws of RF don't apply to it

you say that like you didn't know it
16 transistor dx3200 driven by a dx667v & usually a grant xl into a predator 10k on a triple magnet mount....yea, a dx1600 driven by a dx250 or 350 PROBABLY would have been fairly close in performance with a hard mounted antenna. however hard mounting the predator to the roof of my durango, & especially my jeep cherokee, no matter what size backing plate, would've been asking for trouble-the roof of the durango is like a soup can, the roof of the xj is like toilet paper.
still debating a breedlove mount on the roof of 1 of my cherokee's, but his backing plate will probably go over a 1/4" piece of steel plate.....about 2 feet by 2 feet

 

[psycho]

The last drill through I did was on a 1995 F150 supercab. I didn't notice much of a performance difference between a drill through Wilson 5000 and a magnet mount.
I did notice less noise in the receive and 1/4 of an S-unit gain.......no big deal. That was with a Davemade 5 pill but I do see where larger amps would require a good solid ground.
There is no way on this green earth I will ever drill a hole in the roof to get a 1/4 to 1/2 S-Unit difference......it just isn't worth it.
Newer vehicle roofs are as flimsy as beer cans.

 

[The Jerk]

Drilling that first hole is the worst...after that, you'll drill any vehicle you own. I drilled a hole in my Silverado before it was a week old!!

I like having them hard mounted...no way they can get ripped off the roof, no wires running outside the cab, nice clean install. All it takes is one time of replacing the antenna because you wiped it off the roof, and that will pay for the time to hard mount one.

I've always been able to fine enough room between the headliner/roof that I have not had to completely drop a headliner yet. The Silverado was the absolute easiest...pull the dome light, drill the hole, fish the wires, tuck the wires, reinstall the dome light, and in less than 15 minutes I'm on the radio.

Of the hard mounted Wilsons I've done, I've seen a notable improvement each time...the SWR will come right down to 1:1 and they are a lot quieter. I had SWR issues on my Subaru with a magnetic mount, drilled the hole and the SWR went right to 1:1 without any other adjustment (already had the lowest SWR I could achieve with the magnetic).

 

[M0GVZ]

There is no way on this green earth I will ever drill a hole in the roof to get a 1/4 to 1/2 S-Unit difference......it just isn't worth it.

The main reason for drilling holes is better grounding and eliminating common mode and thus noise.

Newer vehicle roofs are as flimsy as beer cans.

Which unfortunately is a double whammy as they're not as good at supporting centre loaded mobile antennas and because they're thin magmounts don't work as well.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Drilling that first hole is the worst...after that, you'll drill any vehicle you own. I drilled a hole in my Silverado before it was a week old!!

I like having them hard mounted...no way they can get ripped off the roof, no wires running outside the cab, nice clean install. All it takes is one time of replacing the antenna because you wiped it off the roof, and that will pay for the time to hard mount one.

I've always been able to fine enough room between the headliner/roof that I have not had to completely drop a headliner yet. The Silverado was the absolute easiest...pull the dome light, drill the hole, fish the wires, tuck the wires, reinstall the dome light, and in less than 15 minutes I'm on the radio.

Of the hard mounted Wilsons I've done, I've seen a notable improvement each time...the SWR will come right down to 1:1 and they are a lot quieter. I had SWR issues on my Subaru with a magnetic mount, drilled the hole and the SWR went right to 1:1 without any other adjustment (already had the lowest SWR I could achieve with the magnetic).

Just don't do what a buddy of mine did to his brand new truck. He hard mounted a Larsen dual band antenna and a couple weeks later he drove into a low clearance parking garage. He forgot about the antenna being hard mounted as he had been using a magmount and because it hit so low on the whip the strain on the antenna was so great it ripped out of the hole. the antenna was fine although the mount was beat up a little but the hole in the roof look ghastly after that. It buckled the roof and put a crack in the edge of the hole.

 

[RC4]

So does a fender hood mount count the same as a hard mount? Is it better than a mag center roof mount?

 

[144inBama]

It does count as hard mount. Better than? Well that depends on what you're looking for. This shows you the pattern of TX & RX by mounting location. I've been running nothing but mags since forever and have had little issue. Most people will never notice an issue until they start running serious power, that's when the difference will really show up.