One of the many questions on antennas' I get asked is...
Where should I put this - "thing" - referring to the antenna itself.
You can show pie charts, radiation charts, even the mental health charts of the one producing all the charts...
But it doesn't do you any good if you don't follow an old adage...
"Let your light shine" - can also apply to antennas, you don't put it under a table, lay it on the floor or hide it under a cap.
No, you place it on the highest spot - on the vehicle, you and the vehicle can tolerate.
Radio is a lot like light, proof above when it comes to charts - you work with ohms law to make a circuit complete.
(Read that as SWR - closer to Resonance or 50 ohms - depending on what antenna design you use changes the Radiation Resistance - the antenna can work like a resistor in a working load - the better -higher- resistor factor - the more the antenna can "load into it's system" and become a more effective radiator.)
How well it works, depends on your abilities to mount the antenna in a spot that lets' it "shine" - you want the antenna to radiate, so put it in a spot that will let it do just that.
Sometimes the light needs a "reflector" so you use the body of the vehicle to offset that condition - makes it more like a spotlight.
Sometimes you can mount the antenna in a fashion that makes it work for "general illumination" - so the antenna gives you good all around performance of radiation, its radiative pattern is equal in all directions.
You pick the best, and work with the rest, to develop the system with the best trades in performance, coverage, reception and pickup patterns - you' don't need a book, you just need some common sense.
The antenna; once you provide for it, makes SWR tuning pretty easy and straightforward.
Don't overthink this.
