</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by ldivinag:
<strong>LVSPARK got the best answer, IMO.

center top of roof gives you the best ground plane...</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">I agree. Bite the bullet and drill the hole...

--
Jim

Just don't forget to remove it if you pull into your garage, or go through a Micky D drive-thru.
Corey

I had a 5" wide magnetic mount (from a truck stop) with a 3' Wilson antenna for a while in the middle of my roof. Low tree branches knocked it off a few dozen too many times for my liking. Scratched the middle of the roof, too. It also blows off at about 80-90 mph. I even experimented with a spring in it for a little while - all the clunking around up there bugged me.

After I got the custom rear bumper, I also got a K40 5?-foot whip antenna and screwed it on back there. Reception is great, but I now understand why TLCA doesn't allow long whip antennas. It would bonk my spotters in the head if they were near the 4Runner on rocky sections, which was actually quite dangerous. So now I put a foam ball on the antenna and bungee it to my highlift jack half-way up the antenna so it doesn't whip all over the place. It's just what works for me. I still don't know what I'd do if I didn't have the custom bumpers.

I do have a friend (BlueDodge) that surprisingly has had VERY good luck with one of those small (18"?) antennas stuck on the window. It miraculously sends the signal through the window without drilling any holes and tested great with an SWR meter. As was mentioned above, his isn't mounted on a window with metal tinting on it.

I use a magnetic mount antenna on the centre of my 4runner and it works ok, though it has caught on branches and fallen off which can get very annoying .

I wish CB's were not used any more, they require huge antennas becuase of their wavelength. The quality is crap and the transmission range is also.

I prefer using my ham radio which can get excellent coverage and quality while only using a short 1 foot antenna on the roof - of course most people dont have a license though.

i guess i just dont like CB's. =)

Hey now....that's not very nice!!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

CB

Sportrunner,

How did you ground your antenna? Or did you use a no-ground-plane type?
How did you get the antenna cable to it?

I've read something about using the rack mounting holes for a cable feed-through, but I'm not quite sure how that works.

I've been wondering if some sort of cross-bar on the factory rails would work although I haven't thought of a good way to get the cable up there anyway. Cable routing is a big thing in favor of the mount that goes in the gap between the hood and the fender. (Although that gap looks pretty small for avoiding pinching the cable or it rubbin the paint off.)

Alan, here was my fender mount.
You can see the small piece of black electrical tape I have where the coax goes up the side.

That piece of tape stuck there for over two years.
After I took that mount off, I had no scratches left over from it or the coax.

Here is with the hood shut all the way.
There is a pretty good gap so the bracket itself did not scratch either the fender or the hood too.
Corey

here is what I did <img src="http://members.cox.net/n0trub/cbmount.jpg" alt="" />

Oh and its a Radio shack 48" whip that SWR's a 1.1! Its made from a street sign I bent up and attached to the radiator mounts. Works great and yes I had a magnetic that was constanly getting knocked off. Even with my ARB Prado bar I have left my mount. Why? Because its COOL!!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

<small>[ 16 April 2002, 11:32 PM: Message edited by: notrub ]</small>

That is cool, and more so 'cause you fabbed it up <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

I have seen it before, and it looks good.
Do you have the coax ground close by?
Corey

<small>[ 16 April 2002, 11:47 PM: Message edited by: Corey ]</small>

Corey, I do not have a gound wire run to it. I have tested to see if the metal is grounded with my electrical multimeter, and it was! I never worried about it after that. I have excellent reception and transmission so I have not messed with it, must be the super duper street sign metal. Chad