Alternative to Mag Mount Antenna?

[ericjkelly]

Hey friends.


Just got a new chase vehicle and am looking to rebuild my setup.

I have the maximum signal wireless amp and mag mount antenna. I really dont like having a cable running out the window or hatch to the antenna.

I know there are decent window mounts, but am I missing anythere?

What would you do? Just trying to avoid the cable running out. Its a new car, not sure I want to modify it too much....yet!


Eric

 

[STexan]

They will operate better if mounted to the surface of a metal roof for ground plane purposes. It doesn't necessarily have to be mounted in the center of the roof but a foot or so in from a roof edge will give optimal results. No need in any "mods". But if you could find a window mount "plate" that the antenna can stick to, it would probably be hard to notice any overall performance hits.

 

[Jason Russell]

You'll get best results if mounted on a metal plane for certain. A good rule of thumb is to take half the length of the antenna and make that the minimum distance to any edge of your ground plane. Any less and you will get a distorted (not circular) field of transmission, meaning you might hit towers on one side just fine and barely touch towers on the other.

 

[ericjkelly]

Thanks guys! But any idea how I would get them up on the roof without a cord out the windows??

 

[STexan]

I just run mine through the door seal. Either "remove the door seal" and snake in and back out or just close the door on the coax. I'm not sure though how big the Maximum Signal antenna cord is, though. But my competitor brand cord is very small and can be managed through the door seals very easy and still make it easy to bring it in to run through car washes.

 

[Matt Tottle]

I know you said its a new car, but your best bet is always a thru the roof NMO mount. You can get a screw-on cap for it and paint it the body color for when you don't want the antenna on (to someone not in the know, it would simply look like some factory GPS or XM antenna), and there are rubber plugs to seal the hole if you ever need to take it out. If you take the headliner out and do all the prep, any radio shop can punch the hole for you in a couple minutes. The place I got mine punched the hole for free because I bought the mount from them.

Glass mounts are passable for receive-only applications like scanners/weather radios, but they suck for transmitting. Skip it.