Antenna placement on a truck

[rydzewski]

Just bought a new 2011 Ford f-150 super crew 5.5ft bed.

On my old truck i had 2 nmo mounts on the roof. with this new truck i am thinking of something a little more covert. any ideas on mounting options and antenna's? I was thinking magnet mounts in the bed of the truck hidden by the tonneau cover... i live in an area where there are multiple repeaters for both bands... open to suggestions. Thank you.

[Tom in D.C.]

I don't want this to sound harsh but that is a dramatic step down that you're proposing. The signals you hear on either band will be somewhat or even very noisy, and your friends will yell at you for a crackly, noisy transmitted signal. In other words, stick with roof mounts and keep your signal decent.

Comet makes a very decent dualband vertical antenna (NRMO) that is only about 15 inches high. Comtelco makes a great UHF only puck antenna (A2543) with 3db of gain that mounts on an NMO. I use both types, but they're on the Outback's roof where they belong.

There is no free lunch when it comes to mobile antennas.

[resqguy911]

Ya know, on a fullsize truck almost anything is covert, especially on a supercrew. The Newest Phantom Elite http://lairdtech.thomasnet.com/viewitem ... &forward=1 antennas even work well on VHF compared to past products.

[rydzewski]

hmm. I'll have to look into more discrete antenna's. thank you for the input Tom. Something to consider. As for the Phantom Elite, i will have to do some more research on it.

[mmckenna]

rydzewski,

Let me know how your install goes. I just bought a 2011 F150 super crew also, and have to install an NMO. I've read that there is a brace runs down the center of the roof, from front to back, that makes it difficult if not impossible to mount an NMO center line on the roof in all places but the very rear near the high brake light. I'm going to be taking a look at mine this weekend and <might> drop the headliner. I only want to mount one NMO, but if I can get it center line and towards the center of the cab, I'm going to have to offset it to one side.

Thanks.

[rydzewski]

I will be doing something in the next week or so. if you do decide to drop your headliner let me know what you find.

[tvsjr]

The 2009s/2010s, like most model years, are "corrugated" (strips that are lower than others for strength). Unfortunately, the middle happens to be one of the lowered areas, basically making a trough. It smooths out at the third brake light, so you can put one there... but I don't think it looks the best.

[rydzewski]

I run both uhf and vhf. I will probably off set them one on the drivers side back and passenger side back built ford tough i guess!

[tvsjr]

You can do arrays of 2 or 4 on the roof quite nicely. I've only got one one the roof - the multi-band GPS/cell/wimax/WiFi Maxrad puck. Everything else is on the topper, which is nice and flat (easy to swiss-cheese with 15 3/4" holes!)

[mmckenna]

OK, done. Not a problem to mount antennas down the center line of the newer Ford F150 crew cabs. I'll post the how to and some pictures in another post.

[rydzewski]

fantastic. let me know when you post it. thank you.

[mmckenna]

Already done. http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=97979

[W1HVN]

Ya know, on a fullsize truck almost anything is covert, especially on a supercrew. The Newest Phantom Elite http://lairdtech.thomasnet.com/viewitem ... &forward=1 antennas even work well on VHF compared to past products.

Does the VHF give you some actual usable tuned bandwidth? The older coffee cans gave I think 500khz either side of center, which really only works if you have one or two simplex VHF freqs you use. I did a search for the tuning chart for the 1440 and couldn't find one. Anyone have the spec and more improtantlynsome real world experience with it? Compared to a 1/4 wave simple whip?

Thanks.

[resqguy911]

The VHF Elite models give a 5MHz rated split. http://lairdtech.thomasnet.com/viewitem ... &forward=1# I've used one for the popular NPSTC range (VFIRE, VCALL, etc) mostly 154.xxx frequencies with acceptable results.

[KG4LHQ]

Couldn't pay me to put one of those things on my vehicles.

J U N K Just ask our local police department that can't talk in the next city south because of these stupid things.

[resqguy911]

Couldn't pay me to put one of those things on my vehicles.

J U N K Just ask our local police department that can't talk in the next city south because of these stupid things.

I know the original cans were junk, but these work much better than the first models. I don't think either version was ever intended for wide area coverage. If they are normally driving that far away from home coverage, they probably don't have the low clearance garage issues of an urban setting- which at least in our case is saturated with RF. anyway, can't hurt to evaluate one before you change the whole fleet over.

[KG4LHQ]

This PD has the cans, the fins and the other ones

All about the same IMO

I always go with the saying you can take a $5 radio with a good antenna and cover just as far or farther then a $2,000 radio and a $5.00 antenna.

Can't beat a $8.00 1/4 wave 19" whip IMO night and day difference between that and a can