Batboard

For those that do it for a living, what's the going rate for just drilling the hole and running the cable (standard NMO mount)?

I have a 01 Silverado and can't bring myself to do it for fear I'll make a mistake (although I've done it before!) I figured I'd pay the professionals to do it.

Thanks in advance. I won't be able to call the radio shop for a couple of days, so I thought I'd ask here.

Gordon

i could not do the same to mine 03. i mounted them on the tool box on a Righ angle bracket

You bought the vehicle to use, not to keep in a museum or as an investment. So USE it - the way you want. Drill away. Nothing to fear anyway.

After all that thing cost you, why settle for less?

I agree with w5atx, I was worried too, but jus remember pick a spot, go slow... everything will be ok! Take it one step at a time. Are you mounting it on your roof, or somewhere else?

I've done both roof and fender mounts - I was trying to decide between the two. Of course, the roof mounts I've done have been up through the interior dome light and not much of a problem. I haven't looked at mine to see if that's possible.

The fender mount seemed easier - I just need to find a place to go through the firewall, and I think I have thanks to some off board advice.

Any suggestions?

Gordon

I did my 99 Blazer 2 weeks after I bought it, 2 3/4" holes in the roof
forNMO mounts, it was the easiest install I ever did, just dropped
the roof console and the was already cutouts in the headliner.
My thought go ahead and do it, it is n=only a car or truck you will never get your money back when you get rid of it so what the h---
Good luck
teve

Do it, I just did my 02' Ford Superduty F-250 4x4 Crew Cab.....

I'll be doing the install over my days off - the next three. Does anyone know if you can roof mount by going through the dome light?

Gordon

Yes you can use the dome lights. Dril UP through the roof with a pilot hole to center them properly then use the 3/4 hole saw on the other side. Dome light placement works if you only need 1 or 2 antennas if you need more plan from the outside, watch out for roof bracing and drop the headliner to do it right.

I should know, I haave 8 NMO mounts on my truck!

Why not go fender mount with those L brackets...Have used them and the local install guy uses them exclusive on the new patrol cars on the trunk I have seen up to 6 on the trunk of a highway patrol car

Fender mounts are for vollies that may not need a radio next month. Any credible installer would never use a bracket that loosens every week, pinches coax and leaves the rear of most NMO connectors exposed to the weather and besides....they look stupid. They also tend to make low and highband VHF directional and since there is less groundplane, the antenna whip usually needs to be longer than normal to tune.

Drill a hole- it's only a car. If you sell it or trade it in, plug the hole. If on a truck, the dealer usually doesn't even know there was a hole up there.
Make sure the liner is drooped enough so you don't drill it! MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE THE MEATL SLUG FROM INSIDE OF THE HEADLINER THAT COME OUT OF THE SAW!!!! I replaced many a domelight fuse in police cars from "radio services" that left the slug laying in the headliner and it fell into the domelight shorting out!

Well after 6months having a fender mounted Lbraket on my Ford Explorer I decided to remount my antenna to the roof.

I had to concider the sunroof and I also like to cary things like a ladder and some times tower sections. So I carfully took down the center console that has the compas and temp and looked for a clear spot to mount the NMO.
Well I had to remove the motor for the sunroof but that was a breez. only 2 screws.
then I drilled a pilot hole and used my trusty greenlee punch and sandpaper the inside , bingo the mount was in.
I cut 10 feet of antenna wire from the orig install.
I moved the radio from the back to under the dash.

P.S
I also sprayed some clear sealant over the inside of the mount to prevent rust.

73's
charlie B

For now, I've done a fender mount, and it's doing just fine. When the weather gets nicer/warmer - or I find a nice warm garage I can use - I'll put in the roof mount.

Gordon

I had Certified Installation Services Group (I think they're at http://www.cisgusa.com or http://www.cisg-usa.com, but no promises) based outside of Dallas TX do my installation. I probably could get over the fear of drilling, but having someone else get paid to FINISH the job would provide a better end result than me just wanting to get the antennas on the roof.

I think they charged $45 for the service call (they did the work in my driveway) plus $35 per antenna. Although the guy wasn't knowledgeable about antennas, he was totally willing to listen to me regarding how I wanted the mounts positioned, how I wanted the cable lengths to end up, etc. He trimmed my antennas to the length I indicated, installed the plug on the end of each cable, and had the experience to know what parts of the headliner were accessible and what parts weren't.

If I get another decent job (I got laid off in June - anyone hiring a Cisco-head who's got CCNP, CCDP, and partway to CCIE?), I hope to "expand" to ten antennas, and I'll call the same folks to have them install the other four mounts.

For the curious, here's the current plan:

VHF-lo for CB
VHF for fire
UHF for local PD
UHF for county EMS (Passport, those stinkers...)
800 for San Antonio FD/PD/EMS (EDACS with ProVoice, those stinkers...)
800 for another local FD radio system (yeah, this area sucks)
800/1900 for cell
800/1900 for CDMA cell modem (wait, it gets better)
2x2.4GHz for 802.11b wireless access point (see below)

Here's my thought - a CDMA cell modem card (hey, unlimited access for $100, might as well use it) into a micro-laptop mounted up by the console, and an Ethernet connection to an 802.11b WAP powered off an inverter or something. Imagine being able to take a laptop up to 1500' away from your MOBILE vehicle and still get to the Internet at up to 144kbps.

I got a 01' Sportage and want to drill through that friggen roof for my 800 mhz. antenna... How hard is it to get that friggen headliner down?

Tony

If you need just *one* antenna on the roof, I've always gone through the dome light assembly.

It should disassemble enough to allow you to put your 3/4" hole in. The just run the cable to the side and down to where the radio is.

I haven't had a problem doing it that way.

Gordon

Took out my dome light and there is a bar running across where I would be able to drill for the antenna. I guess I may have to do it on the fender or try and get the headliner down.


Tony

Just do it near the dome light.. mine is about 3 inches in front of it. The dome light just makes it easier to push and pull cable around. It's easy enough to get your cable to the dome light then push it straight over to the side.

We use the nmo all the time. When a person
does not want a hole for resale, then we tell them to
put a 1/4 wave 800mhz cell antenna on the mount and tell the buyer it is cell ready.

No more trouble mounting an antenna with this
info.