Batboard

Hello all, here we go, I have a new Impala Chief's special, BLACK in color, and the radios going in are as follows, LOW BAND, VHF, 460 radio, 480 radio, 800 P-25, I need to do antenna's and I do not want to make the car look like a porcupine, want it to look executive. The mounting is already figured with the new Jotto Desk Impala mount with the JAGUAR radios all dual banded.

I would like some suggestions for this antenna install.

Thanks

Hmm

So I guess the fender mount Low Band whip is out of the question??

I know that the South Carolina Highway Patrol uses the AM/FM radio ant for the low band antenna.

Stan:

For use in town, I cut down a /\/\ NMO quarter wave antenna for use on 860 mHz and put it on top of my car on the NMO mount. It can hardly be seen and works fine on my old analog cell phone. If you used a black base and black radiator you'd never see it on top of a black Impala. When I go out of town, over the road, I put the 5DB monster gain cell antenna on the mount in place of the cut-down unit. The quarter wave on 860 mHz is only 3.265 inches.

Tom in D.C.
W2NJS

I'll go with Tom on the black antennas

I've got a Black Impala with 2 black maxrad 1/4 VHF whips......can hardly see 'em.

The lowband screws ya here, so that should go on the center of the trunk as a dualband VHF comtelco, and the UHF & 800 maxrad pepper shakers could flank the lowband stick on either side. Keeps everything on the decklid and down low.

That's about as low profile as that install gets.

Sti-Co Industries (http://www.sti-co.com) manufactures a line of dual-band, cellular look-alike, NMO mount antennas, in black, which would give you the non-porcupine, "executive" appearance you are after, although they are pricey at about $200 apiece. Each antenna comes with a cross-band coupler, allowing it to be shared by two radios. They offer models for VHF/UHF, VHF/800, and UHF/800, with varying bandwidths and power levels. Isolation between ports on the cross-band coupler is on the order of 35 dB. You could use a Maxrad, Comtelco, or other standard antenna for the lowband, plus two Sti-Co dualbanders for everything else. 5 radios, 3 antennas. There is a trade-off in RF performance when you do this, of course, but it might be worth considering if the V, U, and 800 radios will be operated mostly on repeaters, in relatively high signal level areas.

cfd1736 wrote:I know that the South Carolina Highway Patrol uses the AM/FM radio ant for the low band antenna.

If the 2004 is anything like my 2003, that isn't an option since the radio antenna is on the glass of the rear window just above the defroster array.

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John

It may LOOK like an AM/FM car antenna but without a doubt it's a disguise antenna designed for transmitting, with decent coax lead etc. Nobody who knows how this stuff works would use a car antenna for transmitting; we've just done another thread on his same exact subject.

Tom in D.C.
W2NJS

get transit style antennas paint them Black

Well I have the final assembly for the antenna's.

LOW BAND: COMPROD COMMUNICATIONS, LTD. Canada AM/FM Lumina Mount (Used by the RCMP) and work well, so the uglies go away.

VHF/800: Combined Cellular Look A Like from Sti-Co

UHF: 2 Maxrad BMLPV450 antenna's (all black)

This should work out well since the main radio's used are the 2 UHF.

Also for mounting the equipment in the trunk D&R is supplying the Trunk Deck Slide.

For the console it is a Jotto-Desk Impala mount.

Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

I agree with the idea of using all black antenna's on a black vehicle. I have 4 antenna's on my black CV and they really are camouflaged because they match the color of the car. Obviously you can see them but its minimal.

I'll never choose another black vehicle again though. Very hot in the summer!