Batboard

I originally asked this on eham and usenet, but I figured that the hardcore MOTO installers may have already tackled something like this so...

my main posting was here:

http://www.eham.net/forums/MobileHam/7615

but what I'm looking to find out is: on the 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee, where does someone put an antenna that doesn't cut a hole or expose a wire? The car seems to have very little 'lip' for a lip mount, and I would prefer to not go with a magnet/luggage rack mount. I plan on attaching an Icom unit to it, and I'm having issues with the 'directly connect to battery' logic I see from so many, when some have suggest a single pole single throw 30 am relay to bring battery power when they key is on.

In the end, I started and have come back to glass mounted dual band ideas - or possibly the 'window clip' - even though its impossible to find a 55w glass mount for my 55w radio (the IC-208H).

Anyone have any mounting & relay thoughts?

Richard
N0TZC

why dont you go with fender mount. that is what i have on my 01 dodge ram. very little wire out side of your unit, and yes you have to have holes but only under the hood and 2-3 screw holes are not very noticable. i under stand you dont want to have holes in your roof. neither do i that is why i went with the fender mount. i use a vhf low and uhf both with 110w radios with no problems. now mind you these are public safty fx not ham.

I second that. Put an L-bracket NMO mount somewhere and call it good. Those three screw holes are a lot less worrysome than the poor performance of a glass mount antenna!

And run the power to the battery as suggested, but put the ground direct to the body/frame of the vehicle and don't use the fuse in the ground side. That fuse is there because the ham radio manufacturers decided to suggest running both the power and ground directly to the battery, when you run the ground direct to the battery you need to include a fuse to prevent damage if a vehicle ground fails.

Here is an example of installing a ham rig so that it turns on and off with the ignition. It says Yaesu for the radio from a previous discussion, lol.



The fused lead from the relay coil to the fuse panel needs a bit of further explanation. I prefer to use the vehicles stereo fuse, usually a 10amp fuse, this source is turned on with the ignition, but off while engine cranking, and also allows you to have the equipment on by placing the ignition back to acessory. Just like the way the stereo functions.

Use a fuse tap, the style that you put on the fuse blade then plug back in and it gives you a 1/4 inch qd terminal for the added circuit. Make sure to put the fuse tap on the supply side of the fuse though, to determine that just use a test light or voltmeter, and with the fuse removed and the ignition turned on check to see which side has power, that's the supply side. You could put it on either side, but this way if something failed with the added wiring the added fuse would blow and the factory equipment on the stereo fuse would still work.

As for the fuse in this added wire, put it as close as possible to the fuse panel end, and use a low rating fuse. I usually use 3amp fuses since they are the lowest my local auto parts store carries in ATC style. And i believe that's simply as low a rating as they go.