Antenna mounting on F250 pickup?

[jantman]

For the past year or so, I've been making do with a portable radio dropped in the cup holder in my truck. It's time for a real radio - maybe just a scanner for now, but a mobile coming soon (probably an Icom F-5061, 50W VHF, operating around 158MHz). I rarely transmit, and when I do, it's pretty much all local.

I'm really going crazy over how to mount the antenna...

1) The clearance of the truck is already about 6' 2", I'm a bit worried about mounting anything on the roof - not to mention I like a clean roofline.
2) I can't stand the looks of the hood/fender brackets.

Any ideas left? I got a quote for the Sti-Co replacement, but it was $230 for the narrow bandwidth option, $350 for the wide bandwidth.

I also thought about one of the "covert" antennas like the Phantom Elite (figuring I'd give it a shot)... but if that gets whacked by a low overhang, it'd probably end up worse than a whip.

The main 2 ideas that I'm thinking of now are biting the bullet and spending the $80 on one of the GeoTool stake pocket mounts, or - one heck of a job - removing the bedliner and blind riveting an L-bracket to the forward wall of the bed, with the bracket between the bed and cab.

Any thoughts/recommendations?

[tvsjr]

Yeah, but you're not going to like them...

1 - get over it and install a 1/4-wave whip dead-center of the roof. Do you go into parking garages? If not, the chance of striking anything is pretty low. I've got quite a few Larsen wideband VHF whips on the roof of my truck's topper (F350 4x4, so I've got at least 6" on you, Knap Kap commercial steel topper on the back) and don't have problems. I just stay out of parking garages.

2 - go for the front fender bracket with either a 1/4-wave or a 5/8-wave, mounted directly across from the AM/FM antenna.

I wouldn't rivet anything on the front wall of the bed... the bed and the cab move independently due to various stresses when travelling over uneven ground, and you may find the L-bracket impaled into the cab if you aren't careful. I have a 4.5" diameter passthrough from the cab to the bed and you have to take this movement into account when running wires or you have a problem.

I haven't been very pleased with the stake mounts, and you'll have to run a no-ground-plane antenna like a 5/8-wave.

The Phantom Elites suck on VHF especially, and are very narrowbanded. Sticos are good, but, as you've learned, not cheap.

[ka8ypy]

I have echo Terry's comments either bite the bullet and drill or do the fender mount either one with a 1/4 wave whip. The lo-pro antennas such for VHF but work fine for UHF and above. The Sticos are nice but pricey.

Dan
KA8YPY

[HarrisonRHW]

Another option is you can drill a small hole through the windshield wiper fairing, then you mount the whip to the metal underneath and have it poke through the whole you drilled. Our FD just did it on our new GMC 3500 and it makes it look so much cleaner than a fender mount, plus you can get a longer whip antenna without having to worry about clearance. And if you for some reason decide to sell the truck, it is just a commonly available piece of plastic you need to replace.

[cwolf520]

Try Tessco.com. They have a bunch of window decal antennas. I used one of them until I caught a stone in the windshield. These antennas are good for one mount and one mount only.

http://www.tessco.com/products/displayP ... ventPage=4

Price is $ 65.00. Company is ARC Wireless Solutions and searching through their web site got me to a datasheet.pdf

http://www.antennas.com/docs/vault/doc_ ... 18_523.pdf

Hope this helps.

Chuck

[radioinst]

I've used the decal antennas for some time, the vhf antennas have a narrow bandwidth so as long as you are transmitting in a 2mhz bandwidth of vhf you'll be ok, make sure your output power doesn't exceed the antenna limit. when those antennas go bad they burn in the middle and will pit the window a little. I've had a bad batch before and 3 out of 8 went bad. The 3 pin plug/socket on them is something that needs to be strain reliefed when it is installed, they are delicate and do come apart easily. there are 2 black coax holders that come with them.