Batboard

Hello,

Well, my good friend Ric bought a 1998
Oldsmobile Silhouette today. You know what
that means next - THE DRILL! Muahahahaha!

Anyway, before I go tearing up the headliner
and the carpet, I figured I'd better check here
to see if anyone had experience installing
antennas and radios in one of these things.
You never know what the wonderful GM
engineers hid amongst the interior of that van.

I know we're at least going to put a UHF
Spectra in there, maybe a Uniden '780.

Any hints/tips would be appreciated. :-)

Thanks,

Marc C.
----------
Phoenix, AZ

Well, from what I can remember, these things have a 100% fibreglass shell, so that might be a PITA for antennas.

One fellow I know had one, he just bought a piece of sheet-metal that's more or less 2 feet square, epoxied it to the inside of the shell, and put his antenna in that way. I'd assume he also put a metal braid between that and the frame of the car (one would hope so anyway).


-Ex

These have a composite material plastic body.

You will need to install a screen or sheet metal "false ground" inside of the roof making sure it is grounded to the NMO mount housing. There is usually no need to ground the screen to the chassis, unless you are dealing with lowband of HF frequencies.

VHF- use about 2-1/2' square
UHF- use about 1' square

You could opt for "no ground plane" antennas, but expect less performance than using the artificial ground. You could use the NGP antennas with the artificial ground, too.

Hmm... interesting. I forgot that most
of the newer vehicles like that are some
mix of plastic and fiberglass. Ric did mention
that the hood of that van was really light
when he went to check the motor.

I guess we'll have to break out the sheet
metal and the J-B Weld and/or Liquid Nail,
hehehe. :-)

Marc