Solution for a problem many hams have... mounting the antenna.
When you have a leased vehicle or simply don't want to drill holes in your car, need to fit in a garage with out getting out to fold down the antenna or don't want to pay a large amount of money for the auto version of that. This is the way you should look at going. I have an RX300 Lexus and it has worked perfect for about 2 years. The whole mount cost about $5.00 of Aluminum Flat stock. I purchased one 3' x 1" x 1/8" piece (blue in bellow diagram) (Note: only used half of the metal but 3' is min size for sale) and one 3' x 2" x 1/8" piece (black in diagram). The support piece is necessary! I wound up adding it on later due to excessive "bounce" while moving at normal local speeds {35 MPH}. To mount the antenna I did a little cannibalizing and took the base, the part you screw the antenna on to which has the coax in connected to, out of my previous mount (look at pic below) and used that on my new mount. you can purchase this through AES seperately as note below in parts list. Drilling a 1/2" hole dead center and inserted the "base" in my new hole. The aluminum was bent by hand in a tabletop vise. To attach it to the car I removed my tow hook and traced the holes of that in to the mount, drilled that out and reattached my tow hook with the mount between the frame and tow hook.
Part List
Flat aluminum
- 3' x 1" x 1/8
- 3' x 2" x 1/8"
Coax "base"
- Diamond C211: SO-239 base, 16.5' cable assembly & PL-259. (combo of Diamond C101 & C110)
Bolts
- 1/4" 20 x 1/2" Machine Blots
- Associated nuts
Tools
- Vise
- Pliers (may be need for bending)
- Drill
- 1/2" Drill Bit
- Wrench (for tightening the bolts)
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© 2002 All Rights Reserved Peter Van Den Houten