[roof top tents and antennas.....]

ill figure out how to get some with links soo i dont use up my 500kb of uploads on non radio related items.

 

I've got no input, but would like to see a zoomed out pic of your GC! Jeep porn ftw

[roof top tents and antennas.....]

first a lil info on the 95 Grand Cherokee ive lovingly dubbed grandpa he's old and full of piss and vinegar, although he does leak a lil, at 235k on the soul hes a go getter that loves to show where experience and a steady foot (a good set of tires helps too...)can take you 

 

so grandpas carrying the smittybuilt overlander xl rooftop tent....its huge takes up almost all of the roof. tent is 75x47 and is 15inches from the roof, by almost, i got about 10 inchs to use and most of that is the roof line bending down. the tent base is mainly fiberglass bottom sections with what i would call angle iron but its aluminum. then in the center of it sits a aluminum ladder. now on the rear left fender i have a 102" (cant beat'em for there indestructability) for the cb and the tent absolutely destroys swrs I'm lucky to get 2.5 and my range is cut drastically and the antenna is still 75% above the tent line. right now I've got a (i know its not the best) Nagoya ut72 mag mount. running 1.02to 1.03 swr on the roof in the small space as far away from the tent as it can be. ive also tried on the hood close to where your stock stereo antenna would be(cut mine off it got beat to death by Colorado mtn trees anyway) but on the hood, the swrs there i got to a flat 1.0 thru the band. all doors, hood, and hatch have been bonded with 1/2 tinned copper ground straps that are no longer then 6 inches if i could help it

 

 is the tent going to kill the signal on the 70cm band as it does on the 11m band. id like todo a nmo roof mount with a 5/8 over 5/8 to get the extra height. the tent actually moves a lot of the branches before they get to the antenna. the other option is a nmo fender mount but that's going to get beat to hell and back i feel. so that leaves the hood option for a mag mount as im not sure id like to mount a nmo in the hood (wouldn't there be a ton of surrounding rfi). 

 

so I'm trying to decide which route would be the best for my situation and wanted to get yalls opinions and thoughts. 

 

 

[Cable types and losses]

i ended up going with some abr industries lmr400 from ham radio outlet denver. 75ft only gives me about 10ft to 12ft of slack. on my homebrew jpole i got a swr of 1.07 with 99.86% of tx power going out with a reflect of only 0.0058%, with a power output of 4.38watts, antenna is about 35ish ft in the air i can hit the repeater thats about 30ish miles away but its a lil weak sometimes. so im really happy so far...just on that waiting bus for the kg1000g to come back in stock....unless i can find a better radio locally wich i doubt.....

[Cable types and losses]

with all the different types of coax out there and the huba bubaloo from manufactures my head was ready to explode...however i found some lmr 400uf type from ham radio outlet its abr industries and has a uv protectant. ran down there today and picked up 75ft. 

[Cable types and losses]

ok so im ready to explode here....friday im picking up some coax, my run is roughly 60 feet, i was going to get lmr 400 but the info im seeing is that 400 isnt going to be good enough for this. the cable will be sitting on the roof for most of the run and short run thru the window. i want to buy coax one time for this station and 3 months down the line i dont want to have to upgrade it.

 

so can ya help a guy out whos already lost his marbles.....

[Welcome!]

hi guys and gals, been lurking for a few weeks and thought id say hi....so howdy, hi and hello to yall!!!!

 

names Billy, been into radio and computers for a long time, only ever done the cb thing till recently after reading that most 4x4 events are going to move to gmrs so i figured i should to. im working on my tech class ticket, my dads been a xtra since the sand was invented so its in da blood so to speak. love computers (really into water cooling). ive already built a sim jim and a jpole just waiting on the nanovna to come in and the pl239's to set it as close to perfect as i can achieve. also thinking about the dpd gmrs base antenna. going to mount it on the chimney with a 10ft pole. for radios im really leaning towards the woxun kg1000g i really like the remote mounting and the mic pluging into the head...jeeps are well known for the huge amounts of room to mount stuff       still got to figure out what antenna to run in the jeep as it regularly sees the trail and it so happens that the roof top tent doesn't play so well with radio signals so im limited to the hood area. o well thats enough to start......