Wrvq441

[Wrvq441]

Hello everyone.

I’m new to the forum so please be patient with me.

I’ve read through as many posts as possible, and came kind of close to an answer, but not fully.

I have a Jeep Wrangler that has a fiberglass top.  So my question is; how and where do I mount my GMRS antenna to benefit a ground plane?

If I mount it to the metal tailgate, does it use the rest of the frame and metal parts of the body as a ground plane? I personally don’t think so, but instead of redesigning the wheel; I’m pretty sure that some of you have already conquered this quest.

Thank you in advance for any constructive replies.

 

[gortex2]

Front fender or rear tailgate is fine. If you search around I would say 90% use the front fender or hood with a lip mount. A few use the rear tailgate. Both of mine are on the front cowl mounts with my off road lights.

[BoxCar]

You can also fix a metal plate to the fiberglass roof that's about one foot on each side through glue or bolts and use it. You can also drill through the plate to have the coax inside the cab. The ground plane for the antenna does not need to be connected to the body.

[WQAI363]

My advice would be to follow the current advice from the two previous posts. Another IDEA would be to mount on the Driver's side hood and route the feedline though the firewall.

[bd348]

You can buy an adhesive metal disc and stick it on the aluminum hood.  I placed it near the back of the hood, but several inches away from the back edge to provide a bit of ground plane to the back.  And several inches away from the side edge as well.  I also ran a grounded wire in the slot at the edge of the plastic cowl, forming a ground radial in the backwards direction.  All of this keeps it away from tree branches fairly well, and if it's a short antenna then it isn't too much in the way of the field of vision.

Mine is a Midland MTX275, which came with a little 1/4 wave antenna with 20 feet of thin RG-174 coax.  That coax eats a lot of signal.  If you have this, either get a better antenna or chop the coax down to size and install a connector.  Even better, what I did, chop the coax to one foot to get under the hood, then use connectors and an adapter to run RG-58 the rest of the way to the radio.

For the JL/JT, there is another post here somewhere showing how to route the cable under the cowl and through the driver's door leading edge. It works great.

[bd348]

Regarding routing the cable for a JL/JT:

Jeep Antenna Mount

[bd348]

An adhesive metal antenna mounting disc:

TAF DISC3.5

It may be required to cut off a bit from one side because the JL/JT hood has only so much flat surface near the edge.

Also:

MicroMobile MXTA38 Adhesive-backed Metallic Mount