Antenna Location

[WRQS499]

I asked this in the Jeep forum but those are jeep guys not radio guys.  Radios need a good ground plane and need to be mounted as high as possible.  In my jeep It seems I can have one or the other.  I have a 2020 Wrangler 4 door.  The roll bar on these is wider than the previous body styles.  Most people mount their antennas beside the hood on these.  I think I have enough room for a 3db ghost antenna between the roll bar and the top.  My question is this:  Would you rather have a 3db antenna on the roll bar up high or a 6db antenna by the hood?

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, WRQS499 said:

I asked this in the Jeep forum but those are jeep guys not radio guys.  Radios need a good ground plane and need to be mounted as high as possible.  In my jeep It seems I can have one or the other.  I have a 2020 Wrangler 4 door.  The roll bar on these is wider than the previous body styles.  Most people mount their antennas beside the hood on these.  I think I have enough room for a 3db ghost antenna between the roll bar and the top.  My question is this:  Would you rather have a 3db antenna on the roll bar up high or a 6db antenna by the hood?

Sandwiched between the roll bar and the roof sounds like a terrible idea.
I’d rather have a 6dBi (or better yet dBd) antenna up high. Not all antennas require a ground plane. It’s entirely possible to get an higher gain antenna which doesn’t require the metal of the vehicle for a ground plane and can be mounted high, such as on the roll bar. 

[OffRoaderX]

I am a Jeep guy and many people would say I am also a radio guy.

When discussing antennas and ground-plane, "Some People" get very confused between the phrases "will not work" and "may not work 100% efficiently".  

I mount my antenna on the rear tailgate, which the experts have proclaimed "will not work" because of the poor groundplane.  And it is true, the groundplane IS poor, but the SWR is (barely) below 3:1 and the radio works fine - On simplex i can get over 30 miles, and I have hit a repeater at over 90 miles.

Put either antenna anywhere on your Jeep (within reason), and based on my experience with leading (literally) almost 1,000 Jeeps with radios on off-road runs over the last several years, it will work fine for off-road and around town. 

All that said, my buddy with a 3db ghost antenna mounted on his roof-rack can receive signals slightly better than I can with my 6db antenna..although I can transmit slightly more farz.

[marcspaz]

On the hood lip or swing gate... it won't matter. For antennas requiring a ground plane, as long as there is about 7" of metal under the antenna (regardless of the angle) it's going to work. As mentioned above, not all antennas require a ground plane. So depending on the antenna you buy, it may be a moot point.

 

Also, the terrain and who/where you are trying to talk to will dictate if you have a no gain, mid-level or high gain antenna. No gain antennas provide much better coverage an hilly or mountainous areas and high gain antennas are going to provide better range in relatively flat areas. A 3 dB gain antenna is often a compromise. I just own both a no gain and a 6 dB gain antenna.

[WRQS499]

11 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

I am a Jeep guy and many people would say I am also a radio guy.

When discussing antennas and ground-plane, "Some People" get very confused between the phrases "will not work" and "may not work 100% efficiently".  

I mount my antenna on the rear tailgate, which the experts have proclaimed "will not work" because of the poor groundplane.  And it is true, the groundplane IS poor, but the SWR is (barely) below 3:1 and the radio works fine - On simplex i can get over 30 miles, and I have hit a repeater at over 90 miles.

Put either antenna anywhere on your Jeep (within reason), and based on my experience with leading (literally) almost 1,000 Jeeps with radios on off-road runs over the last several years, it will work fine for off-road and around town. 

All that said, my buddy with a 3db ghost antenna mounted on his roof-rack can receive signals slightly better than I can with my 6db antenna..although I can transmit slightly more farz.

I have my CB antenna mounted in this forbidden zone.  I have not informed my antenna that it is mounted poorly so it happily produces a 1.5 SWR on channels 1 and 40 and on 19 it is 1.1  While I do plan to primarily use my mxt275 for simplex trail communication I am looking at different setups that would allow for more advanced forms of communication in the future.  I really like the idea of the roll bar mounted antenna but without any data it looks like I either become the guinea pig or follow the masses. 

 

11 hours ago, Sshannon said:

Sandwiched between the roll bar and the roof sounds like a terrible idea.
I’d rather have a 6dBi (or better yet dBd) antenna up high. Not all antennas require a ground plane. It’s entirely possible to get an higher gain antenna which doesn’t require the metal of the vehicle for a ground plane and can be mounted high, such as on the roll bar. 

I am fairly certain that my soft top is invisible to the radio waves.  There are metal support bows but they are smaller than the a-pillar that would be next to my hood mounting location.  

[gortex2]

On my JK I run a 1/4 wave on a fender bracket. On my JT I run a Larsen NMO pepper shaker (Similar to Midland Ghost) on the center of the roll bar under the soft top. It has worked pretty well for my use case. My Kubota SXS is similar and run the antenna on a roll bar mount in the center. 

[SteveShannon]

On 8/30/2023 at 7:58 AM, WRQS499 said:

I am fairly certain that my soft top is invisible to the radio waves.  There are metal support bows but they are smaller than the a-pillar that would be next to my hood mounting location.  

Sorry, when you said “I think I have enough room for a 3db ghost antenna between the roll bar and the top” I wasn’t thinking of a soft top.  In my mind I pictured a short stubby antenna between the ground plane and the metal of the roll-bar.  I shouldn’t have said it sounded like a terrible position. 

Any antenna is better than none.

Everything affects everything.

Higher is almost always better.

 

[WRQS499]

so i bought a cheap analog swr meter and my midland mxta26 in 3 different locations on the jeep. I dont have specific SWR numbers but I was able to see relative using same cable and same antenna different locations.  1) Highest SWR tailgate mounted to hinge next to my CB antenna.  SWR improved slightly when I removed the CB antenna.  2) Side of driver side cowl next to a pillar.  3) best swr on roll bar.  Of course with the 36" antenna the top was completely open.  

 

[Pencilvesterr]

Haven't mounted a GMRS radio yet. I have my CB mounted on the license plate bracket on my JK. 

Looks like the company no longer makes the mounting kit tho. 

I did have it on my tailgate but after about 2-3 years of opening and closing the tailgate it started to destroy the coax

[AdmiralCochrane]

I've installed my radio in my soft top JK, but got the wrong spare tire antenna mount also when I stretched out my coax, it wasn't long enough.  The antenna is one that I had success with on another vehicle, so I'm excited to be setting up the Jeep.