2-way radio antenna

[gull]

Anyone have a clever scheme for mounting a 2-way radio antenna, like an amateur radio or CB antenna, on a Cabriolet? I'd like to install a 2 meter band whip on mine. On other cars I've always either used a rain gutter mount, or just drilled a hole in the roof or trunk lid and popped in a mount. But obviously that doesn't work on a ragtop, where there's a severe shortage of horizontal metal surfaces.

[Briano1234]

The comical poster in me says..... mount it to the b-pillar and poke a hole in the top as they are leaky anyway, what's another leak. Just mount it on the passenger side...

The practical side....

Don't they make a retractable one if so, mount it on the side of the trunk and get one of those caddy rear retractable radio fender pass throughs inserts...
Otherwise, I suppose the rear bumper is the easiest choice as there is a bunch of metal there that is vertically or horizontally flat.

You could mount it to the "b" pillar externally, and if you ever part with the car get another "b" pillar cover to hide the hole.

[gull]

Heheheh. I seem to have the only top that doesn't leak around here, so I think I'll pass on poking any holes in it. The other ideas are good ones, though.

[gull]

After looking at lots of mount types, I've ordered one of these:

I'm going to mount it on the rear fender. I really liked the B-pillar idea, but because the B pillar is a hollow structure there are problems with mounting anything to it; you can't get to the back side to run up the nuts. There are similar issues with parts of the rear fender area -- for example, I'd love to mount this on the flat spot above the tail light, because it'd look good there, but it's nearly impossible to access the back side of that area. I'll most likely put it above the rear side marker light.

[gull]

Here are some pics of the final result. I'm fairly happy with it. It's sturdy and looks decent.

[Briano1234]

That don't look too bad, but I still think it would of looked better on the "sissy" bar with a hole poked in the roof, but now on thinking putting the top down would of kinda suxed.

[gull]

All things being equal, my favorite spot would have been on the side of the B pillar, just below the lip of the roof. Nice and high, and it wouldn't interfere with the roof there. The problem is the B pillar is a hollow structure so there would be no way to get to the back side to secure the mount without cutting a big hole in it. And cutting a big hole in a structural part that doubles as a seat belt anchor seemed like a bad idea.

Accessing the inside of the rear quarter panel was tricky enough. There are a couple holes in the inner layer of metal that are just big enough to get a hand into, and that's it. At one point I dropped the mount's insulating bushing into the inside of the panel and it took me about half an hour to fish it back out with a coat hanger.

The plus side is, with all that reinforcement the metal there is quite strong. Between that and the reinforcing plate that comes with the mount, I can bend the whip double without the sheet metal flexing. I was surprised how thick the sheet metal was when I drilled into it.

[Hoppy]

Alot of hams use a hitch receiver for antenna mounting, yours would likely require modifying the bumper cover and you would need a swivel to have access to the trunk.

John

[gull]

I actually considered that. One reason I didn't go with it is because I was afraid being that close to the vertical part of the rear sheet metal would detune the antenna, and possibly even cause the SWR to vary as the antenna swayed. As it is, most of it is "in the clear" except for the top's internal structure. I also wasn't sure where to get a hitch receiver for a Cabriolet.

[Hoppy]

Do you have a radio installed? if so is it perm or mobile? make/model?

- a fellow ham

[gull]

I have an Icom IC-207H. It's mounted in a box that I can put either on the passenger seat or in the rear footwell. In the latter case I use a shaped piece of foam to temporarily mount the display on that little lip below the A/C vents. That way I can take the radio with me when I park the car for the evening -- a permanent install in a convertible would be a magnet for thieves unless really well disguised, I think.

I ran fused 10-ga. power and ground wires from the battery to under the dashboard on the passenger side, where I put a couple of Anderson PowerPole connectors. This makes hooking up the radio pretty quick and easy -- or even someone else's radio, since a lot of people use PowerPoles.

There's also a Radio Shack HTX-101 10 meter SSB radio in the box, but the current lack of sunspots makes it pretty useless so I haven't bothered to come up with an antenna for it.

The 207H is a pretty basic radio but it's served me well. I've had it in five different cars at this point. I find with 50 watts into a 5/8-wave I can work pretty much anything I can hear on 2m FM. I use it a lot for communications work at rallies.