[K3PZN-List] Mobile Antenna Question

[Philip Karras via K3PZN-List]

NIck,
You are very welcome. 73 de KE3FL,
Phil
AEC Carroll County
OES, ORS, & VE
http://cs.yrex.com/ke3fl
Karras' Corner: http://cs.yrex.com/ke3fl/KarrasCorner.htm
      From: Nick Proy (WT3O) <wt3o at proylaw.com>
 To: Philip Karras <ke3fl at yahoo.com> 
Cc: "k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net" <k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net> 
 Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 8:44 PM
 Subject: Re: Mobile Antenna Question
   
Thank you all for your help. I think I will leave the antenna its original length and then bend it if I find I'm having trouble.
Thanks again!
-Nick (WT3O)

Sent from my iPhone


On Jun 17, 2015, at 12:02 PM, Philip Karras <ke3fl at yahoo.com> wrote:


Nick, Try bending it down so that at 9' you have the upper part of the curve. The curve should be from front to back since you will encounter more things driving forward than backwards.
I've done this with my 10, 6, 2, & 70cm four band antenna and had no tuning problems with that so this is the first thing I would try. No lasting damage to anything if it doesn't work.

73 de KE3FL,
Phil
AEC Carroll County
OES, ORS, & VE
http://cs.yrex.com/ke3fl
Karras' Corner: http://cs.yrex.com/ke3fl/KarrasCorner.htm
      From: "k3pzn-list-request at mailman.qth.net" <k3pzn-list-request at mailman.qth.net>

Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 19:15:10 -0400
From: "Nick Proy (WT3O)" <wt3o at proylaw.com>
To: Carroll County Amateur Radio Club <k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [K3PZN-List] Mobile Antenna Question

Good Evening Everyone,

I have a mobile antenna question. I think I know the answer, but I wanted to see if anyone else had any thoughts.

I just got a new F-150 and want to install my FT-857 and ATAS-120 antenna. This year's F-150s are a little taller than previous years. If I put my ATAS-120 on the bed rails via a bed stake pocket mount, the antenna will be about 9 1/2 feet from the ground to the top of the antenna. I'd still like to go through drive thru (banks, fast food, etc...), but most clearances are about 9 feet. I was thinking of cutting off about 8" of the ATAS whip and let the loading coil pick up the difference. I can't imagine 8" would make a huge difference on 20M or 40M (or even VHF with the auto-tuning antenna).

Does anyone see any problems (other than a slight performance decrease) with cutting off a few inches of the whip?

Thanks and 73!

-Nick (WT3O)

Sent from my iPhone

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