[Mobile-Portable] Spot welds

[Phil Atchley]

Hi All,

Please excuse all the "Stoopid" questions I've been asking, but within the 
constraints of my budget I want to do this install CORRECTLY.

Today I was crawling around under my '05 Ford F150 "SCREW" pickup, trying to 
see what is involved in "bonding and grounding" this critter, preparatory to 
putting HF in it (and skinned my elbow big time on the concrete driveway 
doing it 8^(

The (screwdriver) antenna will be mounted just over the driver side wheel 
well. Predictably the bed of this critter is comprised of several different 
pieces of sheetmetal. EACH sidewall AND the wheelwell is one piece, the 
floor is another piece, then of course there is the front of the  bed and 
tailgate. I figured on having to bond the sidewalls to the floor with braid 
in several places, which would require sanding the paint etc and leave it 
open to rust and corrosion.

HOWEVER, crawling around under the truck I saw where BOTH the INSIDE 
sidewalls AND the floor have roughly a 3/4-1 inch lip bent down at 90 
degrees running the length of the bed, and where the two sections meet they 
are spot welded together at numerous places.

It SEEMS to me that these spot welds would be AT LEAST as good RF wise as 
bonding with a finite length of braid, possibly better?  They have to be 
strong as it is what holds the bed of the truck together!

Now, I realize that this won't NEGATE the need to bond the pickup bed to the 
cab (rubber bushing mounted), frame, hood to front fenders, firewall etc. 
But it DOES seem like the bed proper (except for tailgate) ahould be 5x5.

Yes, I've given up on the Tuner/102" whip idea and will be going with a 
screwdriver, probably a DK3 as it meets my budget (and I won't be oeprating 
Mobile on a constant basis with constant tuning).

THOUGHTS on these grounding questions?

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73 de Phil,  KO6BB
DX begins at the noise floor!

THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:  http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
QSL GALLERY: http://photobucket.com/albums/y123/KO6BB/
Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh

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