[Mobile-Portable] Newbie to mobile ops

[Mark Schoonover]

Ed,

	I got the clamp ons from Gateway Electronics. I'm pretty sure they
can be purchased at Mouser, etc. They'll just cost more. I only use 1" braid
on the hood and all the doors. For the bed and the cab, I took some heavy
duty copper flashing, and cut it into 4" wide strips. Much cheaper than 1"
braid, and that will provide a much better ground than braid. Use only
stainless steel screws and washers. I used self tapping sheet metal screws,
with flat and star washers. Grind a clean spot off the frame, drill the
hole, then screw everything in. You can use spray on undercoating, or
silicon sealant. I've used the former with no problems, have had many mobile
vehicles, some over 10 years and when I took them to the junk yard, those
grounds were still clean and shiny. Ground both the cab and the bed in all
four corners as close to the frame as possible. Oh, and tin the copper
flashing where the screws will attach.

	Running your power. You can run the power off the driver side
battery, through the fender, then through the driver side door pillar. If
you open the driver's door, you'll find a rubber plug that you can feed the
power in to the cab. I use 8 ga marine grade power cable, well worth the
extra money. When running your antenna & control cable, you can run that
through the rubber plug at the front of the bed. Follow that down under the
vehicle, you'll find another rubber drain plug under the cab that will bring
you into the cab, under the back seat. There's another hole in the storage
under the seat, you'll have to pull up the carpeting in order to find it,
but it'll easily go back in place once the coax/control cable is run. I then
snaked these cables down the passenger side between the seat and the door
under the carpeting, across the floorboard to the center of the vehicle. The
other option would be to drill another hole beside the antenna mount, put a
grommet in the hole, then you can run all antenna cables cleanly under the
truck and keep it all out of the bed.

	Now, if you plan on installing NMO mounts in the roof, let me know.
There's a few things you need to be aware of, especially if you have those
side curtain airbags.

	Please, whatever you do, do not bumper mount your antenna! I can
tell you from experience, using my Hi Q, do not mount it on the bumper. I
know people will argue this point, but it does matter, and it matters
greatly. You will be disappointed in the performance, and you'll suffer from
more noise than ever. Since you don't have a shell, you can mount the
antenna against the flat spot where the tailgate meets the bed. It'll fit
there very nicely, you'll have a very secure mount, plus you'll have very
little ground losses. You'll need to remove the tail light assembly in order
to bolt through the bed. Ground the antenna right to the bottom of the bed,
then on the underside of the bed, you can run that copper flashing from that
ground bolt, right to the frame. I originally mounted my Hi Q off the bumper
hitch, and it didn't work very well, having an 80M bandwidth of 250 KHz with
the caphat. Now that it's mounted inside the bed, under the shell, my
bandwidth dropped to 80 KHz - much better, and on the air performance has
been noticeably better.

	K0BG has plenty of good general information, but it's always great
to find someone that has your exact model of vehicle that's done an install.

	Remember, have fun, don't be afraid to drill holes. It's not going
to lower the value of the vehicle that much. As soon as you drove it of the
lot, you lost about $5,000! With patience and some elbow grease, you'll end
up with a mobile that will knock people's socks off. Some don't believe I'm
running mobile at all...

	Oh, and send photos! :)

73

Mark
KA6WKE