[NLRS] Looking for Mounting Help

[Jon Platt]

Hi Scott
You've been getting a lot of good input.  As you can see, rover designs are a bit like snow flakes, no two are alike.
In a very general way, rover designs tend to fall into one of two categories; run & gun or stop & shoot.  Run & gun rovers find a way to attach their antennas to the car/truck so that they can be used either on the go and/or with no or very minimal setup time when stop.  These are typically short mounts (12' high or less) using a roof rack or trailer hitch mount.  There are lots of examples on the Internet if you Google "VHF rover setup" ... look at the images.  Stop & shoot usually means that you cannot operate without setting up, usually with 10 to 20 feet of mast that may get assembled when stopped, then mount your antennas, then walk the mast vertical and secure it to the car's roof rack with the based pinned in some way.  If you do this be aware that the car will rock when you get in and out so you need to design the roof rack mount to float a bit with the vertical mast .... perhaps just slightly loosened U-bolts.  
Stop & shoot is how I started roving and is usually the easiest in terms of system design.  We all typically route the coax into the car through a window and use a pool noodle, or foam pipe insulation, that is slit and fits along the top of the glass window to help seal it off from rain and mosquitoes.  
Whatever you design, make sure that its road safe.  You do not want to see any antenna mount come off at 70 mph.  
For DC power, I myself use the car battery.  I route #10 wire directly from the battery, both positive and negative with both fused at the battery, through the fire wall and into the car.  All my power connectors on all my radios use PowerPole connectors, I recommend them.  I don't operate for long without running the car engine, or I just leave it running.  Others use small generators.  A secondary deep cycle may be another consideration but keep in mind voltage sag as most of these radios like at least 12 vdc or better.  Because of this some rovers use a 12vdc power booster to maintain 13.8 vdc for the radio ... I think MFJ is now making one good for 25 amps.  
Good luck with your roving endeavors, there is lots of help available here so don't hesitate to ask.   
73, JonW0ZQ