Electrical folding mount on a luggage rack.

[K5AD]

I'd like to mount a quad band (70, 2, 6, 10m) antenna on the roof rack of my SUV.  Due to the height of 55" on top of the 75" ht of the SUV I need some sort of folding mount.

The Diamond K9000 mt. caught my eye (or the Comet equivalent).  I wonder if it would be too high to allow adequate ground plane coupling.  I called Diamond and they didn't know if it would work "try it and see."

It looks like the mount on a roof rack would put the antenna about 4 to 6 inches off the roof.  Do you think this is too high to allow adequate coupling at 2 and 70cm?  I suppose I can make a mount to drop it lower if necessary.  Unfortunately, the roof rack is a lot higher than typical (it came with a options package that I wanted); wish I had the standard model which is 3 inches closer to the roof.  Putting the mount low and inside the front of the rack might be pretty slick - when it's folded it could be completely hidden withing the rack - a real stealth set up.

 Anyone have experience using one of the electric mounts on a roof rack?

73,
 Joe, K5AD

[K0BG]

It depends on your level of satisfaction. Mounting it on a bracket attached to the luggage rack is obviously lossier than a decent ballmount, but apparently you're trying not to drill holes.

Based on the fact you've chosen a rather short 4 bander, the difference in performance will be very slight due to the I2R losses in the antenna.

Alan, KØBG
www.k0bg.com

[N2IK]

Beware of the adaquacy of the Diamond 9000 to handle a 4 band antenna with the stingers and coils up high such as the UHV4 and similar others. I was advised by Diamond and Maldol that the mounts would not stand up to that load. I was forced to use a lip mount down lower and only mount the 4 band antenna when using 6 or 10. I was able to find a location where a 6BB5 38 inch long 2/70 cm antenna would fit into my parking garage.

n2ik