Just installed NMO on my F-250. Awesome mounts!

[KJ4JXE]

I just stopped by a local ham shop that I came across the other day from a recommendation of another Ham.  CT Morgan and associates in Chattanooga (www.ctmorgan.com).

I picked up a Larsen NMO mount that came with 17 feet of coax, and a Larsen NMO2/70 with the coil.

I used an antennex hole saw on the roof of my F-250 and installed the antenna about 4 inches up from the brake light on my truck.  this was about the most sturdy place on the truck as I wanted the surface to be rigid, and there wasnt that many support braces.  
Ran the coax under the headliner and down the drivers side rear pillar behind the plastic.  The I brought the coax under the door sill next to some existing loom so as not to get pinched, then up under the drivers seat where I am going to mount the radio chassis.

I will do my radio install tomorrow, and I plan on mounting my Yaesu 8900R control head on my dash hopefully.

I love NMO mounts, they are easy to install and versatile!

[K0BG]

Yes, and if you did it correctly, it won't leak either.

Alan, KØBG
www.k0bg.com

[KE5JDJ]

I still need to install mine.  I was thinking right by the dome lights.  Were there too many supports in that area?

Thanks
Ken

[K0BG]

Ken, if you remove the dome light, you\'ll be able to tell where the supports are. Typically, the dome light is supported by one, but not always. If you have a service manual for the vehicle in question, most of the time the info you need will be in the manual.

Alan, KØBG
www.k0bg.com

[KK7NF]

Alan,

I've checked your site ... would you happen to have something akin to a tutorial on NMO mounts on the roof? My little Focus does not have a dome light in a convenient location--the AM/FM antenna is right above it and is angled back at the same angle as the windshield, necessitating installing a mount a bit farther back than the center of the roof. I'm rather nervous about messing with the headliner.

I'm also not sure how to find the roof pillars without removing the headliner. Because of how the dome light is mounted up front, popping it off will still not give me a view of where the pillars might be.

[VE3XKD]

Hi

My experience removing the headliner on a Toyota Prius to install an NMO and a re-enforced Breedlove mount for HF is that is a fairly easy job to remove the headliner, if you take your time and remember where you put all the screws and clips taken off for removal :-)) Just be patient when doing it. As I had a lot of work to do I actually drove around without the headliner or interior lights for about two weeks!

I found a description of how to remove the Prius headliner on the web. You may find a similar description for your car if you google it.

Good luck,

VE3XKD

[STEVER]

I guess your don't park the truck in a garage....

[GM0GTU]

I viewed a couple of NMO installations on You-tube and noticed that they didn't remove any paint from the roof panel. How does the NMO mount connect to ground in that case. Surely the edge of the hole won't be sufficient contact?  I may be missing something obvious here, I often do.
NMO mounts don't seem to be used much by amateurs in the UK.

73,    Stewart   GM0GTU

[K0BG]

Stewart, the underneath side of the mount has teeth which bite into the under side of the sheet metal. In some cases, there is a layer of insulation applied to the underneath side of the roof. It does take a little fiddling to clear some of it away, but it can be done.

Alan, KØBG
www.k0bg.com