Duane and the group,
I too, have had plastic lower body of car and no bumper thwart normal mobile
mountings. However, Hal Henegar, W5MDL came up with a good screwdriver mount
for his minivan. He fabricated a custom curved bracket to go up under the
fender well, and attach to the frame or unibody. It comes out horizontal at
the top of the well, as a platform sticking out to the side of the car, but ho
more than the rear view mirror, and this platform mounts the base of a bug
catcher, or in his case, a screwdriver antenna he makes.
The same idea could be done with a trailer hitch mounted to the rear of my
car, but I had the rear ending experience on a van with mount out the bumper.
Thus, I settled on a deck mount with a heavy duty Comet or similar Japanese
brand trunk lid mount base for an Outbacker. I take the Outbacker off when
not desiring to mobile and highway drive, and when parking in unsecured areas.
The bayonet twist lock adapter is a good thing to have for such.
I heartily suggest the addition to the antenna ground side at base of quarter
wave hook up wire "radials" strung under/thru the car frame. Even some 1/8
radials would be better than the doubtful RF quality car bodies of today.
73, Stuart K5KVH
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