Truck bed beam

[726roN]

I have a 2007 frontier with the 6.1' bed and I am thinking of setting up a two antenna beam in the bed. I currently use the 5' Firestik 2 elevated above my roof line with a riser with about 1.2:1 Swr. Is it possible to set another Firestik on the rear bumper with the same riser to create a beam array? Do I ground that riser to the same ground or leave it ungrounded?

 

[DJboutit]

2 antenna setup is a cophase setup I think you want to run a dual hot setup and they need be a min of 48" apart 60" would work much better

 

[midnight special]

are you looking for a cophase setup or a beam set up like at the keydowns competitions?

 

[726roN]

are you looking for a cophase setup or a beam set up like at the keydowns competitions?

I'm looking for a competition beam setup. Well mostly to just park and shoot over the big pond to the states [from hawaii].

 

[726roN]

2 antenna setup is a cophase setup I think you want to run a dual hot setup and they need be a min of 48" apart 60" would work much better

Yeah not cophased but competition beam to shoot skip from Hawaii.

 

[222DBFL]

Why not just get one good antenna and get rid of the 5ft firestick? Try a 102" whip with a riser or a sirio 5000 performer. Use a good hard mount like a Breedlove or Gunny Puck and you'll no doubt be better off IMO. Place the antenna just rear of center, this is where having a good mag mount helps, as you can locate the best position for the antenna on the roof. If not either center or back from center leaving approx. 1ft behind the antenna might tune better than dead center. You are wasting your time with 2 5ft antennas and if you really want to get into parking and using the mobile
to get out, look into a base antenna mounted to 2 10ft 1" pipes. Something like an IMAX 2000 or similar will work, a base antenna. Or get a taller antenna on the roof of your vehicle and you'll see a difference just by doing that. JMHO. Good day sir.

 

[DainBramage]

heck, just get a flat bed trailer, mount a real antenna system on it and tow it to the hilltops.

 

[space cowboy]

a 102" off the rear (or front) bumper will give you a noticeable directionality towards the truck body. I've never had beams to compare, but I would get a lot of abuse during radio checks because they didn't get that when my car was pointed away from them their signal would drop a good 4#-6#.
good while parked, but it made DX difficult when skip comes in from the rear while you're driving.

 

[M0GVZ]

I have a 2007 frontier with the 6.1' bed and I am thinking of setting up a two antenna beam in the bed. I currently use the 5' Firestik 2 elevated above my roof line with a riser with about 1.2:1 Swr. Is it possible to set another Firestik on the rear bumper with the same riser to create a beam array? Do I ground that riser to the same ground or leave it ungrounded?

Well for a start you've got a very lossy install because those risers effectively mean no ground plane even though it measures a good connection with a multimeter. A rear bumper mount is even more inefficient.

Secondly the bed isn't long enough. For cophasing you need a 1/4 wave between the antennas so you'd need 9ft between them.

Finally

Read this: http://k0bg.com/ground.html and this: http://k0bg.com/eff.html

Mount your antenna using best advice from here: http://k0bg.com/antmount.html

and then do lots of this: http://k0bg.com/bonding.html

You'll then have an antenna system using a single antenna which will massively outperform what you were planning to do.

I can heartily recommend Breedlove Antenna Mounts. They'll outlive the vehicle. You will have to drill holes though.

 

[222DBFL]

Man no kidding on he Breedlove mounts just saw a new 3" one hole mount with all the adapters and it was very nicely built with quality parts.

 

[726roN]

Well for a start you've got a very lossy install because those risers effectively mean no ground plane even though it measures a good connection with a multimeter. A rear bumper mount is even more inefficient.

Secondly the bed isn't long enough. For cophasing you need a 1/4 wave between the antennas so you'd need 9ft between them.

Finally

Read this: http://k0bg.com/ground.html and this: http://k0bg.com/eff.html

Mount your antenna using best advice from here: http://k0bg.com/antmount.html

and then do lots of this: http://k0bg.com/bonding.html

You'll then have an antenna system using a single antenna which will massively outperform what you were planning to do.

I can heartily recommend Breedlove Antenna Mounts. They'll outlive the vehicle. You will have to drill holes though.

Why would that mean no ground plane? If I have my riser grounded to my chassis what does it matter?

And for the second time im not cophasing the two antennas. There's only gonna be one hot antenna in this setup with the second in the rear to block the backdoor so I dont need 9 ft.....I only need between 6 and 7.

 

[Hivelocity]

Well for a start you've got a very lossy install because those risers effectively mean no ground plane even though it measures a good connection with a multimeter. A rear bumper mount is even more inefficient.

Secondly the bed isn't long enough. For cophasing you need a 1/4 wave between the antennas so you'd need 9ft between them.

Finally

Read this: http://k0bg.com/ground.html and this: http://k0bg.com/eff.html

Mount your antenna using best advice from here: http://k0bg.com/antmount.html

and then do lots of this: http://k0bg.com/bonding.html

You'll then have an antenna system using a single antenna which will massively outperform what you were planning to do.

I can heartily recommend Breedlove Antenna Mounts. They'll outlive the vehicle. You will have to drill holes though.

Proper spacing for two sticks

Why would that mean no ground plane? If I have my riser grounded to my chassis what does it matter?

And for the second time im not cophasing the two antennas. There's only gonna be one hot antenna in this setup with the second in the rear to block the backdoor so I dont need 9 ft.....I only need between 6 and 7.

72 inches will give you the most gain on a two stick setup .

 

[Blackcat630]

Why would that mean no ground plane? If I have my riser grounded to my chassis what does it matter?

With your stick on a riser, even at roof level, it doesn't truly "see" your metal roof as its ground plane or counterpoise. Nothing beats just getting out the drill and properly mounting your antenna on the roof.

 

[Blackcat630]

And while your at it...ditch the fire stick and get a sirio 5000...think this was already covered earlier

 

[222DBFL]

Yep. Had my local bud just order a Breedlove 3" one hole mount with all the adapters for nmo and 3/8 x24 threads. Sweet mount. And he also ordered a sirio 5000 performer. Going on top of a Ford E350 xlt super duty work van. Got lots of roof up there!! Going to be a nice setup when done.