Roof or front fender for LB base load whip

[apco25]

Finaly, a decision to be made. This is for the 2003 Suburban

At this point as cool as the LB ball and whip is I don't think I'm going to go that route right now.

So that leaves existing NMO mount on the roof or front driver's side fender location.

Other antennas on the roof are cans except for VHF 1/4 wave all black.

Asthetically, which do you guys prefer? I'm leaving rf performance out of this on purpose.

Antenna is Larsen NMO50B (black)

[apco25]

22 views and 3 votes, guess no one cares

[va3wxm]

Ideally, of course, the roof is the best spot. Low-band needs a lot of metal for a good counterpoise.

In the past I've run an NMO27B for chicken band work and it was mounted on the front fender. It seemed to work okay and aesthetically looked better than on the roof.

Expect some skewing of the RF pattern but that may or may not be a concern for you.

[Firebuff66]

The roof is the best. anything else on that truck is going to give you less than good preformance..

Best...Ball and spring on the side of the truck= best range RX & TX

Better. Roof of truck

Good. Trunk (not an option)

Poor fender

[n1pfc]

I end up doing mainly fender mounts mainly for clearance issues. Roof / Trunk would work better and I use that option when it's available. Eventually the L bracket on the fender loosens up and becomes a bad ground. Low band antennas DO NOT work without a ground

Best as stated before is definately the ball mount as you have a full size quarter wave whip, not a shortened one with a loading coil. However most people do not want a huge hole in the side of their vehicle when the antenna is removed

[Pj]

Got the L mount LB on my Burb. Works like a charm, don't even notice it half the time.

Then again, 5 black antennas on a black truck with black mount it kinda all blends in.

A lowband antenna on a roof of these vehicles looks pretty out of place and you also find out just how low certain objects are.

I did have one on top of my old S10 Blazer. That was a good height for it. Any vehicle larger and your asking for trouble.

[apco25]

Even with a black LB whip NMO50B its still too tall on the roof.

I keep debating maybe just stay with the roof mount and put the antenna on only when needed.

I don't mind the ball mount hole, The issues I have is more with the huge size difference to the 1/4 whips and can antennas

LB is pretty low key around here these days with a small amount of activity left (not counting 6m ham BS).

Once the new statewide 700/800 goes online (no where near completion) low band is supposed to be just about dead. Dumb move if you ask me. Ohio, and Indiana have both kept their LB system after their 800 digital smartzone systems went online.

[n1pfc]

Even with a black LB whip NMO50B its still too tall on the roof.

I keep debating maybe just stay with the roof mount and put it the antenna on only when needed.

I don't mind the ball mount hole, its more so the huge size difference to the 1/4 whips and can antennas

LB is pretty low key around here these days with a small amount of activity left (not counting 6m ham BS).

Once the new statewide 700/800 goes online (no where near completion) low band is supposed to be just about dead. Dumb move if you ask me. Ohio, and Indiana have both kept their LB system after their 800 digital smartzone systems went online.

In Massachusetts the State Police primarily use their 800MHz trunking system. But if you're in the western part of the state they primarily still use low band as there isn't much coverage for their 800MHz trunk out there. All the cars still have low band radios in them though, just in case things break.

Kurt

[apco25]

Yes Plenty of states have kept LB.

As for the antenna I have no I idea what I'll finally decide on.

[irsa]

For some reason it's not letting me vote.
Personally I prefer no antennas on the front fenders. Probably due to having a 1500mm fiberglass 27MHz CB whip on a spring on the passenger side fender on my old Mazda. It drove me nuts seeing it swaying around, to the point I was about to drill the roof until I totaled the car. And that's not taking into account roof mounts work so much better.

[KB2ZTX]

Yup, Agree on everything said already, even work for a radio shop, but in the long run...the SuperDuty wont fit in the garage with a big antenna on the roof, so its on a fender mount. We are all lowband and I have never had issues with it.

JAS

[007]

You weiner! Drill the holes and install the ball mount!

Go with the fender mount. I just installed a Spectra in the Xploder you saw last month, and put a "L" bracket and VHF 1/4w on the fender. I thought it was going to suck, but it actually looks decent and performs rather well.