What are you all doing for antennas on your 2nd gens? I currently have a 3f fiberglass on a fender mount and the best i can get the swr is 2.8 on 1 and 40, so i need to run a different antenna. had a 4foot stainless steel one and couldnt get the swr out of the 3s so any ideas? pictures are cool.

Thanks

oh btw heres my truck

 

Honestly I would suggest an antenna with a tuneable tip to get the SWR in range. I tell EVERYONE ~ YOU can use most any radio ~ majority have the same power; HOWEVER spend the $ on a really GOOD ANTENNA.

 

i forgot to mention in my first post it has a tuneable tip. I throw a wilson 1000 mag mount on the roof and can get almost perfect swr like 1.3 or 1.4. i would run that but its honestly WAY to tall

 

I had a K30 mag mount on the roof. It worked great till I had an incident and broke it. I plan on throwing a Wilson 5000 mag mount on the roof soon

 

I have a wilson "little wil" 36" magnet antenna, and get really great reception. I had different ones before this one, and they didnt even come close.

 

EEk! I stay away from mag mounts. Last thing I need is something to scratch up my paint when I hit a low branch. That's why I went with the glass mount for my scanner. I'm upgrading my scanner antenna soon and I will be going with a hood mount.

 

I had the k30 on my roof for a couple years and there's no scraches. Only thing it left was sticky stuff from the glue that holds the mag cover on. I was kinda surprised but my roof looks fine

 

Veeeeeery interesting. I've seen some cars destroyed by magnet mounted antennas. Plus I prefer more permanent means of installing things. The wire running across the roof into the truck would annoy me. I'll be getting an Austin Spectre antenna and a hood mount like the OP's. It's supposed to be an amazing antenna. A guy on my town's ambulance corps said he was 200 miles away in New Hampshire and he could hear our dispatcher talking on our low band frequency using that antenna.

Eventually way down the road (when I have the $$$) I'm going to be buying a digital trunking scanner that can support APCO Project 25 digital 800mhz freqs. I'll be piggybacking it with analog scanner so i'll have two scanners. One for analog frequencies and one for the digital 800mhz frequencies, since alot of our state is switching to it. For the antennas I'll be getting a back rack with dual antenna mounts. I'll mount the Austin Spectre multiband antenna and a Digital 800mhz specific antenna on the back rack. I think it will look pretty awesome.

Example:



I love being a radio nerd!

 

My edge bar harness caused more damage then the ant did. I just want it up high and away from the rest of them. I figure the higher up it is the farther it's getting out. That's my theory anyway not sure if it's really working or not

 

It's not necessarily how high up it is when it comes to vehicles. The difference between the hood and the top of the cab won't make much of a difference. It's all about having a good plane. The center of the roof or on the trunk lid of a sedan are probably the best places to mount an antenna since there is a large surface area to "catch" radio waves. That's why magnet mounts are great antennas reception wise. It's another reason I'm getting the hood mount and eventually the back rack. While it's not the center of a plane, there still is enough surface area near it to work effectively. What I wouldn't do is put the antenna low in the truck, like below the bedrails, or running up against the back of the cab. While it will still work and look cool, you'd really be cutting down on your reception and your transmit range, especially at such low frequencies like the citizens band.