Where should I put other antennas with HF autotune on bullbar?

G'day Sam,

Have heard that the Bull Bar is not a good place for HF Radios from a HF place in Canning Vale. One reason being for damage and the other to do with some ground plain or some lingo that they use. They reckon its ideally located higher on the vehicle, and the rear wheel carrier (or similar mount) is a good option, with half of the large round piece of the modern aerials just below the roof line and half of this above.

I can only agree with what they say, as I am no expert.

There will be some other members that reply with some good ideas I am sure.

Good Luck.

Brett....

put it on the side of the bonnet....can get the bases to go there....the further all teh antennas are apart the less interference you will get...

Be aware that in most states it is illegal to mount a autotune HF antenna on the front of the vehicle. In Vic especially you will get booked if noticed.
If mounting at the rear the top half of the antenna must be above the roof line for best propagation and tuning.
Funnily enough we also had occasional problems when they were mounted close to the spare tyre due to the steel belts being a large insulated steel ring which mucked up the tuning.
There is usually no problem mounting tapped whips on the front.
Wherever you mount it ensure that the mounting and bullbar, door/whatever has a very good ground connection to the chassis.
Bullbars and rear doors are quite often not grounded well enough for an autotune antenna.

I agree the antenna should be mounted on the rear of the vehicle.

Brackets can be purchased that fit most popular 4WDs. They usually use the same holes on the door used by the wheel mounts.

Make sure you earth the the rear door properly by using some copper braid across a door hinge or use the antenna earth direct to the vehicle body.

Cheers

How many frequencies (Channels) do you intend to use??

hi sam
i would say that your vhf are 2mtr and fire??
i run uhf x 2 and hf auto tune on front bull bar with no interference,
but under road law the size of hf auto tune if too large for the front,
kevin

as stated above, I think you'll find there are legalities involved with where you can mount a HF radio antenna.
Also (as stated above also) if you mount it on the rear, you really should have the autotune higher than your roof line for best use. It becomes a bugger to get it into car parks etc, but if you need to call for help from the desert, you'll be very happy you had it fitted properly!

;-))


Cheers

Brian