Firestik mounted

[trikebubble]

I took advantage of the extra day off yesterday and mounted the Firestik antenna that I had bought for myself as a little birthday gift last month.
I bought the door jamb mount, and had to "coax" an extra angle into it, to fit between the body and the light housing. I also dremelled (is that a word?) a notch out of the light housing to it would go back in flush. I took care not to remove too much material, and expose the inside of the housing at all.
I also bought a quick release, which i have not yet installed. The antenna sticks out a foot above the RTT.

I just need to find somewhere local to get the antenna tuned and then (hopefully) all will be functional.

 

[maktruk]

Just buy an SWR meter. RightChannelRadios has a little guy for about $25.

You'll want it again when you decide on a new location (everyone does)

 

[trikebubble]

Ok. Didn't know I could do it myself. Thanks for the advice

 

[maktruk]

I can also tell you right now, even without the spring you're gonna want at least one tennis ball, maybe two, to save your paint :-)

 

[boehml]

I can also tell you right now, even without the spring you're gonna want at least one tennis ball, maybe two, to save your paint :-)

Paint? What is this paint you speak of?

You shouldn't need to tune much with that mount, or at least that's what happened with my firestick and a similar metal mount.

 

[maktruk]

The mount doesn't have much to do with tuning your SWR, that's all in the length of the stick and ground plane (in this case, ground plane is limited) That's what the tunable tip is for.

 

[boehml]

The mount doesn't have much to do with tuning your SWR, that's all in the length of the stick and ground plane (in this case, ground plane is limited) That's what the tunable tip is for.

Interesting. I was told that the metal on metal from the mount to the tire carrier made my setup easier to tune than a friends metal mount on fiberglass cab.

 

[Explore Maine]

how is it with the wind noise?

 

[trikebubble]

I haven't noticed any significant wind noise, but my roof rack does whistle like the daylights so I'm not sure I'd here it anyways.

 

[Captain Josh]

I have the same mount, but put the screws under the light housing (into the top of the bumper). It holds up well, and didn't require any other coaxing to fit. Love my Firestik!