99Hockey

Would putting the antenna on the front bumper, at the very least, do a better job than putting it between the rear bumper and tail gate? KOR sells a light bar that has a tab for a CB antenna. Throw that bar on the front bumper, and you would theoretically have decent performance, and not have to worry about damaging the antenna, correct?

JKbender

A front bumper antenna is more exposed to trees than the rear mount. Also, depending on how high the mount position is, mounting to the front bumper puts the motor between the antenna and any signal from behind. The motor is a much larger source for interference than a spare.

realjeep

The motor corner is still better then the rear tire space. You might even better performance form the front then the back corner.

Jamantste

I know this topic has been beat to death but I wanted to pose a couple of more questions for clarification. I am a new tech so alot of the technical tutorials/websites are slightly over my head. I think I have some basics down but here is where I am still lost.....

SWR meter. I don't have one and I am wondering if I should. I have a 7900 and Comet SS460SB located behind the spare. If I measured the SWR and it is poor, how could I improve it? The antenna can't be tuned and i'm not moving the antenna. I know the antenna location is not optimal but that is really my only option at this point. The only other thing I can think of is bonding but I have been told that it really does not affect vhf/uhf antenna signal. And I don't think that affects SWR, right? Is there any truth to that?

With the antenna staying in its current location is there anything else that can be done to enhance the performance. Again, all I can think of is bonding. I also do not have a separate grounding wire from the mount to the gate. From what I understand that would be more of a dc ground and not RF... but that statement could prove how confused I really am!!!

Any tips to improve the signal would be greatly appreciated. I currently cannot hit a repeater from my house (may be impossible) and I can't find anyone on simplex nearby. I have used a repeater from about 25 or so miles so I know it gets out ok. I am just wanting to make sure that it is working at its best given the current setup.

Thanks to everyone for sharing the knowledge!

realjeep

You don’t need to by a SWR Meter for that antenna as its not tunable. In fact most all Dual Band antennas are pre-tuned anyway. So you need to make sure that you don’t have any shorts in your coax or connector. Unscrew the antenna and check for shorts with a voltmeter that has a mode that when the leads touch it make a sound. Make sure that the shield is not shorted to the center pin. Now for ham band you have the antenna in the worst possible place (sorry). So you will have to live with its limited range. Now that will very, if your talking to a repeater it will probable work fine, but not long distances on simplex. If you can ground the base to the chassis then that will help. Warning though if you are a long talker like 2 or 3 min each transmission for say an hour at a time look into moving that antenna. Otherwise over time (year or two) you will prematurely ware out the radio.

Good luck hope that helps.

Jamantste

All of that makes sense. Thanks for the response!

steve987

Naturally I wanted to do my research before installing my new CB in my 07 Rubicon. I found this thread to be the best offered anywhere. But I also wondered why this excellent advise was being offered on the JK Forum. So I continued hand-wringing for 3 days.
Then I stumbled on this
AUJ1 Stainless Steel Fender Mount for 2007 and Newer Wrangler Jeeps.

I bought mine at AUJ1 Stainless Steel CB Antenna Fender Mount for 2007 Wrangler Jeeps

I'll let you know how it works. Newbe Steve987

realjeep

That looks nice; it also seems to have an extra ground screw in the middle of the mount?

Sahara Lee

Where do you mount a fender mount? On the fender? I guess that's why there is a separate ground screw. You will definitely need to run a good ground wire back to the frame unless you use a groundless antenna.

jk-john

Been a while since my last post and I've been experimenting with different mounts. Currently I'm using the KC light brackets that go on the windshield frame and have 146/440 and 220 antennas mounted. They work OK and swr is acceptable. I did want to share one important finding. Using a field strength meter, I noticed large amouts of RF exposure about head high in the front seats. Since most amateurs run 50 watt mobiles and the higher the frequency, the more damaging the RF is to humans, I've decided to run low power, which still works quite well into local repeaters and 5 watts is plently on the trail. I do not have the equipment to calculate the actual exposure. If I did, there are published exposure limits. Just wanted to share these findings. I'm gonna start looking at mounting something on the back and run similar tests. Will share results with the group. 73