I did the cowl mount myself. I don't like how narrow it is so I'm going to make one that's wider and more triangle shaped for strength to support the 4' firestik.





I had a ground issue at first.



Not an issue now.

 

Looks nice, i just ordered the Cool Tech license plate mount. Will update if i remember.

 

My new and improved mount.







Checked my SWR and I think I'm a little better than before.

Channel 1 the needle barely moves. 19: 1.1 but when I get to 30 it starts to spike. with a 1.9 on channel 40.

What really sucks is when I was tuning it I had about a 1.4 on 40 but I had to get just that little bit more out of it. Should have left it at that. But instead I had to "lengthen" it and start over.

 

Now let me ask this because I am about ready to hook up my radio

I was thinking of running the coax up alone the roll bar down into the far left side of my steel bumper ( right by the license plate) and mount my 3ft fire stick there

Now do I have to clear away the powder coat For the mount and if so can i bedline that area afterwards

and do I need to run a ground wire

 

Guys, 1.9:1 SWR is NOTHING. In my amateur radio pursuits, I regularly work the world through antenna loads which exceed 10:1. The rule is "Get your SWR as low as possible." It is possible to obsess over this, endlessly chasing 1:1. Forget it. It's needless. If you can get the SWR below 2:1 over the entire set of CB frequencies, you're doing very well indeed. With these marginal antenna systems - most vehicle systems are, because of excessively short antennas, poor HF RF ground, etc. - SWR is the least of your worries. Hell, with these installations SWR will change as you drive around; you won't even notice!

I'm not telling you not to worry at all about SWR. I'm just saying that in the grand scheme of things it's just one measurement of what your total radio system is doing. Stop obsessing over it.

Cheers,

Bob

 

That's what I thought. I read 2 was satisfactory. Once I got my readings back low, I just left it at that.

 

One can see in the previous posting of the custom cowl mount the he stripped away paint to get a better ground and that’s exactly what one needs to do around your bumper mount. Just enough to make contact with your antennas bolt.

 

So I just couldn't bring myself to drilling into the sheet metal of my jeep. So I got creative with a mirror bracket, a piece of light steel, some black paint, and a lot of hardware. Everything on the outside is doubled inside for strength and rigidity. I included my heavy duty spring and quick release for a base leaving only 3~4" inches of antenna even with the tub of the jeep. SWR is 1.2 on channels 8-40 and 1.4 or so on channels 1-7.

 

Can we see some of these cowl mounts including pictures of the jeep from a distance with the type of antenna used. I would like to see what antennas people are mounting up front and what the jeeps look like!

 

From instagram