I've always held strongly to the belief that the best place for any antenna is up high and in the clear. The holds true for mobile as well as fixed station operation. For a number of years I operated mobile HF with a Hustler antenna up on top, starting back in the very early '80s, traveling throughout Texas and Oklahoma with a ball mount on a bracket just behind the cab of a pickup truck. The mount was placed in the center and on the front edge of an aluminum camper shell. The whole thing was very much in the center of the vehicle and over just about as good a ground plane as you're going to get with a car. The resonators were: a 'kilowatt' version for 40; a standard (low power) version for 15; and a hacked up 11 meter one on 10. The mast was the standard length (about 5 feet) Hustler fold-over. With the 40 meter resonator on, I had to be careful going under 14 foot clearance overpasses! The radio in use was an Atlas 210-X running about 100 watts out.

Results were gratifying. This was high up the curve in the previous sun spot cycle, so bands such as 10 and 15 were open just about all the time (well at least all day), and with a modest station, good contacts could be made.  I always received good signal reports and worked a fair number of DX as well as North American stations. I had very good reports on 40, often compared very favorably against some 'Texas Bug Catcher' type antennas.

For the next several years I did no mobile operation. My business travels were mostly by air. It was not until 1997 that I bought a new Icom 706 and mounted it in my company car; a Ford Taurus. Now... where was I going to put an antenna?

A bumper mount was out of the question. Mounting would be more difficult, and I had years earlier, tried bumper mount operation. The results were less than gratifying. I bought a new Hustler mast (the non-folding version) and a LARGE magnet mount to put on the roof. This particular mount was made in a "H" shape with four 4" magnet pads. I had to modify the pad mounts just a bit to allow them some 'swivel' so they would lay flat against the roof.  I don't believe there are any flat surfaces or straight lines anywhere on the Taurus!

The radio was mounted in the trunk and the control head attached with a Velcro strip to the dashboard. I was off and running for some good 40 meter H.F. mobiling! Remember, 10 and 15 were still rarely open for very long at a time.

That setup worked OK until at 75 mph on the Oklahoma Turnpike (yes, that's the legal limit there), the whole thing blew off the roof. The mount was destroyed but the resonator and mast suffered minimal damage. The coax did not break and I got the car stopped before the antenna had been bounced against the pavement too much.

A ham I know runs helical wound, black, mono band whips (his are Ham Sticks) on a 3 point magnet mount on top of his mini van. He has a separate antenna for each band and uses quick disconnects to change or remove them. He seems happy with the results. I decided that perhaps running a coffee can on the top of a broomstick thick pole on top of the car at highway speeds was just a bit too much nowadays. I bought one of the helical wound antennas for 40 meters and a brand new 3 point magnet mount. This time the pads were about 5" in diameter. That should surely hold up!

Now another problem haunted me. Feed point impedance mismatch caused a higher than ideal SWR within the resonance curve. To solve that problem, my friend runs a small matching coil with a tap at the base of the antenna. It's mounted on the mag. mount. With the Hustler, I had not needed a matching device with the exception of when it was bumper mounted.

Also, how was I going to deal with the problem of quick disconnects? Was I going to have to buy a complete set for each antenna? My car sits on the street at night and I did not relish the thought of the antenna being stolen, or overly advertising the presence of a radio in the car. Besides, airport and other parking garages... well, you know... I needed to be able to break everything down quickly and store it in the trunk.

With the new antenna in place atop the Taurus, I read about 1.6:1 at resonance. The Hustler had read no higher than about 1.1:1. Now I fully acknowledge that from a performance standpoint, the difference between those two values is nil, but the total bandwidth of the resonator being as narrow as it is, especially on 40, that would certainly cut down the distance between the two 2:1 points. And with a solid state rig, well...

It turned out to be a mute point anyhow. The first trip out, by the time I got to about 55 mph, the whole thing blew off the roof. So much for the idea of running a magnet mount on the roof of a late model Taurus. Apparently there's not enough steel in the metal to really grip the magnets. Once again the brand new magnet mount was destroyed. Magnet pads have a way of shattering and flying all over when hitting a hard surface real hard! Thank God, the shrapnel never hit another car!

I built a bracket from the remains of one of the magnet mounts and attached it with small bolts and nuts into the trunk groove on the right side of the vehicle. This put the base of the antenna about level in height with the bottom of the rear window. The coax was fed into the groove and through a small hole drilled down inside the groove. The two bolt holes are also down inside the groove. There are no marks on the outside of the car. If the bracket is to be removed, it will only be necessary to patch the very small holes down under the trunk lid, in the groove. I placed foam pads underneath the two vertical portions of the bracket to protect the paint. (I will be happy to provide further details of the bracket to anyone interested.) The top of the bracket sits horizontally and in line with the trunk groove. The antenna mount with the base of the quick disconnect is in the center of it.

The first antenna tried on the new bracket was the helical monobander for 40. The SWR at resonance was almost 2:1! An impedance matching device would be needed if I were to use this one. I tried the Hustler. The SWR was almost 1:1. That made my antenna choice easy. No matching device needed. Only one quick disconnect needed, for the one mast. I promptly bought a new resonator for 17 and one (the high power version) for 10.

Results have been great! Due to current band conditions, most of my operation has been on 17. I get outstanding reports for a mobile, even some comments tongue-in-cheek questioning my mobile status. Its very good for my ego to hear a DX station call CQ, call him along with other stations, and have him come back on my first call. That has happened more than a few times. It's also reassuring to know that the antenna is not going to blow off the car at higher highway speeds even with the large 40 meter resonator. The bracket has presented no problems through car washes either.

I've had numerous discussions concerning mobile operation and choice of antennas on the air. There are a lot of very good choices possible. I believe they all have merit under the right conditions. Very large antennas such as the Bug Catcher, or the various 'Screw Driver' types certainly give their owners good performance. There is much to be said for being able to change bands or tune within a band from within the vehicle. Antennas of this sort are not inexpensive though. One must also consider the vehicle and all mounting possibilities. On the newer cars without 'real' bumpers, mounting such large antennas creates some challenges. I doubt that my bracket would support either one. I suspect that there are operators out there who will swear by the thin, helical wound monobanders. I simply know the experiences I've had over the years with the Hustler mounted up high. Band width, though not great on bands such as 40, with the large version resonator proved to be about the same as the helical. My friend who runs that antenna attests to the same bandwidth claim. With car manufacturers striving for lighter, yet strong bodies, I suspect that there will be less and less steel present in the future, making it harder to use magnet mounts of any sort. I can still mount base loaded mag. mount antennas for 6 or 2 on the roof. Not on the trunk lid however. That must be solid aluminum or even plastic.

I added a MFJ 259-B Antenna Analyzer to the test equipment collection. Checking out the performance tuning of the Hustler setup has shown the feed point impedance to be very close to 50 ohms with minimal reactance. I do not recall the exact amount. Resonant SWR on all bands is at or close to 1:1, and bandwidth is pretty much as listed by Hustler for the individual resonators.

Update 2003: This piece was first written back about 1998. Since then, I have done very little mobile work and have not had the described mobile antenna system installed. This is due to current job conditions affecting my traveling. Whether this will change in the future and allow a return to active mobile operation I do not know. I also hope to add some illustrations showing the mounting system.