You would think that this would be an easy thing to so. Well...it is if you have the correct antenna mount.
At the local hamfest, my son bought a mobile antenna that is a good match for his Yaesu VX-6R HT. It covers 2m/220/440 and has a PL-259 connector. I had a trunk lip mount. The only place that we could make it fit (with some disassembly) was at the top of the back hatch. When we finally got it in their without scratching up his jeep, we ran into another issue. The set screws only landed on the metal lip (where it can be grounded and a strong hold for the mount) to where they would not connect and dig into the metal. The designers of these vehicles never think about hams when they make cars.
Our solution was to get a magnetic mount even though we wanted to avoid that. I had one but, it was an NMO mount. So, we had to order one with a SO-239 on it. It matches very well on all three bands and even gives reasonable coverage on 220 MHz where the HT output is 1.5 watts max. It will work for those bands when he upgrades to a mobile rig. We may have to drill holes to mount an ATAS-120A screwdriver antenna. I plan to give him one of my YAESU 857D's that has the controller for that antenna.
At the local hamfest, my son bought a mobile antenna that is a good match for his Yaesu VX-6R HT. It covers 2m/220/440 and has a PL-259 connector. I had a trunk lip mount. The only place that we could make it fit (with some disassembly) was at the top of the back hatch. When we finally got it in their without scratching up his jeep, we ran into another issue. The set screws only landed on the metal lip (where it can be grounded and a strong hold for the mount) to where they would not connect and dig into the metal. The designers of these vehicles never think about hams when they make cars.
Our solution was to get a magnetic mount even though we wanted to avoid that. I had one but, it was an NMO mount. So, we had to order one with a SO-239 on it. It matches very well on all three bands and even gives reasonable coverage on 220 MHz where the HT output is 1.5 watts max. It will work for those bands when he upgrades to a mobile rig. We may have to drill holes to mount an ATAS-120A screwdriver antenna. I plan to give him one of my YAESU 857D's that has the controller for that antenna.
