I am interested in putting a CB in my 1993 2-door EB Explorer. I am trying to figure out the best way to mount the antenna. What I don't want to do is drill a hole in my roof or put a week magnetic mount on. I have been interested in doing this but did not know anybody who had actually mounted an antenna on an Explorer. Then I found this site. I am sure many of you have CB's on your Explorers. What I would like to do is have dual whips coming off the rear bumber that does not interfere with the opening of the back gate. Has anybody done this? Please give me advice. My second choice for mounting the antenna is a single on the luggage rack. I have noticed in pictures that this can be done. If there is a manufactured mount for this please tell me where you got yours. I am guessing that there is not one out there. My last resort will be a hood mount opposite the radio antenna. I know I am not the first Explorer owner to encounter this problem and if anybody can help me you guys can.

TTURedRaider,
I took the less conventional path with the CB antenna mount: I went to RAdio Trash (shack http://www.4x4central.com/ubb/wink.gif) and bought a combination antenna (am-fm-cb). I have gone on many trips with 4wheelers using my CB, and I've never had any problems with range or reception. And this antenna is a pretty chrome replacement of the factory one, having the same length. Sure, some guys are gonna say to get the standard J http://www.4x4central.com/ubb/smile.gif http://www.4x4central.com/ubb/smile.gifP versions, but I liked the idea it is stealth, and nobody HAS to know I got a CB! And where to mount the typical version?
Good Luck!

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"Don't go where the road don't go." -Ringo Starr

Wil - '92 EB

TTURedRaider,

I have a Hustler mag mount on the roof. It works very well. This is hooked to a Midland CB, with NOAA Weather.

Initially, I mounted a 6' fiberglass whip to the rear bumper, on the outside edge to not interfere with opening the hatch. It worked great, when the vehicle wasn't running. The antenna had an excellent ground, which recieved the RFI noise from the fuel pump very well. The backround noise was irritating, I had to turn up the squelch fairly high just to drown it out. Ford has a service bulletin on this very problem, # 9117-5.

To take the easy road out, I went with the mag mount Hustler antenna. The mag mount isn't a perfect ground, it is a capacitive coupling. This negates much of the irritating RFI noise. The antenna cost me $18 at a CB shop. It has a spring mounted whip, which comes in real handy when wheeling under low hanging branches. Havn't broke it yet.

If you're looking for long range performance on the highway, my set-up is hard to beat. For close in rig to rig communication, just about anything will do.



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DOGMAN
91 4dr 5sp
5.5" Superlift
"Downhill is just uphill in the opposite direction"

Radio Shack has a glass mount CB antenna that you could purchase. It runs about 30 bucks and looks like a cellular phone antenna. If you decided to get this, I would suggest that you mount it on the the rear hatch window... I mounted mine on the side and the next day if flew off at about 80 mph http://www.4x4central.com/ubb/eek.gif. Good luck in your quest for an antenna.

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Norman B.
97 Mountaineer 5.0 V8
K&N Airfilter-Modified Airbox with homemade Ram Air
BOSCH PLATINUM +4's
More to Come Before Summer :)

Although I have not tried it yet, it looks like I could follow the third brake light harness into the tailgate and come out of the lower corner of the third brake light. And mount the antenna on my roof rack. Take yours to the luggage rack. (Slight mod to the brake light housing and lense) But after reading roadkills post I might go that route as it is obviously much easier.

Best regards.
hg




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'91 EB, 4dr, 2wd

Welcome to this site. There is Ham Radio and CB forum on this site. You can use the search feature to look for "antenna" to review several posts on this subject over the last year or longer.

Ditto Dogman; I have a mag mount Lil'Wil and no problem with range or reception. A ground mount will drive you nuts with the fuel pump interference. And I must disagree on the glass mount suggestion. I've tried two on two different vehicles. They receive ok but are absolutely worthless for transmitting. You can yell farther than they get out.

Hope this helps.

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Gerald
"Nerves of Steel; Brain of Chipmunk"
~~~~~~~~~
'99 Eddie Bauer 4x4 4.0L SOHC aka "The Jeepeater"
Mods listed in my Explorer Registry post 7/8/99
http://www.4x4central.com/ubb/confused.gif "What the heck is he doing out here in that thing?"

[This message has been edited by GJarrett (edited 03-09-2000).]

I've had good luck with a magnetic mount. I only use it when travelling on trips, and it has served me well.

Never had a problem with it on any of my Explorers or Mountaineer. I did lose it once, blowing it off the roof of my '66 Shelby GT350 at 100+ mph. That skinned the little ball off the end of it, besides scaring the daylights out of me.

Never had a problem with my SUV's; rooftop seems flatter, and I usually don't cruise with them over the century mark.

Regards,
Jeff

I bought a K40 three foot whip and attached it to a mag mount bought at good ole Radio Shack. I get out a good couple of miles and hopefully further once I tune and install my 100 watt linear. The whip is high enough to get good distance and low enough to pull into my garage without the antenna getting knocked off.

When I intalled my receiver hitch, I removed the stock ball hithc plate from the bumber. With a grinder, I made a straight flat bracket and attached to the edge of the bumper and installed a 5.5' firestick antena. I haven't had any problems with that.

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93XLT-5.5" Super Runner, Super Runner Steering, 1.5" Body lift,33x12.5,
Borla exhaust,KKM air filter, Warn HS9500i winch, Sony deck & 10 disk CD changer w/ 12" sub.

I installed a 1/4 wave 108" SS whip on a ball mount by the gas tank filler. I can't stand the idea of having any exposed wire(antenna or otherwise) so a magnet mount was out of the question. I also wanted the VERY best performance. All I had to do was get over the worry of drilling that hole in the sheet metal.(I took 4 months to convince myself)
If I'm going in the woods I can easily screw in my 4' Firestik instead of the 108"
J.B.
Firestik makes all sorts of antenna mounts to fit almost any application. Check out their website.

This should really go in the CB/Ham Forum, so I'm putting it there.

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Happy Wheelin'
Ray L.
97 XLT 4X4 4.0L SOHC
Ray's Truck (http://www.4x4central.com/ubb/Forum13/HTML/000006.html)

C.B's operate in the A.M range, since your stereo antenna is already tuned to F.M and A.M, you can get a 3 way plug from Radio Shack and use your stereo antenna, and not need and additional one, unless your worried about real high performance, this will work fine to hit your buddy's truck on the trail.

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91 Sport
"Drive it like ya stold it"

Hey there, FC2ED. I certainly hope you are talking about a Ham Radio linear amplifier with 100 Watt output. (Your name here seems to be a French Ham call sign). We don't want to tell CB'ers that they can install and operate linear amplifiers on their CB's as it is ILLEGAL.

Raven, you shouldn't use your regular stereo antenna for transmitting. It isn't tuned for the correct frequency. (ie, standard AM radio frequencies are 66KHZ to 1.6MHZ. Standard FM radio is 88MHZ to 108MHZ. CB radio is 25MHZ to 27 MHZ. These freqencies are very different.) Since the regular radio antenna is receive only, it doesn't matter about the correct tranmit frequency. The length of any transmit antenna is important because the amount of Power output out of the antenna degrades if the SWR is too high. Also, you may damage your regular radio (and your CB radio) if you transmit on CB at the same time your stereo is on. That is 3 watts going into your radio. Unless of course since using the radio antenna causes the SWR of your CB to be so high that you end up with next to no power coming out.

I put mine on the luggage rack. I got the "GM Mirror Mount" kit from Rad Shack, got a couple extended bolts, and clamped it on. I did have a magnet mount, but they are a pain if you do any off roading, with the trees and branches constantly knocking it off.

Thank you everybody for your response. BarryM, your response was the little trick that I was looking for.

I would never suggest anyone do anything illegal. But yes I do have a linear amp for my cb. Just need to have it tuned before I install it. I'll probably have it tuned down as I don't need to blow everyone off the air-waves. By the way, it's not illegal until you get caught.

There are at least two ways to do this, without blocking the liftgate or drilling major holes in your rig.

METHOD #1 - secure 2 pieces of 4" or wider aluminum plate, 17" long or better.

Thickness?

Whatever you can scrounge. Squat down behind your truck and eyeball where the Liftgate sits above the tail light.

Just to the RIGHT (if you're looking at the LFT tail light from behind) there are two holes in the under lip of your bumper. Line the aluminum up so the MIDDLE of the width of aluminum "clears" the liftgate in both dimensions; that is, clears it to the LEFT and clears the liftgate to the Rear as it makes its swing from CLOSED to OPEN.

Drill two holes to match the two in the underlip of the bumper. Get some Stainless or decent cad-plated bolts and nuts (don't forget washers) and "bolt it up."

The plate will not be LEVEL, relative to the ground, but any decent Ball Mount will allow you two take this variation out.

Remember to use Lockwashers for a good ground. A Classy Technician would add a braided Grounding Strap from the plate back to the frame for better performance and less noise.

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METHOD #2: Secure at least one Antenna Mount as folows: ANTRON SS-205-SO. This item is made to allow you to mount an antenna on an Explorer, BroncoII or Cherokee.

The STRAP part with four holes gets mounted by simply driling 4 holes for the self-tapping screws in the body UNDERNEATH the Liftgate...then half of the Strap peeks out.

Matching up the other half to the strap allows almost infinite variations of angle.

This unit accepts ANTENNA WHIPS threaded 3/8" x 24 TPI (the Industry Standard) in one side and has an SO-239 on the other.

Removal for disposal of the vehicle will leave NO holes in the coachwork exposed to the weather.

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IF YOU HAVE A GRILLE GUARD or Brush Guard, you could also mount your whips to the FRONT of the truck. No, it doesn't interfere with your vision (although you might spend 30 minutes arguing that point with Officer Friendly of the Buzz-Killer Patrol); no, it doesn't pick up any MORE noise than a rear-mount does.

This is the "Australia/Oregon Style" mount. It LOOKS Different, but it works well. And, it's REAL easy to snake your coaxial cables(s) back from the front bumper versus running wire loom or (if you're as anal as me) copper tubing from the radio to the antenna.

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"MOBY CRANBERRY," my 93, has no fewer than 7 external antennas, including two on the Bumper Thumper attached to/through modified Light Tabs. It takes longer to de-mount the antennas for a trip to the car wash than it takes to wash the truck...

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The ANTTRON SS-205-SO is available from:

ELI'S AMATEUR RADIO
(954) 525 - 0103

Ask for JOSE GUITERREZ (WT4G) and tell him you want the "EXPLORER ANTENNA MOUNT like 'the Captain' has." He will fix you right up.

You might also try HAM RADIO OUTLET, whose 800 number I don't have in front of me. I now that AMATEUR ELECTRONIC SUPPLY does NOT carry this item.

Also, LAKEVIEW ENGINEERING, makes of the Ham-Stick antennas, has a nice 3" U-Bolt in stainless with a 3/8" x 24 x SO-239 which goes nicely around the 3" tubes od Smittybilt Bumper Thumpers.

AND, when in doubt, look at the blister-packed CB antenna hardware section of any
decent-sized Truck Stop in the USA.

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73 DE navig8r - W7LV/VQ9EK