VE6AB Mobile Ops

All the photos in my galleries expand and include captions located beneath the photos.

At The Side Of The Road<br />
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Running tests on newly built 10/80 Meter antenna.<br />
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Bonding <br />
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Of course, it goes without saying that the antenna that resides on your vehicle is only half of a successfully designed antenna system. In my case, my Avalanche has a body that sits on a frame that required bonding to eliminate noise and increase the ground-plane beneath my antenna. This in turn increased the performance of my overall antenna system. This also took a fair amount of time, and to accomplish this I used 1” wide tinned copper flat braided ground straps with eyelets at either end to bond the various components of my mobile together. It is important that you use flat braided strapping and not round wire for bonding, as RF travels on the surface rather than through the wire, therefore flat braid has more current carrying capacity due to its larger flat surface.<br />
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It is important that you keep these ground straps as short as possible, and do take care when drilling holes in the body, so that you do not drill in-to any existing electrical harnesses that may not be visible. I used quality stainless steel fasteners along with stainless steel serrated washers for attaching the ground straps throughout my mobile. <br />
So, don’t forget that your antenna is only one half of a dipole, and in the case of a mobile antenna, the missing half is the vehicle and its capacitance to the ground under the vehicle. The single biggest factor with respect to efficiency for any mobile and especially on 80 meters is ground loss, so maximizing this half of the antenna system is essential, and this is accomplished through bonding.

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At The Side Of The Road

Running tests on newly built 10/80 Meter antenna.

Bonding

Of course, it goes without saying that the antenna that resides on your vehicle is only half of a successfully designed antenna system. In my case, my Avalanche has a body that sits on a frame that required bonding to eliminate noise and increase the ground-plane beneath my antenna. This in turn increased the performance of my overall antenna system. This also took a fair amount of time, and to accomplish this I used 1” wide tinned copper flat braided ground straps with eyelets at either end to bond the various components of my mobile together. It is important that you use flat braided strapping and not round wire for bonding, as RF travels on the surface rather than through the wire, therefore flat braid has more current carrying capacity due to its larger flat surface.

It is important that you keep these ground straps as short as possible, and do take care when drilling holes in the body, so that you do not drill in-to any existing electrical harnesses that may not be visible. I used quality stainless steel fasteners along with stainless steel serrated washers for attaching the ground straps throughout my mobile.
So, don’t forget that your antenna is only one half of a dipole, and in the case of a mobile antenna, the missing half is the vehicle and its capacitance to the ground under the vehicle. The single biggest factor with respect to efficiency for any mobile and especially on 80 meters is ground loss, so maximizing this half of the antenna system is essential, and this is accomplished through bonding.