Hey everyone,
I met Celt (Erik) in north county San Diego a few days ago which led to a discussion and some questions about how I have my HAM antenna mounted to the rear hatch of my Xterra. I thought I would slap together a little info about my setup and some photos.
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I am running two antennas on the hatch - one for CB and one for HAM. I take the CB one off while driving regularly and only put it back on the mount when I plan to wheel with someone else who only runs a CB.
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Both antennas are mounted to Diamond K400 or 412 series antenna mounts, which allow for tri-axis 360 degree adjustment so you can make them perfectly level and visually pleasing, regardless of where you decide to mount them. The mounts attach to the lip of the hatch lid and have set screws with allen heads to hold them in place.
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The mount on my passenger side is a Diamond K412CNMO
http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-000037, which I purchased for $59.99 from Ham Radio Outlet, and has a Diamond NR73BNMO 2M/440 dual band antenna mounted to it. The mount includes a pre-attached 6.5' length of teflon coated coax that is long enough to get you up the hatch and inside the vehicle. From there, you'll need an extension cable to run the length to wherever your radio is mounted. The mount has a "UHF Mini" style connector on the end of the coax, which is common in commercial applications. The purpose of using this connector is to allow as small of a hole as possible to be drilled anywhere the wire needs to run through without having to solder on a connector yourself. The mount includes an adapter that screws onto the Mini UHF connector and will fit a standard PL-259 fitting (like the ones found on a HAM or CB radio). The antenna side of the mount will hold any antenna with an NMO style base, but diamond makes this mount with a few different kinds of fittings for various antennas.
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I drilled about a 3/8" hole (might be 1/2") on the upper right side of the rear hatch door jamb. I installed a rubber grommet in the hole and ran my HAM antenna cable, XM antenna cable and GPS antenna cable all trough it. I then sealed it up with silicone. From there, it's just a matter of pulling the interior plastics in the vehicle to run your wires wherever you need them (which can be very time consuming, especially in the rear hatch area) and adjusting the angles of each axis on the antenna mount (which only required an allen wrench and is included with the kit).
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The bracket on the driver side of the vehicle is the K400-3/8C
http://www.diamondantenna.net/k400-38c.html, which is a slightly larger footprint than the K412 for heavier antennas. That model number specifically is for a CB antenna 3/8x24 anteanna thread, and includes the same teflon coated coax cable with Mini UHF fitting (the same adapter is supplied to allow it to connect to a standard radio connector).
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One thing to note is that I purchased the Diamond branded Mini-UHF male to Mini-UHF female extension cable for an excessive price (I think it was around $30 or $40 for a 12 foot cable) and installed the included adapter with the mount kit on the end of that cable. In hindsight, I could have just installed the adapter on the end of the shorter length of cable and used a standard PL-259 extension cable for much less money, but oh well. Having the smaller connectors on the ends did make fishing the wire through tight areas a little easier, so you may still want the diamond branded one if you plan to run it to a tricky area. Another thing to note is that cable is likely to wear out over time at the point where it attaches to the mount, especially with prolonged exposure to sunlight, high temperatures and extreme weather. Take this into consideration when you install the mount and be sure the cable is routed in a direction that feels natural (no excessive bending or kinking of the cable) and that it is not too tight or does not have too much slack. Even with these precautions, you may break the wire off at the point where it attaches to the mount if you remove the mount from the vehicle and re-install it on a new vehicle several years down the road. This very thing happened to me and fortunately, Diamond sells a kit to replace the entire cable and connector, but I believe it was almost the same price for the kit as an entirely new mount.
Photos of the setup are attached. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.
