I don't think anyone said it wouldn't work but antenna people will tell you it won't work very well compared to being mounted on a proper ground plane. When you raise an antenna like this off the ground plane you introduce loss and usually a big change in impedance. It will certainly talk down the road but not to the potential range it might if mounted on the hood or other large flat conductive ground plane. Not everyone needs maximum range so if it serves your purpose that's great and I'm happy for you, but it still bugs the heck out of us antenna people.This is where I ran mine too. Many said it would not work, but they are wrong. It works great and gives me plenty of range.
Someone should tell Midland. They offer and even bundle these mounts into their offerings!
I also went with the windshield bolt mount, just on the passenger side, and I went with the lower side. Wiper blade just barely clears, it's tucked in between my snorkel so it's not noticeable. I can talk to other people on the trail, so I'm OK with the reduced range, I also have a 6db whip style laying around if it ever becomes a problem.This is where I ran mine too. Many said it would not work, but they are wrong. It works great and gives me plenty of range.
Midland is a radio company and I've had a few friends that worked for them years ago designing radios. They are not an antenna company and their marketing dept simply orders and rebrands other antennas. Their rebranded 6dB advertised antenna is actually around 2dBd gain. The little pud antenna they advertise as 3dB has lower gain than a 6" 1/4 wave whip that is rated unity or 0db gain. That is the marketing department doing their job I guess in making sales by whatever means they can, which happens to be lying.
I was just looking at the Tram 6 1/4 i have, i noticed it said the antenna needs to be grounded.
The set screws poking through paint on a trunk lid or hood is fine as long as they are making electrical contact. That allows the RF currents to flow from the antenna grounding point to the ground plane and back, etc.
Perfect, thanks for the clarification. I was getting ground mixed up with DC ground.
This is interesting information! Thanks for sharing, I had no idea what practices they were using for their stuff.
I was able to get the metal plate from Lowes and made the bolt hole a tad bit bigger. I do understand the range loss concept. I was on a ridge road and was able to receive from a town that was 60 miles away by way the crow flies (over ocean) but I could not transmit that far. The furthest I have been able to operate the radio, transmit and receive, has been 10 miles on trail. I didn't think that was to bad. As you said "it serves my purpose". I do have a plan for a bigger atenna and mount if I need to go that way.
