2017+ Cascadia Evolution Antenna Mount

No. Bolt hole spacing way off.

 

That was the start. First of three. The mount and antenna were good. The door wasn’t. Keep reading.

 

Thx. Still details to work out.

2017+ Cascadia.

 

See thread title. That there’s virtually no information available on getting around the factory hidden antenna system I figured it was my turn to contribute.

Lowest possible SWR is a decent guide. But it’s not only approach.

Dipole antenna is a different critter, as we can see from the wide bandwidth. It’s not the sharp V we expect. Tuning for resonant on-frequency made more sense to me. Good enough for now.

If I can get the rest of the system “quiet” (really quiet) — and have built a rack or box to move the rig in/out of truck as well as use it down the road — I’ll try more antenna experiments. Better coax. Etc.

Sure, I’d like to see better in SWR. Resonant on freq good enough. It has good ears. Heading to Denver tomorrow from Fort Worth via New Mexico to get under a loaded trailer. After everyone’s back from holiday, ought to have a good idea how it’s doing.

As before: Any change at all has made a qualitative difference in the latest Cascadia.

So, Craig, yours is the earlier model?

 

That’s where I am now. Have been out of truck two days since Xmas. So have to order stuff.

DXEngineering and some others have supplies. Just need to order.

 

Haven’t done much this last week. Moved the antenna tilt both forward and backward to minimize SWR problems at speed. Tried a couple of lawnmower BATT cables from WalMart (19”, cheap) and attached to MFJ bolt then under panel bolt on truck side. A minor reduction, so need to try with more and better.

K0BG recommends no more than 8” in length for bonding strap. Don’t know if I can make that work, here.

Added split loom to the Dometic refrigerator power cord. And to all the exposed coax and power on dash with radio gear. Compressor not so loud now. More to come on that.

Have had to deal with very high winds; trucks blown over in Colorado, and then the usual spring time winds of the upper Texas Panhandle; running out of eastern New Mexico to CO, KS, AR mainly, with smoothbore tanker. No antenna with any flex would do well, IMO.

When “the other guy” has a good setup, communication is easy enough to five miles (given winds aren’t extra heavy). It’s a region with plenty of large cars running good setups. When out of any cities or away from windmill electrical ROW, ears can hear quite well. Or kick in pre-amp and listen that way. Can pick up Interstate chatter 7-8 miles out.