Mobile Antenna Work and a Lesson Learned

6 Months ago when I bought the Kia and installed the mobile station in it I should have gone with my instincts.

Initially, I was going to put the HF antenna on the driver’s side of the rear hatch and the VHF/UHF antenna on the passenger side of the rear hatch.  The reasoning was to keep the shorter antenna on the shoulder side of the road to keep the taller HF antenna from striking tree limbs, etc.  Instead, when I realized the dual band mobile have to go on the driver’s side of the car I decided to put the VHF/UHF antenna on the driver’s side as well to reduce the feedline run.  Bad idea.  It seems that I’ve struck enough tree limbs and other things with the HVT-400B to put a bend in it and I think I’ve damaged it because the performance has gone down.

This morning, I took things partially apart and reversed the mounting with a new HVT-400B; things are now where I intended them to be in the first place.  Reducing the feedline run in the mobile installation shouldn’t have been a consideration because the additional piece I had to add this morning hasn’t made a difference.  It would, however have kept me from messing up an antenna.