[Niteshooter]

Antenna mounts for smart fortwo

I did google/search this topic on here and various boards but everything I found was really old. I'm in the process of figuring out a mount for a quad band antenna on my 451 and right now it's looking like I will be using one of the rear bumper tow hook holes for the mount.

Will be similar to what Kitkatt1960 did here, http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/forums/f9/anybody-installing-ham-radio-smart-972/index8.html except I'm going to see if I can get the shop that does our SS muffler work to bend me up a custom bracket.

Two options, one is to get the threaded stud from smart madness and then get a bracket bent so that it positions the antenna just to the outside of where the rear tailgate drops. The second idea is to get one of the tow hook D ring style hooks that appear to be screwed together. I do have one on order from Hong Kong but it's still in transit. But the plan with that was to put that in the bumper, take off the D ring and have a basic L bracket bent and then just screw that into the part on the bumper. Would be a lot less bending work for the shop and might turn out to be a bit stronger since the other method is going to require two folds instead of one.

Other thing, has anyone sourced threaded rod that will work with the threaded holes in the smart bumper? Might just wind up building my own depending on availability.

For those looking into mounting a CB antenna, because I'm going multi band with scanners this wasn't really going to work out. I looked at this one. https://www.president-electronics.us/CB-Antennas/Magnetic-Antennas/New-York But on the cabrio there isn't really a good spot to stick it. The curved area between the windshield and top is not flat enough for a really solid mount and the tridion doesn't allow for a good angle for the antenna given it's limited range of motion. Though the antenna looks similar to the AM/FM mast on the smart it is a different thread size though I suppose you could McGiver the parts to work in that spot and then use a different antenna for VHF/UHF.

 

[jimvw57]

I used some high strength double sided tape with a steel plate on the roof and grounded it to the rear window hinge so I could use a mag mount antenna with my UHF/VHF radio. I have a hand held Yaesu FT-270R so I can switch with my Land Rover for excursions. Still pretty new at this but I do have my ticket KE0JRT


Tow bolt thread is a 5/8-8 acme thread

 

[Niteshooter]

Thanks Jim, the cabrio gives me a lot less mounting options. Can't even use a glass mount on the rear window since it folds. I had similar challenges with the Saturns since they are plastic body parts except that the roof, hood and trunk lid are metal so at least in those locations I can get a decent ground plane.

Basically don't want to put an antenna farm on the smart, yet though I did do that with my Explorer when I was doing a lot more spot news and had a scanner farm in the truck. Would like to consolidate everything into a single antenna, likely this one. Diamond® Antenna ~ CR8900A Quad Band FM Mobile Antenna and use a splitter to feed to the different radios which will be the next challenge! Mounting radios in the smart.

I noticed in the thread about antennas that someone had a rig that had a removable faceplate so the main body of the transceiver could be mounted somewhere else such as under the passenger seat while the faceplate was mounted in the cubby hole on the left side of the steering wheel. The rig was a Yaesu FT8900 which would solve a lot of space issues.

Up here we've had some changes to amateur licensing and have now got Basic, Basic with honours and Advanced. I have my Radiotelephone Operator General Certificate (maritime) which qualifies me immediately for the Basic level but I want to write the Basic exam so that I can get the honours rating which opens up bands below 30 mhz. So figured it was a good time to do this, my uncle has his Advanced class and might coach me on CW if I decide to relearn it. Granted I had planned to basically do mostly listening and this rig will allow me to have a scanner to be able to monitor some of the bands I already listen to in an all in one package.

Wide Frequency Coverage
The FT-8900R provides extended receiver coverage beyond the Amateur bands, so you can keep informed of communication activities in the public safety, commercial, aircraft, and government communications ranges. Included is coverage of 28-29.7 MHz, 50-54 MHz, 108-180 MHz, 300-480 MHz, and 700-985 MHz (cellular frequencies are blocked and non-restorable).

73s.

 

[jimvw57]

down here they dropped the requirement about using morse code so it is a bit easier to get a license now. Just got my Tech license and working on General. which will open up some more frequencies