“I stumbled across the SCARS website and noticed the Bike MS page. I also volunteer for communications with the local MS Bike ride. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that you may need to duct tape onto the vehicles. Our primary support vehicle that we provide communications with are handicap accessible buses. The only area to set a magnetic mount antenna is in the area of the hood as the rest of the body is fiberglass. This provided poor results accessing the repeaters along the route, so a number of London, Ontario hams came up with another idea. This was a collaboration between John Pederson VE3MGR, Mike Watts VE3ACW, Jim Morris VA3AHQ and original testing by Norm Campbell VA3XCN. Norm actually went to the Voyageur bus yard and tested the suction cups on a bus to see if it would work. I thought I would share with you what we have used for the last couple of years.”
“Components are simple. A 3 suction cup dent puller, a length of 3/4″ inch ABS pipe (I used 4 feet), couple worm gear hose clamps, and a ground plane kit for a mobile whip.”
“Unfortunately I don’t have a picture with the antenna mounted on the ABS. Since this is used on buses, we mounted the suction cups on a window. This mount works quite well for us. Tested on the side of a Ford Explorer travelling at 70 mph with a Diamond SG-7500NMO mounted on it. Also, it supported the weight of a 200 lb man when it was attached to a side window of a bus.”
“This may be an option that you could use in the future.
73
John Visser, VA3MSV
London, Ontario”
This is brilliant, just had to use John’s words, and we’ll be trying some of these next year! Here’s some sources of the suction cups… Northern Tool: $10, Walmart Online: $13.50,From China: $28, From China: $38, Harbor Freight: $8, Grainger: $13, Home Depot Online: $20 – Thanks N5HZR