It's a 1991 Mercury Tracer (or, was when this project was done.) Hey!, it's a lot newer than most of my radio gear!
(Addendum September, 2017: After 23 years that car was still going strong. And, it was still a lot newer than most of my radio gear. It's now been replaced by a Subaru XV Crosstrek, but the 6M Halo still lives...)
No sense building the halo unless I had a way to mount it on the car...
After some head scratchin', I decide to fabricate a mount that bolted between the (plastic) bumper and the frame (sic) of the car -- using one set of the three 14mm mounting bolts found on each side of the bumper. There was already a 1/16" plate inserted between each bumper mount and the body - probably to provide a flat(ter) surface for the plastic bumper to bolt down on than the uneven surface of the vehicle. Removing this and slipping in my new mount, only increased the "protrusion" of the bumper by 1/8".
This is Version 0.9 of the mount and I re-did it to raise the platform another 5/16" to reduce the big depression seen on the lip of the bumper under the trunk lid.
The 2M trunk lip mount you see here was moved to the other side of the trunk.
Not easily seen here, or in the other pictures, is a slit piece of plastic tubing that goes over the bumper lip -- under the antenna mount. This prevents the antenna mount from chaffing/scuffing the bumper. (Hey, ya gotta protect the re-sale value of a 1991 Tracer!) The Olde Scrounger used the pick-up tube out of a plastic spray bottle found in the trash.
As shown by the yard stick, the platform is a wee bit over 2 feet off the ground.
The mounting bracket was fabricated from 3/16" steel. The platform, itself, is 5" wide and sticks out from the trunk lip 9". It clears the bumper - to the rear - by 4".
From the bottom side of the bracket it is easier to see the 3 mounting holes that slip over the car's bumper-to-frame mounting bolts.
The final install of the antenna mount.
Nicely painted.
The mast receiving pipe is centered 1.5" in from the left side and the rear edge. Someday, Real Soon Now, I will install a 'standard' mobile mount for HF to the right and forward of the 6M mast mount.
The mast construction will be found on the next page.
The final mounting platform does not
depress the bumper lip (as much) as was seen in the prototype of
the first picture at the top of this page.
It's sturdy, but I would not want to over stress it. The leverage is great: the mounting plate is 9" long, and the attachment is between a plastic bumper and a sheet metal 'frame'.
So, what kind of mast assembly did I decide on?
Follow on to "6M Halo - Mast Fabrication", below:
6M Halo - Mast Fabrication
W3DHJ 6M Halo - Front Page
W3DHJ Home Page
It's sturdy, but I would not want to over stress it. The leverage is great: the mounting plate is 9" long, and the attachment is between a plastic bumper and a sheet metal 'frame'.
So, what kind of mast assembly did I decide on?
Follow on to "6M Halo - Mast Fabrication", below:
6M Halo - Mast Fabrication
W3DHJ 6M Halo - Front Page
W3DHJ Home Page
Constructive comments and/or discussions:
Last updated: 06-Sep-17 -- Now "Mobile Friendly"
Last updated: 06-Sep-17 -- Now "Mobile Friendly"