ANTENNA ISSUES:
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Fjamming previously said:
Larry, I've had trouble with my magnet mount antenna in areas with some low hanging tree branches.
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It's a lot more robust than a magnet mount in terms of its ability to take a hit, however the tree branch problem can be an issue if they're BIG branches. I was up there last week and didn't have a significant problem. WHERE I WENT.
Quote:
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I would've had no problem with a more flexy antenna.
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Except that when you're driving down the freeway it will be bent way back or on surface streets it will beat itself to death against the FJ.
This is why I bought the POS Midland. I can use the quick disconnect mount, remove the antenna and go to hand-held mode if the brush is too thick. You can't get out that far on hand-held, but it's a quick alternative. I haven't had to do that yet, but it was a design consideration for the build-up.
MARKER
I keep a good field of view on the left side of the FJ but the right side is prone to trail damage simply because I can't judge clearance well enough on the right side.
Recent "carnage" from Cleghorn Road, San Bernardino Mountains, SoCal.
So I copied VOLHOO and plugged the cheapest 2' antenna I could find into the pre-drilled hole (for an antenna) in the ARB bumper to use as a distance marker to help me figure how far I was from taller brush, rocks, etc.
2’ Francis antenna
So far it has worked well and it's worth having something bolted into the rig to help me judge distances.
I was recently buffing out the desert pinstriping on the FJ and there was easily 2x more pinstriping on the right (passenger) side than on the left. I attribute it to some degree to not being able to judge distances quite so accurately.
It's nice to have an experienced spotter but (a) the spotter may not want to walk 10 miles while I drive and (b) it's not that easy to find a really good spotter even though it looks easy to flail your arms in the air and have me move in one direction or another in response to your prompting.
