Thread: UHF Aerial onto Defender

Originally Posted by rovers4

Hi Xtreme.

The shield of the antenna cable needs a good connection to the body at the mount site, if it is of the Non Ground Independant type - single contact 5/16 inch. Relying on the connection through the radio is not good enough.

Even if it is of a Ground independant type - two connections: central fixed pin an a nut type sleeve 5/8 inch, a good earth at the mounting point is still advisable.

A non insulated metal plate (aluminium) without paint is good.
Beware of using sisalastic/silicone and also of using stainless screws for this job due to electrolysis.

Good luck, Rovers4.

Thanks for the advice and tips rovers4.

I must admit I'm not a technical guru when it comes to this stuff but I've had mine installed as described in my original post and photos, without any special earths, in threee Defenders so far and haven't had a problem with it.
I run plenty of club trips through both heavily timbered mountainous country and open desert country and have communicated successfully - straight line distance - of over 35kms.

Originally Posted by solmanic

Yes - good idea. I was thinking of that solution myself and will probably pursue.

The nudge bars on the D90s should be a LR part number - maybe your dealer could source you one?

LRH

Although you don't want to go through body work and I fully appreciate that a small hole in the front bumper is a reasonable place.... It would be extremely easy to plug up if you ever removed the mount.

It is a low mount unfortunately but if your main use is convoy it is quite adequate.

You can run an earthing wire from here easily and running a cable should be simple.

I know your past this but just a thought.

I've seen HF aerials on the rear wheel carrier. I suppose you could put the UHF there as well. The vehicle would form a barrier to things in front, but if you mount it on the front it still forms a barrier to things behind.

On the spare wheel carrier, you can probably mount it a bit higher, and by using a short 4Db aerial you can get a better pattern of radio wave transmission for getting around the vehicle.

If you have a telescopic light holder on a wheel carrier, then you can even raise the aerial when stationary - Base Camp Mode.

OK, UHF CB mount on mine....

Just a plate bolted to the existing bolts in the radiator support...

its had a good bashing and it has not budged.... the spring in the antenna has become weaker due to tree hits, but not the plate....

That's pretty tidy - I will add it to the list of options for serious investigation.

as far as i know you can get different bonnet mounts for bolting under somewhere similar to sclarkes post above... have a look in a tandy or dick smith... or better still make a time to meet up with some GC boys and we'll help you decide after a perv of your vehicle

I thought I should follow-up on this thread, even though it has been a while.

Well I finally got around to purchasing and installing a GME TX3220 in the Defender and got the local guys at Olbis to do the aerial installation. Excellent job! The guy made a really tidy alloy bracket which simply bolts to a couple of spare holes on top of the radiator support frame. The cable routing was also nice and tidy - wide panel gaps are good for something. Here are a couple of photos of the bracket - sorry but they are only phone quality...





Pity the internal wiring was not so crash hot but I blame this on the numnuts who installed the radio back in December. Instead of cutting off the original Land Rover connection block and soldering the new radio wires in, they just crimped some tabs onto the wires and poked them into the holes on the connector. The whole thing was wrapped up in electrical tape.

I presume when the guy went to wire in power for the UHF he must have unwrapped them and they all fell out. Obviously he put the two power pins back into the wrong holes because every time I turned the car off all the radio settings were lost. It was tidy enough but alas, I still had to pull it all apart and re-do it.

SO I thought this was a good opportunity to do it right and cut off the old connector and solder all the wires properly. Now this wouldn't have been a problem except I stupidly didn't bother to double check everything with a multi-meter and ended up soldering the connections back to the same, incorrect wires. I have now had the radio in and out about FIVE times since it was first installed. Each time I have removed another piece of useless cr@p from the whole setup - there were just too many unused wires and spare connection terminal blocks in there. By now I am getting very nervous that with all my frigging around it's only a matter of time before a really important wire gets severed from rubbing on something deep inside the dash.

I've also been plagued with annoying rattles inside the dash so this time I wrapped several of the chunkier connections in foam and that seems to have fixed it. God forbid if I ever have to pull it out again!