Mounting a High Gain Antenna on a JL 4xe

[Kaptain]

I am mounting a 3.5" high gain antenna on my JL 4xe. Considering two places to mount. 1) Hood, but I know there can be engine "noise", will the 4xe electronics cause any problem. 2) inside on the roll cage, how much will the hard top reduce my range?

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[CaliRubie]

I'm installing mine right now. I don't have the antenna permanently mounted yet but I tried 3 different locations and they all worked (kind of) so now it's just coming down to aesthetics. Here is what I found. (1) The Midland hood/trunk lip mount didn't sits flush at the back of the hood, but would have been great as the wiring would have been stealth. (2) The Topsy fender mount is strong and fits perfect. I may go this route but will attach adhesive rubber to underside of the bracket so it doesn't scratch the paint. Also, will order some Mopar paint to paint the bracket the the same color as the Jeep, or may go with black. I think either will look better than the raw steel. (3) Midland Ditch Light extension. I have double LED pod lights and brackets so this works great too, but I'm not as happy about the wire being seen.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0842BB2R9?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LK7KBK5?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
https://midlandusa.com/products/micromobile-mxta22-ditch-light-extension-bracket

Testing all three locations gave the same result. Albeit, at home in driveway but with wife a few streets over with walkie talkie, no line of sight (two story houses and trees). Have yet to test on trail. These three options allow for no drilling, etc,.

Radio mounted under dash. My SWR was about 1.5 and good 1:1 in / out.

Also, although you didn't ask, for the mic mount, I tried two. Topsy and a very inexpensive mount from Amazon ($15) the Amazon mount won as it allowed for the bezel to snap back into place without a gap. Well there is a very tiny one but you'd have to look. The Topsy mount, which is very stout and also as another mount point for a RAM ball, etc., pushed the bezel out and once I saw it I couldn't unsee it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LK2DGQ3?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KF6D33J?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

 

[Grimmjpr]

I mounted mine on the body rail in the rear passenger side, using part of a hood lip mount and the hardtop mounting bolt. Works fine for me. I'm usually just talking to people in the trail convoy so I didn't need to go crazy. I didn't want to run the antenna wire into the cab from outside.

 

[Kaptain]

Thank You!!!

 

[CaliRubie]

Update on build. Installed Midland MXT25 radio. I went through several iterations of mic mounts, antennas, antenna locations, etc. I ended up with what I thought would be problematic with reception but after testing SWR and driving around hills, housing, talls trees ect. I happy with the range for the type of wheeling I do. I used my Midland handhelds to communicate with the installed radio. Shout out to a lot of others I copied on install. Eventually I mounted the radio on the right side of the glove box, grounded to factory stud in passenger footwell, power to Aux wire ignition on/off. I ran the antenna wire, back behind center console and out through factory firewall plug up above and to left of brake. I drilled a hole in the plug and used a rubber grommet in the plug to make air/leaktight fitting for wire. I ran the wire along backside underhood and used factory wire clips to keep it tidy. The radio is mounted on Midland bracket attached to my pod light bracket. The antenna blocks a wee bit o' light from the pod but not enough to bother me. Oh, the phone mount is some Amazon vendor, "areyourshop". The bracket fit much better, IMO, than others I tried. The "others" were of great quality but pushed the console bezel out to far for my liking, and I couldn't unsee it once I saw it.

 

[Kaptain]

Nice, and thank you for the photos!

 

[Kaptain]

Question, any reason you did not wire it to one of the auxiliary switches?

 

[CaliRubie]

Question, any reason you did not wire it to one of the auxiliary switches?

Yes. My winch and front pod lights are already wired to two of the switches via the aux switch wire bundle by the battery. I have rock lights on order and will add an UpDownAir system with compressor later too, which will take up the other two Aux switches. So I was left with two choices of aux wiring in footwell of either the ignition switch or always hot and chose ignition switch so I wouldn't accidently leave it on. It's just what worked for me, but since the aux wires and ignition wires are located in the same place it would have been just as easy to wire to one of the low amp aux switches.

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