Hello Friends,

How did you ground your Rago CB mount ?

Since it's installed sandwiching the plastic bumper...

I'm guessing I also need to strip the paint by the mount/antenna mating surface


Thanks for your input

been meaning to post this. curious too. I got everything installed radio and all, didnt get to ground it so its not working yet.. Thinking maybe a longer ground and run it inside to ground? I google it and just see them mounted and not even wired.

even on my diamond mount i ran its own ground and out it onto the plate. Since its a sandwhich plate and grounds from the entire plate. Run a wire and ground it from the back side to the chassis.

I know ! All the pics are missing the wiring !

Starting to think that - wire a ground from the rear drivers side light to the inner part of the mount.

Now the question is - are those screws a good grounding method ?

should be. test it with a multimeter after. Usually threads are not coated and should ground easily

RF grounds =/= electrical grounds, make sure you use a grounding strap and not just a wire

If this is for CB i would probably just get an NGP antenna though, you won't really be grounding to anything that makes sense as a ground plane in that location.

Where is your mount located? Mine is on the passenger side of the hood. I ran a ground wire down to a bolt that was grounded. Some bolts attached to the body are not grounded, so check with a meter. Don't forget to tune your radio.

I don't really know the difference to be honest, what should I look for ?

Yeah friend of mine has a SWR meter for that purpose
I will be using the Rago Antenna mount with a Firestik, just like in this pic:

maybe ill just run a strap with the antenna wire?

Ill be doing a new rear bumper so this mount will only be temporary but i would like to get this working already lol

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Gosh that red antenna looks dope !

To be honest I'm not sure what's the preferred grounding method,

Antenna to mount to truck ?
Antenna to truck ?

OK OK - this is really a bonding issue and not a grounding issue since the vehicle is not really grounded at all.

thanks and beats me. Thats what im here for


touche

RF is on the skin of the wire, so RF grounding straps are usually flat braided cables so they have a lot of surface area. The orientation of the ground plane matters, so if you are using the rear quarter panel as a ground plane it's not the ideal orientation for antenna performance.

This is a poor description, but you can kind of think of the ground plane as what reflects the radio waves so the rear quarter panel is a weird orientation for reflecting radio waves from the antenna. You could also get a No Ground Plane (NGP) antenna which is specifically tuned to not need a ground plane.

If you just need enough range for trail coms I doubt it will make enough difference to matter, but if you are mounting to a plastic panel I would probably just get an NGP antenna and not worry about it. Firestik makes NGP antennas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_plane

@RagoFabrication