Updated in 2026 to include latest configuration with a fourth and lower Yagi; plus, shorter tower configuration…
The idea of hood-mounted antennas had not appealed to me. With my sedans, I would either use a lip mount or (eventually) a hole mount. Lip mounts are not compatible with my GTI because of the plastic cladding on the hatchback. I went with a replacement for my factory shark fin antenna on the roof. See how I did it here. Eventually, I decided to keep my roof rack mounted full-time and populated it with antennas. The latest configuration of my my contest rover’s “micro-tower” has lowered the Yagis by about 12 inches. That brought the lowest Yagi within easy striking distance of three of my rack-mounted vertical antennas. I also concluded that mounting two of my verticals to the hood when the tower is mounted would lower their overall height and eliminate collision hazards.
I almost purchased a pair of trunk lip mounts, but I didn’t want to risk damaging the paint protection film that’s on my hood. I quickly realized that I had a no-touch solution in my garage. I had purchased a pair of “ditch light” brackets (now discontinued) and used them to help guy my first micro-tower. The idea was short-lived; so, I put the brackets in a box. I didn’t have plans to mount ditch lights, but I thought the brackets might come in handy someday.
The main challenge with these brackets is that they’re not wide enough to allow for boring the light’s mounting hole to the ¾-inch holes that are required by the vast majority of NMO antenna mounts. But there’s another option with Diamond Antenna’s C213SNMO NMO mount. It features a slender center that fits in a ⅜-inch hole! The included star lock washer is good for a surface that exceeds one square inch. However, my ditch light brackets are narrow enough that I opted to use a ⅜-inch replacement star lock washer. This photo shows the slender profile of the bracket. You can see that I routed the feed line with enough slack to allow it to articulate with the hood when I open it.
Rather than clamping to the hood’s sheet metal, these mounts clamp within the hood’s mounting hardware in the hinge. This allows the antennas to move with the hood. They even clear the A-pillars when the hood is open. Better yet, the mounts are bonded to the car’s body since I had already bonded the hood when installing HF equipment. Each antenna that I’ve mounted has tuned just as well as if it was on a body-mounted NMO mount! They function well enough here to consider them as permanent mounting locations.
During a VHF contest, I like the option to work FM stations on 52.525 MHz, 146.580 MHz, 223.500 MHz, and 446.000 MHz. I have a 52 MHz vertical antenna mounted it to the the driver’s side hood mount. Alternatively, I can mount an NMO-27, should I decide to have a dedicated 10m or CB antenna. I mount a tri-bander on the passenger side. If you’re wondering about RF safety with hood mounted antennas, I’m beyond the compliance distance for 52 MHz 100W SSB by a good margin and right at the edge of compliance for 146/223/446 MHz 50W FM according to ARRL’s RF safety calculator.
Feed line routing could not have been easier with my car. Rather than passing through the firewall, I ran the coaxial cables through the air plenum (base of windshield) and then into the front fender. From there, they pass through a factory grommet that’s beneath the main wiring runs for the door. I chose to run both of my feed lines through the passenger side because the driver’s side grommet is blocked by the hood release lever. Sure, I could remove the lever and work around it, but I don’t want to! 😀
See a video about these mounts HERE. Originally, I planned to use these mounting positions only during contests and exhibitions or, stated differently, whenever the micro-tower and Yagis are mounted. Ironically, the addition of K9000 motorized mount has made my hood mounts nearly unnecessary. I say “nearly” because there’s always a good reason to mount…
More Antennas! 😉
Scott, KE4WMF
