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My XJ has four of these mounted on the roof. Some are in better shape than others From my understanding, they could have been used by a previous HAM owner. Is this true?
Any benefit to keeping them, or can I just remove them and plug the holes?
http://i.imgur.com/LXWIXSi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/9HWvRSf.jpg
NMO mount. Stands for New MOtorola though commonly referred to today as Non-Magnetic Option. Originally designed in the 1960s it was officially shipped as the standard Motorola antenna mount in 1968. Since then it has climbed to the top and become the standard antenna mount in the commercial radio industry.
They are cheap, roughly $5 for the mount, $20 for the mount with 18 feet of coax. Generally manufactured from brass and when the antenna or rain cap is installed offer a dual seal that doesn't leak.
They make NMO antennas for just about everything above 25 MHz. I'd replace the corroded mounts, purchase caps and cap them off. If you want a CB, cell booster, scanner, ham radio, commercial radio (business/fire/ems), war driving setup, or whatever later on you already have the mounts in the roof ready to go.
Antenna range from $10-$80 depending on the band and function.
I've got 3 on my XJ currently. One in the roof for a tracker radio (I can basically watch the movement of my XJ…I call it ham-jack but it's really called APRS), one on a hood channel mount for CB/10m and then one with a dual band antenna for VHF/UHF on the spare tire carrier. My DD also has 3, two on the roof (one for VHF one for UHF) and one on the hood channel for low band. Holding out on a new (to me) truck…that one will have at least 5 but I'll keep the low band antennas on the headache rack.
^^^ agreed, but yes you can plug them as well.
I'd just keep them there after replacing them or cleaning them up then cap them off with the a NMO rain cap.