dual antennas

[blind dog]

I have a wilson 1000 mag mount and a predator 10k. I want to run both of them. I have the wilson 1000 on the cab of my truck. I want to put the 10k in the corner of my bed. What can I use to hook the antennas together? I have coax for both. Do i need a special coax for duals or can i by a box to run them into?

[gizmo_22]

If your trying to co-phase them i think you'll run into issues because of the 2 different types of antennas and yes the coax would be a different rating if im not mistaken, If your setting them up to run one or the other, then an antenna switcher would work.... I'm sure some of the more experienced guys will chime in on this one as I have no experience with co-phased setups yet.

hope it helps a bit.

[drdx]

I more than just appreciate your urge to improve your setup, and antennas are my favorite area of experimentation, but unfortunately that will never work out. For 2 antennas to be beneficial you need to put a little more into it. They need to be similar antennas and things like spacing and type of coax and harness come into play. If you managed to hook up what you have into a 2 antenna setup, you would be lucky if you could get a good swr from it, and if you did, the radiation pattern from it would be far less than optimum. The best scenario would be the best single antenna you have in the highest centered place on the vehicle, and we're talking about the roof. -drdx

['Doc]

Can you use both antennas at the same rime? Yes, it can be done. The question is, would it be beneficial to do so, and at what cost? And depending on exactly why you want to do it, the answer is probably not. About the only real benefit in using two (or more) antennas like that is that it makes things directional. Directional antennas on mobiles just isn't all it's cracked up to be, how do you keep them pointed in the right direction? It can be done, but it's a lot of trouble. If the two (or more) antennas used in this way are not the same electrically, then the resulting pattern is very difficult to predict, if it's predictable at all. There are a number of factors that control just how directional such a set up can be. One of those is the distance between antennas. For most mobiles, that distance is going to be 'limited'. It may work just fine in particular instances, but then, it certainly won't be optimal.
There's a way of doing that 'phasing'. It isn't very well understood by most people so it can be gotten 'wrong' quite easily, usually resulting in a less than satisfactory results, and almost never what was expected. Wanna try it anyway? Hey, knock yourself out, have at it! Don't expect it to be all that easy.
If you just want to be able to switch between the two antennas, disregard all of the above, get an antenna switch. I think you'll find that finding a switch that 'grounds' the unused terminal/antenna will be 'better' than one that doesn't. Oh well, whatever.
- 'Doc

[Rat]

Well to start, all cophased systems need to use 75 ohm coax and not the regular 50 ohm coax that you run with singles.

As far as benefits. I don't really see any in your application.

Just hook up the 10K in a central location on the unit and get it tuned and leave it at that.