aluminium as a ground plane

[troll5]

G'day All,
My truck ( a Landrover defender 130) has a aluminium body and I was wondering whether it would be acceptale as a good grounplane base.
Ihave heard from others that it might not. Any help or info would be appreciated

regards troll5

['Doc]

Your aluminum Landrover ought to work just fine. If something will conduct electricity it can be used for making antennas, or parts of antennas. The most difficult part of using aluminum for antennas is making solder connections to it. It's just not as easy to solder to as copper or other metals. After than, it's just a matter of what you happen to have enough of, and the other characteristics of whatever that 'stuff' is. Gold would be very nice for antennas, but not all that easy to collect enough of. It tends to weight a lot, and your fuel milage would be terrible! ('Course, if you could afford a gold plated vehicle, why should you care about fuel milage anyway?)
- 'Doc

[grandpaclint]

G'day All,
My truck ( a Landrover defender 130) has a aluminium body and I was wondering whether it would be acceptale as a good grounplane base.
Ihave heard from others that it might not. Any help or info would be appreciated

regards troll5

well for sure, a mag mount wont work
IMHO

[TheCBDoctor]

Hi troll5

I have found that a tool box in the back of a pickup truck makes a poor ground plane if it is made of aluminum. Just by adding a steel plate on the box makes the antenna work like it should.

As for an 18 wheeler they are all made of fiberglass and aluminum today, but a properly placed antenna will work fine depending on the antenna and its location. Mounting brackets are made of aluminum and they work fine.

I would rather work with copper any time for a number of reasons; one of them is you can solder copper. Back in the day when trucks were made of steel any antenna worked no matter where you placed it. Those days are gone, between the computer, the metal, and the mirrors it is getting harder to get an antenna system to work on a new truck. Many of the new trucks use an antenna matcher to make the system work.

Respectfully,

['Doc]

I've had/used more than one aluminum 'tool box' in a truck as the mounting place for antennas. As long as the mounting is done correctly, and there is good electrical contact where it should be, that aluminum makes no practical difference at all. Aluminum isn't as physically strong as steel, but a little forethought usually takes care of that just dandy. Oh well, different strokes for different folks I guess.
- 'Doc

[troll5]

Thank you for your replies. I will now venture to mount the antenna onto the a aluminium cab. once again thanks

[Taco Paco]

Most base antennas are bade out of aluminum so it should work fine.