Dual whip antennas & parts needed for installation

[mrnjstrong]

Hey guys I have a few questions regarding whip antennas. I want to have dual whips, however I've been looking for the appropriate materials needed for them and I come up empty handed. I would like to know the the specifics of what I will need, down to every little nut and bolt. The farthest I got was found the proper brackets, I know I need the antennas, the holders for them (so they fold down), etc. Where do I go to order the miscellaneous material needed for completion of installing them? I don't feel like going on a wild goose chase, although I may have to for some parts it seems. Thanks in advance!

Here are some pictures...




This one resembles the Humvee I got, what are those wires holding down the antennas??




In regards to this one, what kind of antenna is that and is it available to the general public? If so where could I order it?

 

[04mustang]

The bottom photo looks like the antenna to signal jammer equipment. I cant recall the name of it, but it has been used widely through the middle east for obvious reasons.
As far as availability...even the whip antennas are not supposed to be sold any longer according to DLA.
The last time I had a my M35A2 out, with 2 of those on it, and at Bragg they stopped me at the DRMO site and almost took them from me, they gave a long speech about how these are no longer allowed to the public and how we abuse things and hinted that the army was going to start going around and taking equipment back . I told him I would like to see that happen. I informed him who I was and what I do in regards to being military and he basically said well....you need to be careful and don't bring that truck back on base with those antennas on it.
Now obviously many many many of these still exist in private hands and will for a very very long time. don't worry.

 

[Lawdog734]

The last time I had a my M35A2 out, with 2 of those on it, and at Bragg they stopped me at the DRMO site and almost took them from me, they gave a long speech about how these are no longer allowed to the public and how we abuse things and hinted that the army was going to start going around and taking equipment back .

The Fort Bragg DRMO guys always seem to take themselves a little too seriously and that guy was way too full of himself.

The army disposed of the equipment via DLA, so it'll be DLA who makes an effort for recovery, I'd like too see them try that - recover thousands or tens of thousands of items with no trace where the items went. That should be fun.

 

[DSO_351]

At military vehicle shows radio installation kits are for sale.

 

[DSO_351]

In volume 2 of the Humvee parts book look at Figures 409-428. They cover commo kits AN/GRC-160

 

[tennmogger]

A pair of the AS-3900 antennas would do the job for you. They make great dummy antennas, electrically and visually! You can search on "AS-3900 antenna", then click 'images' and see everything you need to know about their parts and pieces, in pictures.

 

[Blackmagic94]

Ied jammer is the last pic. I have one installed on my m1025

 

[1 Patriot-of-many]

Hey guys I have a few questions regarding whip antennas. I want to have dual whips, however I've been looking for the appropriate materials needed for them and I come up empty handed. I would like to know the the specifics of what I will need, down to every little nut and bolt. The farthest I got was found the proper brackets, I know I need the antennas, the holders for them (so they fold down), etc. Where do I go to order the miscellaneous material needed for completion of installing them? I don't feel like going on a wild goose chase, although I may have to for some parts it seems. Thanks in advance!

Here are some pictures...

View attachment 607982


View attachment 607983This one resembles the Humvee I got, what are those wires holding down the antennas??




View attachment 607984In regards to this one, what kind of antenna is that and is it available to the general public? If so where could I order it?

The rope is called an antenna hold down cable, make sure it has the clip on the end of the rope, The antenna's are As-3900 as noted previously, The Bolts, star washers, regular washers and nuts can be had at your local hardware store. Usually you can find the HMMWV brackets with the hardware to fasten them to the HMMWV. I have two As3900 and the brackets(one came with my humvee) Don't overspend on the AS3900, usually you can find them for around 100-150 complete with the base and tip. I grabbed some hold downs and brackets on here in the for sale section, if you PM me I'll get the energy to dig the seller up and measure the hardware I used for the antenna base to mount and the hardware that comes with the bracket kit.

 

[mrnjstrong]

Ied jammer is the last pic. I have one installed on my m1025

Where did you get it?

 

[tim292stro]

If you want to buy new, try First RF for the last one. Yes they $$$sell$$$ to the public (at least they did when I talked to them over a year ago), BUT expect to pay more for that antenna than for a new 6.5L engine long block...

I'm saving my bottle-caps for a set of four of them . If you're a HAM they have more uses than just E.W. They can cover a rather broad RF band of 300:1 from the public datasheet, if you start your bandwidth at 25MHz that takes you all the way up to ~7.5GHz. It would cover everything from CB to 5.8GHz WiFi in a single whip

 

[Lawdog734]

The rope is called an antenna hold down cable, make sure it has the clip on the end of the rope

I didn't know there was such a thing. We just used 550 cord.......

 

[mrnjstrong]

A pair of the AS-3900 antennas would do the job for you. They make great dummy antennas, electrically and visually! You can search on "AS-3900 antenna", then click 'images' and see everything you need to know about their parts and pieces, in pictures.

Thank you, yes I've been looking into these! It's a bit of a task trying to find them, and I wish there were a few sellers offering them in pairs it would make it easier.

 

[mrnjstrong]

If you want to buy new, try First RF for the last one. Yes they $$$sell$$$ to the public (at least they did when I talked to them over a year ago), BUT expect to pay more for that antenna than for a new 6.5L engine long block...

I'm saving my bottle-caps for a set of four of them . If you're a HAM they have more uses than just E.W. They can cover a rather broad RF band of 300:1 from the public datasheet, if you start your bandwidth at 25MHz that takes you all the way up to ~7.5GHz. It would cover everything from CB to 5.8GHz WiFi in a single whip

LOL wow, at that point I would rather have some kind of replica if there was one. I bet if I called to place an order they would be like "are you part of the military?". I can't believe you want four of them dang! I would be able to get into pretty much any frequency at that point.

 

[NovacaineFix]

I have been wanting to add the dual whips to my M1009 for a while now and started looking at the parts that I would need to do the same.
I local military surplus vendor here has a few of the AS3900's and other similar types of long 9' whips, but they are about $295 each, complete and stated "unused", but I haven't made it down there to see with my own eyes.

As for connecting the whips together for a dual whip antenna, it will not work as well according to my local HAM radio guys. Now all this is according to the head radio geek they had on staff, but he threw out some jargon that backed up his case, or at least made him sound like he knew what he was talking about.

What he was telling me, is that unless it is just for looks, you're fine, but in order to make it a functioning dual whip, you need to keep the 2 whips separated 9' apart which is equal to a quarter wave and the cable connection would have to have some sort of electrical coupler. I forgot what he was saying, because the dazed me with his radio voodoo sorcery for a bit.

I woke up after a few minutes and I had bought a mag-mount antenna and a aux speaker.

Anyway, all joking aside, he was telling me that simply connecting them together with a radio shack "T" coupler will work but will most likely just propagate a larger area in front of the vehicle when broadcasting with a CB and will take away signal area that is behind you. Then again, back to my original statement, if it's just for the look and no CB, then just find the antenna(s) you are looking for and mount away.

Good Luck!

 

[tennmogger]

Hi Tim292stro, are you referring to an RFR-105 antenna on which the datasheet is based? Interesting antenna. Very wideband as you said. I'd like to get my hands on one for some testing.

It could work fine for a wideband scanner or even ham transceiver. Looks 'right' on an MV too. I was looking for a spec sheet for (ham use) that would give gain figures and only found one reference stating 0 dBiL (db isotropic, linear polarization). That converts to -2.1 dBd (dipole) if I did the numbers right. File that in the 'for what it's worth' department, or round file Better ham performance would come from a simple quarter wave ground plane antenna cut for the band required.

If you want to buy new, try First RF for the last one. Yes they $$$sell$$$ to the public (at least they did when I talked to them over a year ago), BUT expect to pay more for that antenna than for a new 6.5L engine long block...

I'm saving my bottle-caps for a set of four of them . If you're a HAM they have more uses than just E.W. They can cover a rather broad RF band of 300:1 from the public datasheet, if you start your bandwidth at 25MHz that takes you all the way up to ~7.5GHz. It would cover everything from CB to 5.8GHz WiFi in a single whip

 

[mrnjstrong]

I have been wanting to add the dual whips to my M1009 for a while now and started looking at the parts that I would need to do the same.
I local military surplus vendor here has a few of the AS3900's and other similar types of long 9' whips, but they are about $295 each, complete and stated "unused", but I haven't made it down there to see with my own eyes.

As for connecting the whips together for a dual whip antenna, it will not work as well according to my local HAM radio guys. Now all this is according to the head radio geek they had on staff, but he threw out some jargon that backed up his case, or at least made him sound like he knew what he was talking about.

What he was telling me, is that unless it is just for looks, you're fine, but in order to make it a functioning dual whip, you need to keep the 2 whips separated 9' apart which is equal to a quarter wave and the cable connection would have to have some sort of electrical coupler. I forgot what he was saying, because the dazed me with his radio voodoo sorcery for a bit.

I woke up after a few minutes and I had bought a mag-mount antenna and a aux speaker.

Anyway, all joking aside, he was telling me that simply connecting them together with a radio shack "T" coupler will work but will most likely just propagate a larger area in front of the vehicle when broadcasting with a CB and will take away signal area that is behind you. Then again, back to my original statement, if it's just for the look and no CB, then just find the antenna(s) you are looking for and mount away.

Good Luck!

I hate when that happens! There's always that "one" person that thinks they know what their talking about and they really have no clue. Haha. It would be cool to have it working and all but for now I think I want them more for looks. I can't believe that each would be $295, that's probably because they're new and unused as you said. Now are they complete in terms of having all the necessary hardware to mount them? I would be interested. Does this surplus vendor have an online store?

 

[NovacaineFix]

Yes they do, I had to look really quick, since I wasn't sure.

I have been in the store and have bought mostly ammos cans, he has a good price on those. He sells a lot of comm equipment, not sure if it is a "good" price or not.

The link shows the AS3900 without a mount, not sure if one is included or not, does not state. I know for my M1009, the "sugar scoop" will not work correctly. Well it will, but not the way I would like.


http://www.murphyjunk.net/vehicle-related-items-installation-kits-lights-misc

antenna is about halfway down the page

 

[mrnjstrong]

Yes they do, I had to look really quick, since I wasn't sure.

I have been in the store and have bought mostly ammos cans, he has a good price on those. He sells a lot of comm equipment, not sure if it is a "good" price or not.

The link shows the AS3900 without a mount, not sure if one is included or not, does not state. I know for my M1009, the "sugar scoop" will not work correctly. Well it will, but not the way I would like.


http://www.murphyjunk.net/vehicle-related-items-installation-kits-lights-misc

antenna is about halfway down the page

Great! Thank you so much! Hopefully it has a mount and if not I'll buy them separately. I do have a question though... I want to keep it with the soft top in the back how it is currently, now with the normal mount such as this one: would I still be able to put the whips towards the front if I didn't want them up? Or would the soft top be in the way? That's why I'm not sure if I should get the mounts that have an offset such as this one:

 

[NovacaineFix]

Great! Thank you so much! Hopefully it has a mount and if not I'll buy them separately. I do have a question though... I want to keep it with the soft top in the back how it is currently, now with the normal mount such as this one: View attachment 608164 would I still be able to put the whips towards the front if I didn't want them up? Or would the soft top be in the way? That's why I'm not sure if I should get the mounts that have an offset such as this one: View attachment 608165

You know, I'm not sure on the Hmmwv's, someone else could probably answer that better than I could.
The ones that I see usually have the sugar scoop mounted to the side so not to interfere with the top like on your 2nd pic.

If you have the scoop mounted on the back, it looks like it would hit the soft-top in the stowed position. My truck is a M1009 aka Blazer, and the mounts are on the side.

here is a friends Hmmwv with multiple antennas on it, but he has the offset as well.

 

[gcbennet]

The antennas are a two-piece flexible'ish whip made of fibreglass that screws onto a base spring unit called an AMU (antenna modulator unit). It's Vietnam era stuff that was in service till the late '90's by most NATO countries and the components are readily available, especially on places like eBay. You'll usually see them accompany an RT-524 set in an MT-1029 tray because they're fairly abundant as well, albeit in non-working condition, typically. The antenna tie-downs are merely braided nylon cord with a metal clip on the end which is specific to the dia of the antenna tip so it doesn't slide. The antenna ball is a hollow plastic teardrop-shaped ball that's held on by an internal friction clip. They're rather flimsy and bust all the time.