In preparation for my upcoming Moab trip I picked up a Midland MXT115 radio - geez, this thing is small! I'm going to mount it in the same place as my CB formerly sat, on my homemade ARR-style sport bar mount. That's the easy part. What's a bit more difficult is finding a place to mount the tiny little 6" antenna. I could cheap out and stick it on my existing CB antenna mount, above the driver's side tail light, but I don't think I'll get the best performance out of the antenna in that spot. I am thinking about putting a removable (magnetic) mounting plate centered on the front of the windshield frame just below the header bar weatherstrip. The RG174 coax is so thin that I think I can run it under the weatherstrip without damaging the cable, but then I will have to figure out what to do with 12 feet of coax bunched up behind the windshield trim. Would having that much cable coiled up on itself have a negative impact on transmission/reception? Can I shorten the coax and put a new connector on the end without screwing up the performance of the radio? I have a couple of weeks to figure this stuff out, and I'd appreciate some input from those (most of you) who know more about this than I do.
The microphone is the only thing about the radio that looks normal size to this CB-since-1970 guy. Just looking at how thin that coax is makes me nervous about trying to cut and splice it.
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