I have a vehicle that the roof is not flat (2018 Honda CR-V). The roof is kind-of “turtle” shaped.
So, if I put the antennas on the roof itself… they would to be not completely vertical.
I’m wondering how much this would degrade performance (if any) or would it work at all?
I’m assuming it will degrade performance and accuracy. If that is indeed the case, I will have to make a plate that can have the antennas on it and mount that to the side-rails that the vehicle has for a roof-rack. I just don’t want to do that if I don’t have to.
Has anyone else used the Kraken on a vehicle with a similar roof? Success? Fail?
I don’t have mine yet but want to be prepared when it shows up. I’m going to be using the Kraken 5 antenna kit.
What frequency are you interested in?
Mostly 430-450 with a center of 440 or so. May want to do VHF later (144-148).
Thank you
@krakenrf_carl will have a better feel for this.
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A mild curve won’t degrade it much, but it it’s very curved, and the antenna elements are clearly sticking out in different directions it can cause problems.
I looked at photos of the 2018 Honda CR-V and it doesn’t look that badly curved though, so you might be able to get away with it.
Thank you.
I think the actual roof angle is about 2 degrees maximum from what I can measure.
I’ll give it a try and see how it works when the time comes. I’m already planning on using the roof racks to make a flat mounting steel plate/surface down the road that can be put on/taken off at will as well, but that may not be practical either.
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Curved metal eh?
I have a slab of glass
It’s a pain in my glass
Yeah… definitely have to make something for that!!!
Remember that the signal you are hunting for may have (purposefully) changed the angle of their antenna to obfuscate their location. Vertical vs horizontal will affect the strength of the received signal and, more importantly, the strength of reflected signals. I suspect that a slight tilt would have little effect until one of your tilted antennas matches the angle of the transmitter’s antenna. Then the signal strength would increase but I don’t think the DoA phase would be altered (I’m guessing here). A local hunter here also has a glass ceiling…what I have done is built a “Chrysler” symbol framework on which I attach my antennas. I must say though that my system is not working yet.
Best of luck! AD6XJ
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