Do Not Attempt This At Home
I had a few comments left recently on an older video that I thought I should address. First off was this comment.
He brings up a good point that the NMO style mount is not the most structurally sound mount out there, and it's likely to fail at some point if you have an ATAS-120 mounted to one.
I wanted to make it crystal clear in this video (and blog) that I only mount the ATAS on my truck or Jeep when I am at the POTA activation site. I don't drive around with it on the NMO style lip mounts.
This is just me making due until I get a better, permanent mount on each vehicle for the ATAS. The Jeep would be easy. I can just place another modified lip mount with the SO-239 connection on the Jeep's roof rack. For the Toyota, I'm still weighing my options.
Get It Grounded
Another comment was from someone having problems getting his ATAS-120 to work. Without seeing he's setup first hand, I can only assume he is not getting a good enough ground for the antenna's motor to work. The key is to get a good ground by making sure the screws of the lip mount are contacting bare metal.
I have not bonded my hood to the rest of the truck. But with the four set screws tightened into the hood, my ATAS-120 works as it should.
Although I should probably do some bonding. It is hit or miss to get 40 meters to tune. I'm guessing bonding the hood to the truck frame would improve performance on 40.