Safeguard UHF aerial against theft

Had a search and cant find any info. Just curious on how you people with uhf's have safeguarded your aerials against people stealing them and if it's worth just taking it off driving around town/city?

I understand if a thief wants to steal it, they will. But anything to make it take longer to steal(more chance of getting caught) or not worthwhile would be appreciated.

Cheers

Brett

bbryant85 said:

I understand if a thief wants to steal it, they will. But anything to make it take longer to steal(more chance of getting caught) or not worthwhile would be appreciated.

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Hi mate!

Your spot on there - if they REALLY want it, they'll get it. I had a friend who's SWB GQ Patrol was parked in front of his house, some bastard knocked of the the hub lockers.

In regards to your aerial, I've heard of some people using lock tight on the bolts or putting them in really sneeky places.

I just did it up as tights as I possibly could with a wrench, if they want it bad enough they'll get it but the longs it takes the better.

I've never had an aerial knocked off in 20 years (well only by trees when hauling logs out of the bush but trees are a truckies only going nightmare) but I have been weary of it happening.

20 years ago we used to remove the aerials from the mounts at major shops etc to make sure no bugger half hitched them but then if you don't use your CB all the time you do run the risk of forgetting to put it back on or deliberately leaving it off because of the effort and unless you do something to the mount to weather proof it you could find it developing issues later on. These days I just leave mine on and forget about it, it's tight (but not impossible) to get off anyway but I'd never consider trying to locktight it or anything because there are times where I might want to take it off.

I remove mine when I say pull up in Newy somewhere.

However usually I just leave it on the car.

Mine has a grub scew to lock it in place and you cant see it,
though if you knew what you were doing anything is stealable...

ah mine has a grub screw also. I will just take it off unless i know i am going to need it.

Thanks for the replies people

Brett

I have an on glass antenna that looks similar to an older phone antenna.
Noone has even tried to pinch it as far as I know however I dont really go anywhere to leave the truck in the open.

Unfortunately i had my cable cut today!!!!

either some bugger has tried to steal the aerial or in failing cut the cable on me ( i did the aerial up tight with a wrench)
damn it grinds my gears having this happen

does anyone know of a way to protect the cable from being cut etc?
or have strategically placed it somewhere hard to get to???

i havent had this happen although its only a cheap one anyway

mike1303 said:

Unfortunately i had my cable cut today!!!!

does anyone know of a way to protect the cable from being cut etc?
or have strategically placed it somewhere hard to get to???

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Maybe some stainless braid line from one of those engine "dress-up" kits the riceburners use.

I have a imperial brass bolt with the aerial running through the guts. I wound a metric thread onto it and did it up as tight as I could with locktit. If they want to try and take it off watch em strip the brass away!

Bvandermaat said:

Maybe some stainless braid line from one of those engine "dress-up" kits the riceburners use.

I have a imperial brass bolt with the aerial running through the guts. I wound a metric thread onto it and did it up as tight as I could with locktit. If they want to try and take it off watch em strip the brass away!

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Sounds like they would have more luck removing the bar from the car!

i would have been a little less angry had there been some evidence they had tried to steal the aerial. and failed. But to just have the wire cut, is a down right pain in the ass.....

have my suspicions though darn ex's

mike1303 said:

Sounds like they would have more luck removing the bar from the car!

i would have been a little less angry had there been some evidence they had tried to steal the aerial. and failed. But to just have the wire cut, is a down right pain in the ass.....

have my suspicions though darn ex's

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Yeah that's they way I wanted it. Too much of a pain in the ass to stick a new one on.
Jaycar sell connectors for pocket change. I have one installed under the bonnet for when I take the grill off.

Bvandermaat said:

Yeah that's they way I wanted it. Too much of a pain in the ass to stick a new one on.
Jaycar sell connectors for pocket change. I have one installed under the bonnet for when I take the grill off.

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thanks mate,

such a pain in the ass to fix, still cheaper then a new aerial

i think the only way to have it completly safe is not to have one lol but if you must, then a removable one would prob be the way to go, just unscrew the antenna off the base

What sort of connector from Jaycar do people use?

When I took my bullbar off to polish the headlights, I had trouble with the hard wired antenna so I'm looking to do something similar.
KB

I use a hard wire connector, which looks like this


Was thinking of getting a splitable joiner but figured I hardly need to take my grill off so there was no point.

Bvandermaat said:

I use a hard wire connector, which looks like this

Was thinking of getting a splitable joiner but figured I hardly need to take my grill off so there was no point.

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That looks the goods, but of shrink wrap over that and your laughing!

Those joiners are rubbish, better to use a couple of crimp or solder connectors.

Yeah solder would be the way to go. But that connector suits me fine for the moment. I am looking at getting a new UHF in the future anyway.

mike1303 said:

Unfortunately i had my cable cut today!!!!

either some bugger has tried to steal the aerial or in failing cut the cable on me ( i did the aerial up tight with a wrench)
damn it grinds my gears having this happen

does anyone know of a way to protect the cable from being cut etc?
or have strategically placed it somewhere hard to get to???

Click to expand...

a mate of mine just used 10mm copper tubing and painted it black that stops them