Looking for antenna suggestions - MobileHam Forum at eHam.net

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eHam.net Forum : MobileHam : Looking for antenna suggestions

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Looking for antenna suggestions	Reply
by TOMINOREGON on October 23, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I am planning to purchase some new equipment to fill out my car's communications. I plan on using a Yaesu FT-8800R for Ham bands and unlocked Yaesu FT7800R for listening to 153 & 154 mhz for Public Safety frequencies. I have both of these radios now. In the future I plan on having an Icom 2200 for D-STAR in place of the 8800 and a type-certified Yaesu for the Public Safety frequencies. I am looking for suggestions for antennas that I can use now and later as well as antenna mounts. I am thinking about using 2 motorized Diamond mounts since I plan on parking in my garage and in the parking garage at work. Thanks, Tom

RE: Looking for antenna suggestions	Reply
by TOMINOREGON on October 23, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I will be transmitting on 153 and 154 MHZ in the future, so I need to have a good SWR at those frequencies. I would like to stay with NMO mounts if possible and stay away from commercial mounts. Thanks, Tom

RE: Looking for antenna suggestions	Reply
by K0BG on October 23, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Sorry OM, but using an amateur radio transceiver to transmit on commercial frequencies is STRICTLY against the law! Get caught, and away goes your commercial AND amateur licenses! Besides, there are very few commercial antennas with this amount of bandwidth. Those that are available, are pug ugly. Do a Google search for Railroad Antennas. Alan, KØBG www.k0bg.com

RE: Looking for antenna suggestions	Reply
by TOMINOREGON on October 23, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
It's not illegal to transmit on that band in an emergency and it's never illegal to listen. As soon as funds are available I will put a type-certified radio in its' place as mentioned in my post. The only bandwidth I need is 152-155ish MHZ for one antenna and 2M/440 for the other one. I was afraid this would happen. I didn't want to turn this into another thread about the legality of using amateur equipment out of band. I'm just looking for suggestions for antennas that would work in my situation. Oh, and I had a typo in my original post. I will be installing an Icom 2820 next year, not a 2200. I apologize for any confusion. Thanks, Tom

RE: Looking for antenna suggestions	Reply
by K0BG on October 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
The solution is to make that clear, up front! Also, the new rules just got released about such operation, and should be read by all amateurs. Most VHF antennas have enough band with to cover the spans you mention. For example, I use an Larsen NMO2/70BK, and the 2:1 bandwidth is enough to cover almost 3 MHz. The same could be said for the business end. Alan, KØBG www.k0bg.com

RE: Looking for antenna suggestions	Reply
by WB5JEO on October 24, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
For more than 25 years, I've used a variety of antennas in mixed amateur and public safety (police and EMS) service. I cut them for a compromise, somewhat favoring the public safety end because that's what I'm more likely to want to use for emergency traffic from a fringy location. This includes plain cheapo 1L/4 "pimp sticks." The 5L/8's were Larsen, both through the glass and conventional, and Antenna Specialist. All the radios were quite happy, kept working well for many years, and are still working well, Motorola, King-Bendix, and Kenwood. If you want a 5L/8, I've found Larsen to be consistently solid construction. But the reality is that there's not enough real-world performance difference compared to a simple 1L/4 to matter much, give or take more favorable mounting position, which can make a difference under marginal conditions, if your public safety base antenna doesn't have the best tower position. As a long-time mixed service user, I'd really suggest you just pick one and split the difference in tuning. I guess which end you favor could depend on if you will put a lot of transmit time in on one over the other.

RE: Looking for antenna suggestions	Reply
by TOMINOREGON on October 28, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Thank you for your input everyone. Tom

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