On Thu, 4 Jul 2013 12:48:10 -0400, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

He probably got put off when many on here were siding with the Motorola shop
instead of him.

It's possible. I have no way to tell. Reading between the lines in
the original posting:
"I an thinking about installing a full-length 5/8-wave whip,
but, we go into a lot of driveways with low tree limbs and I
doubt a full-length antenna would survive very long."
it seems like the antenna is on a county owned service tall van or
high truck. They probably have a service contract with the local
Motorola MSS to maintain the county owned radios. The shop is
required to use only genuine Motorola parts. If he wants to keep his
contract, he's probably stuck with using whatever the shop wants.

Incidentally, I forgot to mumble something about how to deal with tree
branch grabbing springs and coils. The problem is that a bent over
spring has large gaps into which tree branches fit nicely. When the
antenna straightens up again, it locks the branch into it's stainless
grip, and begins a tug of war. Sometimes, the grip is strong enough
to rip the antenna out of the vehicle roof.

Protecting coils are easy. Just use shrink tube over the coil.

Springs are not so easy. I tried various experiments and eventually
settled on flexible irrigation pipe or vinyl tubing. Find a size that
slips over the spring loosely. Run a ty-wrap around only the top of
the spring, not the bottom. When bent over, this sleeve will slide
upward, so make it a bit longer than the spring. I tried a sheet of
vinyl wrapped around the spring, but that tended to fall apart. Best
to use tubing.

Yes, it's ugly, but the uglier the antenna, the better it works.



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558