Looking for the best 2M/440 mobile antenna
 

Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything.

Any suggestions?

Thanks...

C. J. Clegg wrote:
Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything. Any suggestions?

My old Comet 2x4max is hard to beat.
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

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Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything. Any suggestions?

My old Comet 2x4max is hard to beat.

Or possibly a Cushcraft A27010S?

G,D,RLH

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

Realising its not what you are after..

- You live in very flat country? Be careful of high gain if you have hills.

- Dont use directive antennas on the mobile (eg a quad/yagi) as most
comms on VHF/UHF happen by reflection once you are beyond LOS and in clutter

- Height above ground clutter is VERY important. Whatever you end up
purchasing see if you can put it on a very high mount. (Even to the
point of mounting a 6ft poll on the vehicle and the antenna on top of
that - you did say length wasnt important!)

Cheers Bob VK2YQA

C. J. Clegg wrote:
Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything.

Any suggestions?

Thanks...

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 13:40:45 -0500, C. J. Clegg
wrote:


Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything.

Any suggestions?

Thanks...

the best antenna is a dual-bander mounted in a hole drilled in the
middle of your vehicle's roof...

bob
k5qwg

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 19:20:31 -0000, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

Or possibly a Cushcraft A27010S?

Hmmm ... that's a beam, right?

Probably not easy to use mobile (portable, maybe).

CJ

In article ,
C. J. Clegg wrote:

Or possibly a Cushcraft A27010S?

Hmmm ... that's a beam, right?

Right. 5 elements on 2 meters, 5 on 440.

Probably not easy to use mobile (portable, maybe).

True... but the original posting made a point of asking for maximum
gain, and said that type and mounting weren't important. Nothing was
said about "omnidirectional" one way or the other. (##grin##)

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 06:40:53 +1100, Bob Bob
wrote:

- You live in very flat country?

Not particularly flat ... (MA)

- Dont use directive antennas on the mobile (eg a quad/yagi) as most
comms on VHF/UHF happen by reflection once you are beyond LOS and in clutter

Right, I should bave been more clear, I'm looking for an
omnidirectional vertical.

I once had a Hustler 2-meter collinear, something like 5 db gain
omnidirectional, and five feet tall or thereabouts, with a 3/8x24
mount. Never had a better 2 meter mobile antenna before or since.
But, it only comes in a monoband version, and only 2 meters and 220.
If I could find something dual-band for 2 and 440 that's as good as
that one was, I'd be happy.

CJ

Dave Platt wrote:

Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything. Any suggestions?

My old Comet 2x4max is hard to beat.


Or possibly a Cushcraft A27010S?

G,D,RLH


I wouldn't by any Cushcraft antennas produced since Joe left. They
don't have the same reasons behind their designs anymore. Like quality.

tom
K0TAR

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 13:40:45 -0500, C. J. Clegg
wrote:


Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything.

Any suggestions?

Thanks..

If antennas are physically about the same size you are not going to
see a dime's worth of difference between them.

If you happen to look at your S-meter when driving you will note it is
not unusual to see signals varying more that 20 dB as you are diving.
Believe me you will never notice a 1-2 dB difference.

Danny, K6MHE

Gee I am gong to have to learn those state abbreviations... So many of
them start with "M" grin

I use to work on UHF radio equipment installs being used on the flat
areas in western NSW (Australia). One of the common setups was a 9dB
fibreglass whip (476MHz - about 6ft long). It had to be setup just right
otherwise the few degrees of tilt you got from air movement would lift
the pattern in front of the vehicle above the horizon and make it all
but useless.

I also hear that 1/4 wave whips are almost essential if you are driving
amongst high rise buildings.

Also did some tests recently on the "gain" of a vehicle mounted 1/4 wave
vs a test dipole antenna at 4 metres height. There was about 10dB
between them, we assumed because the 1/4 wave was still very much in the
ground clutter. This was on 149MHz and LOS.

My view is that any dual band antenna is going to be a huge compromise
anyway and high gain on both bands unlikely. I am however prepared to be
shot down over this!

Apologies for waffling on!

Bob VK2YQA

C. J. Clegg wrote:
On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 06:40:53 +1100, Bob Bob
wrote:


- You live in very flat country?


Not particularly flat ... (MA)

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 13:40:45 -0500, C. J. Clegg
wrotF:


Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything.

Any suggestions?

Thanks...
I'm using the Comet CA-2x4SR . It seems to work quite well on 70cm
and about the same as 5/8 wave on 2m. I had originally tried a
Jetstream JT7905L and it actually seemed a little better on 2m and
70cm receive, but the swr was higher than I liked on the high end of
70cm where the local repeater inputs are .

I've had two dual band mobile Comets that seem to get water logged in
the loading coil. It seems to loose gain especiually on 2 meters after
about 1 year on the car. The coil is well sealed so I think it is a
condensation problem. I have drilled a small hole in this last one to
let the water vapor OUT and it seems to have solved the problem.

Mark

Hi,

I have had good luck with the Larsen 2/440 with the NMO mount.

Good luck,

Doug W3IIY

C. J. Clegg wrote:
Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything.

Any suggestions?

Thanks...

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 13:40:45 -0500, C.J.Clegg wrote:


Looking for the very best 2M/440 dual-band mobile antenna made.
Looking primarily for the highest gain on both bands. Mounting and
size (length) are not important, i.e. can be anything.

Any suggestions?

Thanks...

Larsen NMO2/70B or NMO2/70C in years of mobile operation no other
mobile antenna has delivered the day after day performance these antennas
have.