GMRS Antenna Upgrade and First Amateur Radio Questions.

[Oranger]

Hello, I am looking to upgrade my antenna from the Midland MXT275 included one and am going to be buying my first amateur radio system. I am looking at the Yaesu FTM-400XDR for the radio due to APRS and having a decent system for sending text messages over APRS. Antennas, cabling, and mounting are my concerns as I am out of my knowledge pool with them. What are the thoughts on these items?

• Midland MXTA26
• Comet SS-680SBNMO
• 2 x Mounts for my JK Wrangler
• 2 x Cabling

Are there any reasons why this combination would not be a viable option? Are there better options than what I selected for this use? The Comet was chosen due to its spring for deflection of anything that might hit it. Thank you for any insights.

 

[Ubiety]

Looks reasonable, that yaesu aprs radio looks nice. I recently picked up the comet CA-2x4SRNMO antenna with CA-SPR Optional spring kit. The antenna is able to fold over manually on its own and spring kit adds a spring down low. Make sure that your nmo connector/cable is able to fit the mounts you are looking at. I re-wired when I put on the new comet and had to modify my existing external antenna mount bracket to make the new nmo adapter fit. Also, you may want an nmo adapter/cable without the pl259 end (radio side) attached. Pretty simple to solder that on and makes it possible to fish the wire inside through smaller (existing) holes.

Assuming you are going to end up with two antennas? Keep them far apart, vertically separated, as high as possible, yada yada yada ;)

Dual-Band | Comet Antenna

Dualband, dual-band mobile ham radio antenna, high gain mobile 2M/440 antenna

www.cometantenna.com

 

[Oranger]

Looks reasonable, that yaesu aprs radio looks nice. I recently picked up the comet CA-2x4SRNMO antenna with CA-SPR Optional spring kit. The antenna is able to fold over manually on its own and spring kit adds a spring down low. Make sure that your nmo connector/cable is able to fit the mounts you are looking at. I re-wired when I put on the new comet and had to modify my existing external antenna mount bracket to make the new nmo adapter fit. Also, you may want an nmo adapter/cable without the pl259 end (radio side) attached. Pretty simple to solder that on and makes it possible to fish the wire inside through smaller (existing) holes.

Assuming you are going to end up with two antennas? Keep them far apart, vertically separated, as high as possible, yada yada yada ;)

Dual-Band | Comet Antenna

Dualband, dual-band mobile ham radio antenna, high gain mobile 2M/440 antenna

www.cometantenna.com

I had not considered a spring add on, that seems so obvious now. I have a nice hole through the firewall in the JK on the drivers side so fitting a connector though is not an issue for me. I was planning on either side of the hood for distance with those mounts as the antenna would be about 6' apart then. They would be the same height from the ground at the base of the antennas. I am limited by garage door for really long antennas and high placements which is why 2'-3' is looking like my bread and butter zone.

 

[Ubiety]

I had not considered a spring add on, that seems so obvious now. I have a nice hole through the firewall in the JK on the drivers side so fitting a connector though is not an issue for me. I was planning on either side of the hood for distance with those mounts as the antenna would be about 6' apart then. They would be the same height from the ground at the base of the antennas. I am limited by garage door for really long antennas and high placements which is why 2'-3' is looking like my bread and butter zone.

Very good! I cannot speak to interference because I only run a single mobile, just keep antenna placement in mind if you end up troubleshooting. I have a 2017 JKU and the “stock” firewall holes are not big enough for the connector. Easy to overlook so I mentioned it - yep I have screwed that one up before. I’m actually thinking about getting a GMRS mobile for the Jeep, thanks for the nudge! I like the cute Midland with all the controls in the mic but there is a more powerful model available ;)

 

[Oranger]

Very good! I cannot speak to interference because I only run a single mobile, just keep antenna placement in mind if you end up troubleshooting. I have a 2017 JKU and the “stock” firewall holes are not big enough for the connector. Easy to overlook so I mentioned it - yep I have screwed that one up before. I’m actually thinking about getting a GMRS mobile for the Jeep, thanks for the nudge! I like the cute Midland with all the controls in the mic but there is a more powerful model available ;)

That certainly would be annoying to have everything delivered and run into something small like that and stop you in your tracks. I will have to wait and see about interference I guess. I went to convenience over maximum power with my Midland.

 

[Sparksalot]

How far are you trying to communicate? Also what terrain and obstacles will you likely encounter?

I have a very short dual band stubby, that is broad enough to go up into GMRS frequencies. I’ve used it to talk 5 miles, enough to communicate within a convoy. It’s mounted on the roof of my rig.

 

[Oranger]

How far are you trying to communicate? Also what terrain and obstacles will you likely encounter?

I have a very short dual band stubby, that is broad enough to go up into GMRS frequencies. I’ve used it to talk 5 miles, enough to communicate within a convoy. It’s mounted on the roof of my rig.

As far as I can without having antennas that interfere with my garage door. Mostly forests and bluffs here in MN. As I have a JK with both hard and soft tops I cannot mount things to the roof to get them up which is why I am looking at hood area mounts. I assume there would be a rather drastic impact with going with MXTA25 instead of Midland MXTA26.

 

[Sparksalot]

As far as I can without having antennas that interfere with my garage door. Mostly forests and bluffs here in MN. As I have a JK with both hard and soft tops I cannot mount things to the roof to get them up which is why I am looking at hood area mounts. I assume there would be a rather drastic impact with going with MXTA25 instead of Midland MXTA26.

There will be some, but maybe not as much as you think, in the forward direction. However, the windshield frame will impact the performance in other directions with that stubby antenna.

 

[Sparksalot]

You mentioned interference between antennas above. This is my current configuration. Th3 stubby is connected to a dual band Icom 2730. The center antenna is a 2meter quarter wave for a single band 2m icom. The rear antenna is a Larsen 10m that I sometimes use for CB. That position is a floater, since I put various antennas there, often a UHF quarter wave.

I have not noticed any interference between any combinations of radios in use.

 

[Oranger]

You mentioned interference between antennas above. This is my current configuration. Th3 stubby is connected to a dual band Icom 2730. The center antenna is a 2meter quarter wave for a single band 2m icom. The rear antenna is a Larsen 10m that I sometimes use for CB. That position is a floater, since I put various antennas there, often a UHF quarter wave.

I have not noticed any interference between any combinations of radios in use.

View attachment 151190

That is reassuring for potential interference.

 

[Oranger]

There will be some, but maybe not as much as you think, in the forward direction. However, the windshield frame will impact the performance in other directions with that stubby antenna.

So that looks like stubby is not going to be a possibility then.

 

[Sparksalot]

So that looks like stubby is not going to be a possibility then.

For a cowl mount I’d go with the taller antenna.

 

[Downs]

Before you start dropping high gain antennas on there keep this graphin in mind. Different tools for each job. Applies to antennas as well. If you have a lot of rolling land around or are talking over larger elevation changes a 6db antenna might not be the best bet. Keeping more than one antenna around doens't use up much space though so not a bad idea to have more than one option on hand. The shorter antennas might not look as cool since they don't whip around but can oftentimes in the areas we like to play work better.

 

[Oranger]

Before you start dropping high gain antennas on there keep this graphin in mind. Different tools for each job. Applies to antennas as well. If you have a lot of rolling land around or are talking over larger elevation changes a 6db antenna might not be the best bet. Keeping more than one antenna around doens't use up much space though so not a bad idea to have more than one option on hand. The shorter antennas might not look as cool since they don't whip around but can oftentimes in the areas we like to play work better.

No mountains here in MN. That is a good point to consider though, and that graphic does a good job of communicating. Since I cannot mount up high wouldn’t a taller antenna be better than a shorter one before taking gain into account anyways?

 

[Downs]

Antenna height is always king but the base of your antenna is still low on the cowling. You probably won't see any significant performance difference between a 30 inch whip or a 6 inch whip in that location other than the change of radiation pattern seen in the graphic. You'll probably be served well with the longer higher gain unit due to your terrain. That's why I run a higher gain unit here where I live, we're pretty flat as well. But I keep a 1/4 wave UHF and VHF antenna tucked away in the Jeep for when I head for the mountains.

 

[Oranger]

Antenna height is always king but the base of your antenna is still low on the cowling. You probably won't see any significant performance difference between a 30 inch whip or a 6 inch whip in that location other than the change of radiation pattern seen in the graphic. You'll probably be served well with the longer higher gain unit due to your terrain. That's why I run a higher gain unit here where I live, we're pretty flat as well. But I keep a 1/4 wave UHF and VHF antenna tucked away in the Jeep for when I head for the mountains.

Thank you for the insight. Swapping antennas as needed will be on my mind the next time I am at some mountains.

 

[Downs]

Just remember the radio wave doesn't originate from the top of the antenna, it radiates out from the entire length of the antenna so increasing the length of the antenna doesn't necessarily mean you're raising the height of the radio wave.

 

[old_man]

Running dual antennas is not as simple as just hooking up two antennas in parallel. It takes a matching network and the radiation pattern is dependent on the spacing between the antennas which is dependent on the frequency and shape of the ground plane. You can really screw up your radiation pattern if you don't do it right.

 

[Oranger]

Running dual antennas is not as simple as just hooking up two antennas in parallel. It takes a matching network and the radiation pattern is dependent on the spacing between the antennas which is dependent on the frequency and shape of the ground plane. You can really screw up your radiation pattern if you don't do it right.

This is two independent systems. Amateur radio dual band and GMRS.

 

[old_man]

This is two independent systems. Amateur radio dual band and GMRS.

OK, I must have read it wrong. It is best to keep even different band antennas as far apart as possible. You have to be careful if the two bands are harmonics of each other, as it complicates things.