GMRS

OTH Overland said:
Ran out of good antenna locations on the JKU so ended up with a cowl mount from Rugged Radio, and went thru three different antennas before finding one that had acceptable SWR in that location, the one that came in the box with the midland (Yes I am one of the few that uses Midland aparently..lol) was about useless as was the ghost style. I ended up with a Lard BB4502NS, about 7 or 8" long and managed to get 1.2 SWR, very well build strudy antenna. Have its taller cousin on the WJ and that one is under 1.1, but in the middle of a flat metal roof rather than up against a window frame.
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Yeah cowl mount here too, not the best location but not the worst either. Depressingly few good locations to mount an antenna on a Jeep. I have an excellent SWR, don't recall exact number but was surprised it was so good with the following antenna. I added the optional spring kit and bash it through branches regularly and without worry.

Comet CA-2X4SR broadband antenna with optional CA-SPR spring kit.
 
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Ubiety said:
Yeah cowl mount here too, not the best location but not the worst either. Depressingly few good locations to mount an antenna on a Jeep. I have an excellent SWR, don't recall exact number but was surprised it was so good with the following antenna. I added the optional spring kit and bash it through branches regularly and without worry.

Comet CA-2X4SR broadband antenna with optional CA-SPR spring kit.
Click to expand...

I ended up testing all the various antennas in a multitude of locations until i figured out which ones could get the best swr in a given location, just moving the HAM antenna a few inches on the hood, made a huge difference. Now I have the following:
  • GMRS - Rugged Radio mount on drivers side cowl (Laird BB4502NS) 1.2 SWR on 15
  • HAM - Comet CP-5NMO adjustable mount on passenger side of hood close to front (Browning BR-180 dual band) a touch under 1.2 on 146.520
  • Scanner - Comet CP-5M) on drivers side about a foot away from GMRS (Browning BR-180 dual band) seems happy with no interferance from the GMRS (have tuned this one to work on ham bands so I can swap them over if the HAM gets broken on the trail
  • CB - Tire carrier mount (Firestick 4 foot w/ top loaded coil) 1.3 SWR on 19 (tried several antennas in this location, standard NMO mount with base loading was horibble, 3 foot firestick to short) really do not use CB much, just still there for historical reasons..and the occasional conversation with log trucks trying to sneak up on us. (seems like even most of them are going to business band these days though)
All antennas are black in a mediocre attempt to have them blend in ... still looks like a hedghog though.
Now have a cell phone booster I need to add to the roof rack, will be using a folding mount from RAM so it can stay hiddedn between RTT and awning when we are not out exploring.
 
I replaced my Ghost antenna with a Laird BB4505CNS. Same mount location as the Ghost (cowl). The tip is just over the top of the roof. On a recent trip I was communicating with repeaters 30 miles away. One comm was from O'Hare airport to Joliet, IL and the other was from Rensselear, IN to Lafayette, IN. Flat land compared to GA where I live. The Ghost antenna seemed to be good for about 17 miles (still pretty good) I was using the Ghost on the trip North and switched to the Laird on the way home.

I'm going to keep the Ghost for those trails that are tight with lots of tree branches invading my space.
 
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Z Adventures said:
I replaced my Ghost antenna with a Laird BB4505CNS. Same mount location as the Ghost (cowl). The tip is just over the top of the roof. On a recent trip I was communicating with repeaters 30 miles away. One comm was from O'Hare airport to Joliet, IL and the other was from Rensselear, IN to Lafayette, IN. Flat land compared to GA where I live. The Ghost antenna seemed to be good for about 17 miles (still pretty good) I was using the Ghost on the trip North and switched to the Laird on the way home.

I'm going to keep the Ghost for those trails that are tight with lots of tree branches invading my space.
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That is why I love the spring kit added to my antenna, I bash through the undergrowth and it complies and springs back.
 
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