UHF antenna

I have a xtl5000 UHF Range 2 with O3 HHCH.

What is the best antenna regards to reception and keeping vehicle covert. My two choices are

Or




Please advise. Thanks


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Neither. A car with either of those antennas would be called 'unmarked' which is entirely different than covert... Covert usually means the registration/DL/anything about the car does not come back to a LEA... A car with either of those antennas is going to stick out like a sore thumb... They are a dead giveaway that a car is 'government' agency...


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What kind of vehicle, if it has a rear inside shelf I like the old UHF whip inside a tissue box for covert.

13 tahoe lt. Sorry I always say covert when I refer to unmarked kayn1, but you are right. Prefer these to antennas. Radio system is on a trunk and some channels are non trunk.


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radioman2001 said:

What kind of vehicle, if it has a rear inside shelf I like the old UHF whip inside a tissue box for covert.

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I know a bunch of guys who did exactly that in the old days. I'm following the thread because I bought a used P71 cheap and am "de-buffing" it (I don't want to be driving around looking like what it used to be, so I'm changing the grille and tail lights to look like a Mercury). That's hard to do when you're a ham and need the antennas. I saw a guy who posted a multiband shark fin kind of antenna on Facebook, but then said the price was like $500. I'd just rather put a 5/8 over a 5/8 on the car before I'd sink that much into an antenna.

To Matt9638's point, what you might want to consider is finding burglar alarm tape and making an inverted T out of two strips, the bottom should be 12 inches, the top should be 6. Put it toward the back of the rear passenger side window (the one that doesn't open). Use the peel/stick screw terminals to connect your coax to the tape. You could also do an L shape, but that might be more directional. Or, you can put the shield right into the chassis of your Taco under the sidewall's plastic and upholstery and just have a 6" straight-up piece. Experiment around for what has the best VSWR. If the window has non-conductive window tinting film, you might not even see it from the outside.

I might do that with this car and try to make it look like part of the rear window defroster.

What I don't like are the AM/FM antennas with the coupler box. I had such a hard time with those in a past life. Going back a while, seems every time the deputy police chief keyed his microphone, his Syntor (not an X or X-9000) would gazorch the "local stereo station - you know, the one that plays that Frank Sinatra." The car had a fake cup holder that flipped up to conceal the control head. (As if people could not tell a fleet Caprice driven by a guy wearing a $20 off-the-rack Sears suit wasn't....)

I always ran a standard 1/4 wave whip, which is 6" tall, and very thin, on my Tahoes. Unless you were 6 foot 7 and really looking for it, it was virtually unnoticed, especially with the roof rails still on.

The Laird antenna you posted would probably work better than the Larsen puck antenna, but honestly, neither will work well.
A big black disk or a black radome sticking up on top of your vehicle will likely stand out much more that just a simple 1/4 wave whip will. A 1/4 wave whip will outperform either of these, and have wider bandwidth.

Some agencies used to put their 6" quarter wave whips in the wheel wells facing down (placed so there was clearance to allow proper operation of the wheels, especially when steering if done in the front wheel wells). This provided OK operation while having the look of no antennas (unless you really looked closely).

Trivia from 60's: The local PD had an extra curb feeler on the left rear fender. Just a tad longer at 18 inches for their VHF simplex system.

One mentioned the 1/4 wave whip. On UC units we cut the ball of the end of the whip and painted them to sort of match the cars color. These were NMO type.

The Larsen is worthless. I wouldn't reccomend that antenna to my worse enemy. I used to install those on a bunch of sidewalk plows because of the low profile, they couldn't talk across the steet with them. They have since moved to 1/4 wave stico flexible whips and what a difference.

The Phantom works ok, not as good as a 1/4 wave in my experience even though they claim a gain of 3db. I'd go with a black 1/4 wave, looks better, cheaper, and will work better.

12dbsinad said:

The Phantom works ok, not as good as a 1/4 wave in my experience even though they claim a gain of 3db. I'd go with a black 1/4 wave, looks better, cheaper, and will work better.

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I use the Laird 800 MHz model on the right rear corner of my vehicle, I simply unscrewed the MOT 1/4 wave (which I discarded as useless) and screwed the Laird down tight onto the existing NMO. The gain is better than the 1/4 wave, is it 3 db? Who knows? Works okay though.

quarterwave said:

I always ran a standard 1/4 wave whip, which is 6" tall, and very thin, on my Tahoes. Unless you were 6 foot 7 and really looking for it, it was virtually unnoticed, especially with the roof rails still on.

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Agreed. If you don't do some fancy inside job, a 1/4 wave right in the middle of the roof is harder to notice than you think. You can even spray paint the base or the whip (or both) to dumb it down even more, depending on the color of the vehicle, rails, day or night use, etc.

Good luck.

I would recommend a UHF 1/4 wave antenna, they are the lowest profile and best performing antenna you will ever find!!

Just put a good high gain antenna out in plain sight.

You]'re not gonna "stick out like a sore thumb" as long as your vehicle isn't a whacker-mobile.
Most people won't even notice it, and the ones that do will think it's a CB antenna.
And either one of the antennas you posted pictures of, just about anyone would think was a satellite radio antenna, if they noticed it at all.

We use the Laird Phantoms extensively for UHF and 700/800. We have zero issues with them.


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