Mobile quad band to base station

[Osprey1163]

Hi everyone,
I recently bought a quad band TYT TH-9800 mobile transceiver, 10m/6m/2m/70cm. It came as a package with a trunk mount quad antenna. I want to use it as a base station transceiver, but I'm not going to be living here long enough to make it worth putting up permanent antennas.
I know you can convert mobile antennas to a base station using radials, though it's not an optimum solution. Is it possible to do that with a quad band antenna? If it is, I have no idea how long to make radials for 4 bands.
The antenna is going to be mounted in the attic. I'm not too concerned with perfect reception/transmission, I just want to be able to play around & learn how to use the radio.
I was wondering if anyone here could give me some guidance. I'd appreciate It!

Chris Carson

 

[BeerSuds]

What type of antenna/mount did it come with? You might be able to get a mag mount and a piece of sheet metal for it.

 

[mmckenna]

Hi everyone,
I recently bought a quad band TYT TH-9800 mobile transceiver, 10m/6m/2m/70cm. It came as a package with a trunk mount quad antenna. I want to use it as a base station transceiver, but I'm not going to be living here long enough to make it worth putting up permanent antennas.
I know you can convert mobile antennas to a base station using radials, though it's not an optimum solution. Is it possible to do that with a quad band antenna? If it is, I have no idea how long to make radials for 4 bands.
The antenna is going to be mounted in the attic. I'm not too concerned with perfect reception/transmission, I just want to be able to play around & learn how to use the radio.
I was wondering if anyone here could give me some guidance. I'd appreciate It!

Chris Carson

Ground radials should be at least 1/4 wave length long at your lowest frequency. Ideally. Longer is OK.

On the 10 meter band, and probably the 6 meter band, an average car isn't big enough to provide a perfect ground plane for these bands, yet it still works.

Easiest way to do this is to put something conductive under the antenna. You can lay down aluminum window screen in an "X" pattern with each part of the "X" being 16 feet long (1/4 wave at 10 meters from under the antenna out to the end.
You could use aluminum foil.
You could use copper wire.
You could use some conduit, copper water pipe, etc.

The only challenge with mounting it in the attic is that any metal in the roofing materials will be problematic. So will foil backed (vapor barrier) insulation, HVAC ducts, metallic water pipes, electrical wires, phone wires, cable TV/antenna, etc.

 

[prcguy]

The best thing you can do with one of the quad band mobile antennas in an attic is use some 4ft wide chicken wire and use two pieces as long as you can make them in an X pattern and plant the antenna in the middle with the mount grounded to the chicken wire. You can usually staple the chicken wire to the wood rafters to keep it from rolling up.

 

[Osprey1163]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! We'll see how it goes....