I have some questions that I have never really attempted to solve myself. Two years ago, I got a new truck and had a pre-tuned, Antennex 1/4 wave antenna mounted on the hood of my Tahoe. I always got complaints about the quality of my signal when out on calls in an urban setting. I put a Diamond amateur dual band antenna on my truck and tuned it for our channel (155mHz range) and things improved slightly. One of our resident radio gurus said that amateur equipment was not very durable and I would probably see performance start to drop off after a while. Well, here we are 2 years later and I am noticing a performance drop from where I was. I haven't put a meter on my rig, but I do notice that reception is not like it was before. Here are my questions:
1) Is there really that much difference in performance between 1/4 and 5/8 wave antennas?
2) What about the comments from the radio guru about the quality of amateur equipment?
3) What would explain the performance drop off that I have noticed?
4) Should I pull out the old quarterwave and try to tune it for my current setup?
5) I am using a hood mount because I have no other choice (overhead clearance issue). Is that setup really as directional as some suggest?
Thanks in advance for the suggestions.
Mike F
1) Is there really that much difference in performance between 1/4 and 5/8 wave antennas?
2) What about the comments from the radio guru about the quality of amateur equipment?
3) What would explain the performance drop off that I have noticed?
4) Should I pull out the old quarterwave and try to tune it for my current setup?
5) I am using a hood mount because I have no other choice (overhead clearance issue). Is that setup really as directional as some suggest?
Thanks in advance for the suggestions.
Mike F