Hmm, maybe so. I don't have the education or experience to say otherwise or even evaluate the subject so it would be better for me to just stand-by and wait until I see The K2NEC HAM Guy chime in and comment with his expertise on this matter.
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Antenna SWR Help
- Thread starter parkerd619
- Start date
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
They look like this inside:
You can't take a 5/8th's wave UHF antenna, which would be 3dB and 15inches long, and cram it into a 3" tall can and have it work just as well. As prcguy said, the companies play fast and loose with the numbers. Larsen calls them "unity gain". Laird calls them "3dB".
Take your pick.
Yeah, I believe it. People often assume they need high gain antennas when often a 1/4 wave will work just fine, especially in the hills/mountains, better than one with a lot of gain. After playing with different antennas for years, I could never tell the difference between a 1/4 wave and anything else. Usually in the hilly/mountainous west, the topology kills your radio coverage before distance does.
prcguy
Member
I have one of those in my garage I got for free and although I have not used it yet it should be significantly better than any mobile antenna on a ground plane adapter.
My Diamond x200a does a tremendous job. It has great SWR on vhf, uhf, and the gmrs band. Your comment is spot on!
prcguy
Member
I have a Comet CA-712EFC and opened it up not long ago. I am impressed it’s a classic design using phase shifted lengths of coax for the radiating elements and phasing cables and not a bunch of brazing rod elements stuck together with phasing coils and dissimilar metal junctions like most Comet and Diamond base antennas. Not to mention tiny under rated capacitors in the base matching section that smoke at high power. This is basically the same design as the original 5dBd gain Stationmaster antenna but with a couple of extra elements.
What this means is the gain can be easily calculated from the number of elements and for repeater use there are no obvious dissimilar metal junctions to create passive IMD in a full duplex repeater system. Also, no tiny capacitors to burn out that I can find. I might just keep this one and they are a bargain at about $130 and also a good recommendation for GMRS base and repeater use.
The picture below shows the CA-712EFC on the right and another Comet or ?? antenna on the left with the brazing rod elements and chrome plated (very bad) couplers between some elements. I would estimate the CA-712EFC to be around 6dBd gain comparing it to an actual PD/Celwave Stationmaster of the same frequency range.
Note to the OP, just buy one of these and enjoy life.
What this means is the gain can be easily calculated from the number of elements and for repeater use there are no obvious dissimilar metal junctions to create passive IMD in a full duplex repeater system. Also, no tiny capacitors to burn out that I can find. I might just keep this one and they are a bargain at about $130 and also a good recommendation for GMRS base and repeater use.
The picture below shows the CA-712EFC on the right and another Comet or ?? antenna on the left with the brazing rod elements and chrome plated (very bad) couplers between some elements. I would estimate the CA-712EFC to be around 6dBd gain comparing it to an actual PD/Celwave Stationmaster of the same frequency range.
Note to the OP, just buy one of these and enjoy life.
You might want to get the Non-Ground Plane Phantom antenna if you're going to use a Phantom unless you are real close to the station you are communicating with.
