De plane...de...oh whatever, you know...
usnasa,
Here's some basics you should try and commit to memory:
Most smaller vertical antennas "attempt" to "be" a 1/2wave at their designed for center frequency. For the most part, the 1/2 wave design is the most common and overall useful "core" of most vertical and horizontal antennas. I am WAY over simplifying here but I am trying to "stick to bare bones basics" for usanasa's benefit. I know there are exceptions, etc., etc. Ok...
Now, very simply put, you get the wavelength of a particular frequency by dividing the speed of light by the frequency. A simplified form of the equation which works for frequencies in MHz is
300 divided by the frequency in MHz (300/Freq. in MHz) = wavelength in meters (in free space with no air, atmosphere, etc.).
So, for example, 300/150MHz equals 2 meters. A meter is approximately 39.37 in. So you get 39.37 x 2 = 78.74in. That's a FULL WAVELENGTH at 150MHz.
Now, because we are shooting for 1/2 wave to make our antenna we go for 1 meter or about 39.37in.
The 1/2 wave design is most commonly realized as a dipole which has two elements each a 1/4 wave long and fed by the lead in at the center. If you use coax you would connect the center wire to one half of the dipole and the shield to the other half (I am not going to go into baluns at this point - just trying to get him in the general ball park). You can mount this vertically or horizontally but for typical land mobile radio usage we go vertical. The center feed makes the antenna match reasonably well to common coaxial impedances (it comes to about 70 ohms and works ok for either 75 ohm or 50 ohm coaxial cable).
Common variations of this are the coaxial dipole, the end-fed 1/2wave, the so-called "ground plane", and the 1/4 wave whip with a ground plane.
The most common type you run into for mobile usage is the 1/4 wave whip. To work properly, the 1/4 wave whip needs to have its "second half" to make a full 1/2 wave. That "second half" is what is referred to as "the ground plane". This is provided by the vehicle's metal body (say the car roof top or the trunk lid, etc.). Basically, you want that ground plane to be big enough to work at the frequency of choice if at all possible. The lower the frequency the longer the wavelength, the longer the antenna and the bigger the ground plane needed for ideal performance.
For our example at 150MHz, we would need the 1/4 wave whip part to be about 19.5in (roughly half of 39.37in) and the ground plane to be at least that long measuring out from the center. If the ground plane is larger that's usually ok. But if it is below the desired length performance will worsen. A car roof top or trunk lid will usually provide a decent enough ground plane for most land mobile radio frequencies. So the common 1/4 wave whip is often used in such setups.
If you lack a good ground plane, say because you have a fiberglass top as in some motorhomes and on boats then you should provide one either by using radials that are of the correct length attached to the shield of the coax at the base of the 1/4 wave vertical element (shield is attached to the radials and center conductor is attached to the vertical element). The more radials the better but 3 or 4 should suffice. They can either be sloped down at an angle or spread out at a 90 degree angle from the base (technically, a 30 to 45 degree angle should provide a better match at 50 ohms but so many other factors come into play in practical real world setups that this is usually not a concern) or even just dropped down vertically (so you get your 1/2 wave vertical dipole).
Other options when you lack a ground plane to mount your antenna on are to use the coaxial dipole, which is basically just a normal dipole mounted vertically with the lower half being a "tube" wherein the coax is fed through it to connect to the middle, and the end fed 1/2wave wherein the lead is attached at the base of a 1/2wave continuous element and a matching network is used to match the impedance to that of the line. Both of these types of antennas do not need a ground plane as they are a full 1/2 wave long.
The other common antenna used in base station use is the so-called "ground plane" antenna. This is just a 1/4wave whip with radiating elements to make the ground plane just as described above.
What you are trying to do is use a mobile antenna inside the room and give it a decent ground plane at the frequency of interest. For 860MHz we get 300/860 = 0.349meters which is 0.349m x 39.37in/m = 13.73in (full wave length). 1/4 of this would be 13.73in/4 which gives you 3.43in. So your vertical element needs to be about 3in in length and your ground plane needs to be at least that long. So the table you are currently using looks pretty decent for 860MHz. At the lower frequencies, of course, it gets more limited. But any ground plane is better than none for a 1/4 wave whip. Now those numbers are ideal numbers in free space with no air/no atmosphere. Hear on Earth the speed of light slows down slightly so we get slightly different numbers. But, especially for receive only purposes, this gets you in the ball park.
Just try and remember:
1) Wavelength in meters = 300/Frequency in MHz.
2) 1 meter = approx. 39.37in.
3) 1/2 wave antenna is core design.
4) 1/4 wave antenna needs its "second half" or "ground plane" to work properly.
5) The "ground plane" can be radials made of wire, metal rods, etc. or a large base of metal that has at least enough surface area to accommodate the correct "length" of ground plane radiating out from the base of the antenna and is coupled to the coax shield.
The magnet mount antenna effectively "attaches the ground plane to the coax shield by means of "capacitive coupling". This is not a direct connection (in terms of DC) but it works at radio frequencies - just trust me here as to explain this further wouldn't be practical at this point and add way more to an already lengthy post on my part.
Multi-band antennas use various "tricks" to try and get overall acceptable performance across a large frequency range. Some designs work better than others but overall, most are a sort of compromise versus having a tuned antenna dedicated to the frequency of interest. Again, explaining this is beyond the scope of this post.
You should really try and memorize these basic points as they will help you get a handle on all this "antenna and ground plane stuff".
-Mike