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Laird CR450 UHF Base Antenna Mounting Suggestions

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Good morning I wanted see if I can get suggestions for mounting this antenna in a mobile home. I was thinking about buying this antenna. As said in my other thread about omnidirectional antennas and yagi antennas. Do you guys think I should by this antenna or not because of the size? It has really good gain to it. Here is the link to the antenna.

https://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=37250&eventGroup=4&eventPage=1.

Thank you
 

cmdrwill

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Anthony, do NOT waste your money on that one.. Gain, you have to be hoodwinked on that,

What IS your actual application?
 

n0nhp

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Mounting is easy, a couple of 3" stand-offs and a section of mast.
However height above ground will give you much more range than adding gain at the antenna. At 450 MHz a good coax is important as well.
The ringo series of antennas are good wideband nearly foolproof antennas and have been for many years, whatever the corporate name on them.

Again, more info is needed as to it's purpose to give you a definitive answer on whether it is a good fit for you.
 

kayn1n32008

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Good morning I wanted see if I can get suggestions for mounting this antenna in a mobile home. I was thinking about buying this antenna. As said in my other thread about omnidirectional antennas and yagi antennas. Do you guys think I should by this antenna or not because of the size? It has really good gain to it. Here is the link to the antenna.



https://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=37250&eventGroup=4&eventPage=1.



Thank you


Yea, waste of money. 2dB is nothing for gain especially for UHF.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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Messages
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Peoria, IL
Anthony, do NOT waste your money on that one.. Gain, you have to be hoodwinked on that,

What IS your actual application?

Mounting is easy, a couple of 3" stand-offs and a section of mast.
However height above ground will give you much more range than adding gain at the antenna. At 450 MHz a good coax is important as well.
The ringo series of antennas are good wideband nearly foolproof antennas and have been for many years, whatever the corporate name on them.

Again, more info is needed as to it's purpose to give you a definitive answer on whether it is a good fit for you.

It will be used to pull in our cops better on UHF for a scanner. I wanted to put it in a bedroom if possible. I wanted some options because it would costs $88.17 from Tessco.
 
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
1,124
Location
Peoria, IL
Good morning I wanted see if I can get suggestions for mounting this antenna in a mobile home. I was thinking about buying this antenna. As said in my other thread about omnidirectional antennas and yagi antennas. Do you guys think I should by this antenna or not because of the size? It has really good gain to it. Here is the link to the antenna.

https://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=37250&eventGroup=4&eventPage=1.

Thank you

Mounting is easy, a couple of 3" stand-offs and a section of mast.
However height above ground will give you much more range than adding gain at the antenna. At 450 MHz a good coax is important as well.
The ringo series of antennas are good wideband nearly foolproof antennas and have been for many years, whatever the corporate name on them.

Again, more info is needed as to it's purpose to give you a definitive answer on whether it is a good fit for you.

It will be used to pull in our cops better on UHF for a scanner. I wanted to put it in a bedroom if possible. I wanted some options because it would costs $88.17 from Tessco.

Would I be better buying a 5/8 wave mobile UHF antenna or not?
 

n0nhp

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In a bedroom?
Getting any kind of antenna outside of a mobile home will improve your reception 100% more than any antenna mounted indoors.
Throw a pizza baking pan on the roof, toss a 1/4 wave magmount on it and enjoy.
A 5/8 wave mobile antenna is only half of an antenna, although for receive it really wouldn't matter whether it was mounted on a ground plane or not.
If you have to go to a stealth type antenna due to park restrictions, I would find a dipole that are usually included with home stereo receivers, tape it to the rain gutter and put a BNC connector on it and plug it into the scanner.
Just getting the antenna outside of the tin box will give you far more gain than any antenna you put indoors.
 
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In a bedroom?
Getting any kind of antenna outside of a mobile home will improve your reception 100% more than any antenna mounted indoors.
Throw a pizza baking pan on the roof, toss a 1/4 wave magmount on it and enjoy.
A 5/8 wave mobile antenna is only half of an antenna, although for receive it really wouldn't matter whether it was mounted on a ground plane or not.
If you have to go to a stealth type antenna due to park restrictions, I would find a dipole that are usually included with home stereo receivers, tape it to the rain gutter and put a BNC connector on it and plug it into the scanner.
Just getting the antenna outside of the tin box will give you far more gain than any antenna you put indoors.

I dont want to put it outside because I dont want it blow off in a thunder storm or snow storm. Would a 1/2 wave UHF mobile antenna do any good?
 

mmckenna

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I dont want to put it outside because I dont want it blow off in a thunder storm or snow storm. Would a 1/2 wave UHF mobile antenna do any good?

It would be better than nothing. Depending on the construction of your home, you may or may not have metal siding, trying to use an antenna inside could be disappointing. Even if your home doesn't have metal siding, some insulation has a metallic vapor barrier. Getting the antenna outside will probably help a whole lot.

The original antenna you posted isn't that big a deal, and I wouldn't pay $85 for it. I used to have a VHF version of that, worked just fine for what I needed. Very basic, simple antenna. Worked well for me in a valley where high gain isn't necessary. It'll certainly work better than a hand held antenna indoors. Mounting is pretty easy, they'll slip over a piece of 1" EMT conduit and lock down with a bolt.
The wind loading is pretty low, so unless you mounted it with duct tape, I wouldn't worry too much about it blowing away.
A simple 1/2 wave UHF mobile antenna would work just as well, and probably be cheaper. It would be low profile and isn't going to have significant wind load to cause issues.
 
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It would be better than nothing. Depending on the construction of your home, you may or may not have metal siding, trying to use an antenna inside could be disappointing. Even if your home doesn't have metal siding, some insulation has a metallic vapor barrier. Getting the antenna outside will probably help a whole lot.

The original antenna you posted isn't that big a deal, and I wouldn't pay $85 for it. I used to have a VHF version of that, worked just fine for what I needed. Very basic, simple antenna. Worked well for me in a valley where high gain isn't necessary. It'll certainly work better than a hand held antenna indoors. Mounting is pretty easy, they'll slip over a piece of 1" EMT conduit and lock down with a bolt.
The wind loading is pretty low, so unless you mounted it with duct tape, I wouldn't worry too much about it blowing away.
A simple 1/2 wave UHF mobile antenna would work just as well, and probably be cheaper. It would be low profile and isn't going to have significant wind load to cause issues.

Did you get very far in range with the orginal antenna I posted? Here is the other antenna I was looking at.

https://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=23461&eventPage=1
 
Joined
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Messages
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Peoria, IL
Mounting is easy, a couple of 3" stand-offs and a section of mast.
However height above ground will give you much more range than adding gain at the antenna. At 450 MHz a good coax is important as well.
The ringo series of antennas are good wideband nearly foolproof antennas and have been for many years, whatever the corporate name on them.

Again, more info is needed as to it's purpose to give you a definitive answer on whether it is a good fit for you.

Would it fit on a bracet that is hooked to a shelf?
 

mmckenna

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I'm in a valley, so it's difficult to determine range. I could hit repeaters on mountain tops 40 miles away.
Running simplex (radio to radio), I could get 15 miles.

Getting 15mi in simplex is very good. Can you hit all the Wal-Marts with it in your area? 40mi is not that bad for repeaters.
 

jim202

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Did you get very far in range with the orginal antenna I posted? Here is the other antenna I was looking at.

https://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=23461&eventPage=1


There are several problems with using a mobile antenna outside, mounted on a mast or tower. The first is that the antenna requires that a mounting base be used. These are designed to be used on a vehicle on a roof or fender. Mounted outside, they are not waterproof. You would be exposing the mount and coax to the weather.

Another problem is most of these antennas require a metal ground under the antenna. Mounted on a vehicle, the metal roof acts as the other half of the antenna, mainly the ground reflector. There is a base mount adapter that adds the ground elements under the antenna, but doesn't do a whole lot to weather proof the base of the antenna and coax.

The bottom line here is there is no really low cost antenna. You get what you pay for in a base antenna.
 
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There are several problems with using a mobile antenna outside, mounted on a mast or tower. The first is that the antenna requires that a mounting base be used. These are designed to be used on a vehicle on a roof or fender. Mounted outside, they are not waterproof. You would be exposing the mount and coax to the weather.

Another problem is most of these antennas require a metal ground under the antenna. Mounted on a vehicle, the metal roof acts as the other half of the antenna, mainly the ground reflector. There is a base mount adapter that adds the ground elements under the antenna, but doesn't do a whole lot to weather proof the base of the antenna and coax.

The bottom line here is there is no really low cost antenna. You get what you pay for in a base antenna.

So I be better with the base antenna?
 
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"So I be better with the base antenna?" Yes, and avoid the cheep stuff out there. Do not get hoodwinked by gain figures.

A mobile antenna on a ground plane, counterpoise, works well. Rember the antenna system has TWO parts.. antenna AND Counterpoise.

Base Station: http://comtelcoantennas.com/PDF/BS450U.PDF
http://comtelcoantennas.com/PDF/BS450XL3.PDF

Both these have a true full copper dipole construction.

Thank you for the info. I dont know alot about antennas expect that gain antennas go more toward the horizan. But that is anther whole different thread. I dont want to go to far OT.
 

mmckenna

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If you use the proper NMO base, not the mobile versions, they'll work just fine outdoors. A true "base station" antenna will probably outlast it, but we are talking about hobby use here, so do what you can afford.
 
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Peoria, IL
Anthony, do NOT waste your money on that one.. Gain, you have to be hoodwinked on that,

What IS your actual application?

Mounting is easy, a couple of 3" stand-offs and a section of mast.
However height above ground will give you much more range than adding gain at the antenna. At 450 MHz a good coax is important as well.
The ringo series of antennas are good wideband nearly foolproof antennas and have been for many years, whatever the corporate name on them.

Again, more info is needed as to it's purpose to give you a definitive answer on whether it is a good fit for you.

Would I be better buying a 5/8 wave mobile UHF antenna or not?

I dont want to put it outside because I dont want it blow off in a thunder storm or snow storm. Would a 1/2 wave UHF mobile antenna do any good?

It would be better than nothing. Depending on the construction of your home, you may or may not have metal siding, trying to use an antenna inside could be disappointing. Even if your home doesn't have metal siding, some insulation has a metallic vapor barrier. Getting the antenna outside will probably help a whole lot.

The original antenna you posted isn't that big a deal, and I wouldn't pay $85 for it. I used to have a VHF version of that, worked just fine for what I needed. Very basic, simple antenna. Worked well for me in a valley where high gain isn't necessary. It'll certainly work better than a hand held antenna indoors. Mounting is pretty easy, they'll slip over a piece of 1" EMT conduit and lock down with a bolt.
The wind loading is pretty low, so unless you mounted it with duct tape, I wouldn't worry too much about it blowing away.
A simple 1/2 wave UHF mobile antenna would work just as well, and probably be cheaper. It would be low profile and isn't going to have significant wind load to cause issues.

I'm in a valley, so it's difficult to determine range. I could hit repeaters on mountain tops 40 miles away.
Running simplex (radio to radio), I could get 15 miles.

Getting 15mi in simplex is very good. Can you hit all the Wal-Marts with it in your area? 40mi is not that bad for repeaters.

If you use the proper NMO base, not the mobile versions, they'll work just fine outdoors. A true "base station" antenna will probably outlast it, but we are talking about hobby use here, so do what you can afford.

Just a note to the people that are helping me. I want to buy it because I am experminting with different external antennas. Should I buy this antenna to expermint with? Any other mounting suggestions.
 
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