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Larsen Tri-band antenna

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clanusb

clanusb

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Well, I've been running it the last few weeks here in the Sacramento area. It picks up all the repeaters great on both VHF and UHF. I have not really scanned 7/800 or even 900 on it yet, though I will when I get a new scanner. As expected simplex range greatly diminished. It really is great quality, and I'm sure if I enabled pre-amp on my radios I'd get slight increases. I'll probably switch back to using the 2/70B and toss this one on when I'm on trails or need to use GMRS. Don't be afraid to get it and give it a try.
 
KevinC

KevinC

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Just received one. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I did sweep it. Below are the results from the Larsen and a Browning BR-137 (and yes I understand this just tells me how well the antenna is matched to the 50 ohm load I calibrated with ;)).

browning.jpg
larsen.jpg
 
KevinC

KevinC

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krokus said:
The Browning tested better than I thought it would.
Click to expand...

It actually performs quite well. I sealed up the hole on the stud the spring screws onto so I wouldn't have the water intrusion issue. I'm not very rough on antennas so I can't really speak for ruggedness and I only use an APX8000 on it so no high-power going through it. I wouldn't trust it for mission critical use though.
 
Ensnared

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My tri-band has been a favorite of mine for over two years. It has held up fairly well given my rough treatment.
 
W

W5lz

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Going only by the graphs presented, there's not 2 cwnts worth of difference between them. Without 'lab' equipment there's no way of telling the difference between them.
 
mmckenna

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W5lz said:
Going only by the graphs presented, there's not 2 cwnts worth of difference between them. Without 'lab' equipment there's no way of telling the difference between them.
Click to expand...

Nope, there isn't.
It's mostly a design change (the base) and a marketing change. When the originals were released, they were marketed as a scanner/monitor antenna and were not sold for transceiver use.
A while later, they started marketing it as a tri-band antenna for transceivers. Around the same time that the multiband LMR radios started hitting the markets.

This new one uses a different base and contact design that may or may not be more reliable (never really been impressed by the center pin "Pogo" contacts, they were disasters on the Motorola 800MHz antennas, but that was due to bad design on the insulator.
Also, the marketing has changed, now sold from the get go as an antenna solution for multiband mobile radios with coverage in the 700MHz LMR band.

For a scanner listener/amateur radio operator, either one will work just fine.
 
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