• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

    If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.

    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

    This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.

Location of 3 antenna

Delivers1234

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2016
Messages
347
Reaction score
15
Location
Modesto, CA
Hi. If you could mount 2 nmo and on lip mount on hood how which antenna would use use where??

144,430.
Gmrs
Cb

Cb would be longest so probably better in good.

Which antenna would work best at the hood mount or suffer the least?

Trailsport Honda 2025
 

jeepsandradios

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jul 29, 2012
Messages
2,522
Reaction score
1,864
Location
East of the Mississippi
Personally I'd put them all on the roof as far apart as possible. If I had to do a fender mount I'd probably do GMRS but it also depends on antenna your using and what your main communications are. For my SAR vehicles VHF is primary and is first and foremost, then UHF for our TLMR and lastly ham/cb/gmrs stuff. But on my Jeep my APRS is my primary focus and that is the best location, then GMRS then CB. All antennas will work on a fender bracket but not as well as on the roof. So I'd put the least used on the hood. But putting 2M/440 next to GMRS isn't the best option either. So guess I go back to GMRS on fenderr, HAM and CB on roof.
 

mmckenna

I ♥ Ø
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
27,547
Reaction score
33,587
Location
United States
Antennas are going to work better when they have a proper ground plane under them. The amount of ground plane you need will matter:

144.430 = about 38" diameter

GMRS = about 12" diameter

CB = about 18' diameter.

Plus, shadowing from the vehicle body.

Easy to put the VHF antenna on the roof, at least 19" in from any edge. That'll give you the best possible performance with an ideal ground plane. Same for GMRS, at least 6" in.

Putting either of those antennas down on the fender is going to result in shadowing that will result in reduced performance to the rear of the vehicle. It will also provide a lopsided ground plane that will make the antenna somewhat directional.

Getting a full 1/4 wave ground plane for CB is impossible on any road legal vehicle. There just isn't any way to get a full ground plane under the antenna. Shadowing isn't much of an issue since the upper part of the vehicle is way less than a 1/4 wave. The CB antenna is going to suffer to some extent no matter where you put it, so mounting it on the fender is not likely to be super noticable. Yeah, ideally you want them all on the center of the roof, but that wasn't one of the options you gave.


The another way to look at this is:
Which radio service is most important to you? If ham or GMRS are not as important as CB, then put the CB in the better location (top of roof).


As for the VHF & UHF antennas, keep in mind that all coaxial cable has some amount of loss. Those losses go up with cable length, the losses also go up with frequency. More cable means less signal to/from your radio. Higher frequencies suffer more. You would gain a slight advantage by using the mount that had the shortest cable run on the roof for GMRS (higher frequency) and put the 2 meter antenna on the other roof mount with more cable (less impact on the lower frequency). But that's kind of splitting hairs.
 
Top