So my friend gave me a Laird mag mount antenna for free (Why, I have no idea, guess because he had no use for it), I'm wanting to use this with a high gain VHF antenna for a railroad radio at my house. Problem is of course, no suitable ground plane on the house. What's the best way to get around this for cheap? Not really wanting to buy a base kit or anything like that. This is more of a "temporary" set up until I get a permanent antenna installed
Magmount for house use
- Thread starter iceman977th
- Start date
- Status
dmg1969
Member
Stick it on top of something metal like a metal filing cabinet, window air conditioner or even a cookie sheet or pizza pan.
Easy! Slap it on a steel rain gutter (bottom) outside and it should work great.
73,
n9zas
Easy! Slap it on a steel rain gutter (bottom) outside and it should work great.
73,
n9zas
Heard that wasnt the thing to do but its worth a try. Im also going to borrow my friend's high gain VHF antenna too. Hoping it will pick up decent.
mitbr
Active Member
Anything outside will usually perform better than an antenna inside the house.
Well the rain gutters aren't metal so there goes that idea. For right now it's sitting on top of the window AC unit (not in use obviously since it's below freezing outside), I would like to build a ground plane of some sort and set it on the roof somehow, but at that point I may be better with a small tower and base antenna set up.
I've used the air conditioner method, cookie sheet method and the gutter method. It may not be optimal, but often times it still works very well.
Often times what should work, and what does work are not the same. You may be surprised at how well the air conditioner method works.
Often times what should work, and what does work are not the same. You may be surprised at how well the air conditioner method works.
BM82557
Member
I use a paperweight that is a section of railroad track sawed through from top to bottom with a thickness of 1 1/2 inches.
rapidcharger
Member
Easy! Slap it on a steel rain gutter (bottom) outside and it should work great.
73,
n9zas
Are rain gutters still made out of steel in Illinois?
They're aluminum down here.
Any mag mount antenna needs a 'ground plane' which is at least 1/4 wave length in all directions from the antenna. So for VHF that would be 18" or 36" diameter.....
The 'ground plane' IS the other half of the antenna..............
The 'ground plane' IS the other half of the antenna..............
rapidcharger
Member
Who said anything about using a quarterwave whip/ antenna?
I give up - who did say that? cmdrwill was talking about the counterpoise, not the antenna length.
rapidcharger
Member
Right but couldn't they be using an antenna with a loaded coil(s), not requiring a ground plane?
True. But, we don't even know if this is a TX/RX antenna or just RX where the ground plane is less important. There are so many unknowns that if we start speculating on all the possibilities, we will be here forever.
Suffices to say that most mag mount antennas DO require a ground plane with Marine being a notable exception.
Suffices to say that most mag mount antennas DO require a ground plane with Marine being a notable exception.
As he's only receiving and not transmitting, the physical amount of ground plane is irrelevant. Don't nitpick. :wink:
73,
n9zas
The op is using a railroad radio at home, so obviously he's just using it as a receiver.
73,
n9zas
profiledescent
Member
It's for RECEIVING. Ya gotta love the readers who are ready to do a full Anritsu analysis of the guys set up.
Mag mount on top of the AC unit for a SCANNER will work fine. Obviously a DB-224 at 100 feet on Hard Line will work better, have more capture area, blah blah blah. Really? It's a flipping scanner, not a public service repeater.
Amazing isn't it, how all of those VHF handhelds have been transmitting and receiving just fine for 40 years, with no 19 inch chunk of metal under them. My TH-F6 hears two repeaters 90 miles away on it's standard "rubber duckie".
No worries iceman, you'll scan RR and all sorts of stuff just fine. Don't go wasting money on "Gain" scanner antennas or get too caught up in helpful advise.
Mag mount on top of the AC unit for a SCANNER will work fine. Obviously a DB-224 at 100 feet on Hard Line will work better, have more capture area, blah blah blah. Really? It's a flipping scanner, not a public service repeater.
Amazing isn't it, how all of those VHF handhelds have been transmitting and receiving just fine for 40 years, with no 19 inch chunk of metal under them. My TH-F6 hears two repeaters 90 miles away on it's standard "rubber duckie".
No worries iceman, you'll scan RR and all sorts of stuff just fine. Don't go wasting money on "Gain" scanner antennas or get too caught up in helpful advise.
- Status
Similar threads
