Mobile Antenna Suggestion

[GrumpyGuard]

I am currently using a Comet Tri-band antenna (2 meter, 1.25 meter and 70 cm). My radio is a Yaesu FT 7800. This antenna is far to big for my car and I was wondering what suggestions would be for a good dual band antenna with NMO mount. The current NMO is attached using a lip mount on the trunk. I know this is not the best way to install, but I am under orders that I can install anything I want as long as I don't drill any holes.

 

[kayn1n32008]

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Larsen NMO 2/70. And if it is too tall go with a Vhf 1/4 wave, as it will resonate in the 70cm band as well

 

[w2xq]

On my SUV I use a dual-band Comet B-6 on a hatchback lip mount. No holes. The antenna clears my garage door and parking garages in Philadelphia without any problem. HTH.

 

[Skypilot007]

I just put a comet SBB-2 on my car. It seems to work well but haven't had much of a chance to try it out yet. On the SWR meter it is very broad banded on UHF with good SWR below 1.5:1 all the way up to 470MHz.

 

[timkilbride]

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Larsen NMO 2/70. And if it is too tall go with a Vhf 1/4 wave, as it will resonate in the 70cm band as well

I did that for several years, worked well.

Tim K.

 

[W2NJS]

Look at the Diamond NR72BMO, which is 13.8 inches and covers UHF and VHF. I run two of them on my relatively tall Subaru 2011 Outback. Catalog claims to be a VHF quarter wave and UHF half wave with 2.15 dbi gain on both bands. I don't think there are any dualbanders shorter than this one.

 

[SCPD]

Comet SS680 SB. Comes in 2 flavors... NMO and PL29. I've been getting good results wit it.

 

[zz0468]

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Larsen NMO 2/70. And if it is too tall go with a Vhf 1/4 wave, as it will resonate in the 70cm band as well

I've tried a couple of Larsen dual band antennas, and was not impressed. I had better UHF coverage inside the car with an HT. I was so disgusted with the performance, I lopped the top 6" of the whip and ended up making a 1/4 wave spike out of it. It worked MUCH better.

The 2 meter antenna operating on a 3rd harmonic works ok, but caveat emptor... operated in that configuration, there are several radiation lobes well above the horizon.

 

[GrumpyGuard]

Everyone thank you for the suggestions. I will look into these suggestions and see which one will work best for my setup.