mmckenna
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It's a specific Larsen Wide Band 1/4 wave mobile antenna with a thick whip and spring in the base. It does sweep differently that a standard 1/4 wave whip.
Tram Multiple antennas
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It's a specific Larsen Wide Band 1/4 wave mobile antenna with a thick whip and spring in the base. It does sweep differently that a standard 1/4 wave whip.
Sorry to bring up old topic, I skimmed to see if it was discussed but didn't see it. When an antenna is described as "wideband" it isn't the frequency's bandwidth as we are used to, but the antenna's bandwidth. Like mmckenna stated, the basic 1/4wave whip is the standard for CalFire as it hits the best of both worlds. If looking for antennas still besides the discone, look for a "wideband" commercial VHF, something that has a bandwidth of around 24Mhz. That means the antenna will sing well 12Mhz below and 12Mhz above your center freq. Cut for 162Mhz that gives you 150-162 and 162-174.
Also, you mentioned CalFire aircraft are down in 151 range, but that is only for the first day of a fire (initial attack). If a fire goes extended into day 2 on, the fixed wing will be anywhere between 162-174 and the air/ground will likely be 158-159 on a calfire upper tac (if a Calfire incident). Also extended fires will usually move their tacs to the upper 13-37 tac areas of CalFire, releasing the lower Tacs 1-12 back for initial attack. So, from a "perfectionist" perception, your major fires will primarily be 158-174, with a bit of 154. And already mentioned here regarding the Rotor Victors down in the AM air band, for RX you will not hear a difference at your elevation between an antenna cut for 162 and one cut for air band. I use a BA1010 for my master RX, and I get aircraft 130miles away if we're line of sight.
Also, you mentioned CalFire aircraft are down in 151 range, but that is only for the first day of a fire (initial attack). If a fire goes extended into day 2 on, the fixed wing will be anywhere between 162-174 and the air/ground will likely be 158-159 on a calfire upper tac (if a Calfire incident). Also extended fires will usually move their tacs to the upper 13-37 tac areas of CalFire, releasing the lower Tacs 1-12 back for initial attack. So, from a "perfectionist" perception, your major fires will primarily be 158-174, with a bit of 154. And already mentioned here regarding the Rotor Victors down in the AM air band, for RX you will not hear a difference at your elevation between an antenna cut for 162 and one cut for air band. I use a BA1010 for my master RX, and I get aircraft 130miles away if we're line of sight.
HappilyRetired
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That's an awfully expensive antenna for my casual listening. $1,000 is just too rich. My wife would string me up by coaxial cable. LOL. That's why Tram was recommended to me. My ham Elmer tells me that he has taken apart Tram, Diamond, and Comet antennas and they are identical on the inside. But yet I've read wonderful reviews on the Diamond and the Comet and mixed to terrible reviews on the Tram. He is a two way radio repair tech and I have come to trust his word. He recommended that I get a 3dB gain antenna instead of a 6 or a 9. I always thought more was better. Funny, but my wife said the same thing. 🤐 He described it as having more like a round receive pattern and the higher you go the gain gets more pinpoint. If I were just listening to repeaters at altitude it would make sense to go with a higher gain but since I'm hearing tactical traffic from calfire down below me I'm told that the antenna won't see down there. This is all Greek to me.
The sad part about some of this is that although after all the years in police work I don't really want to listen in on routine calls, with all the riots taking place it would be nice to listen. But I read somewhere on this fantastic site that they are going to trunking and encrypted under something called LA-RISC? The same with LASO. That about sucks. I can hear both of them fairly well from here surprisingly. For now anyway. That's just using the discone. God help me, I'm turning into a scanner geek. LOL. I guess I got the ham bug too. He let me talk to some guy in England on DMR. I haven't got a clue what that is but I did it.
He did say something as far as aircraft goes though. He said basically just get some wire up in the air but that the discone was the better choice if I wanted to listen to general aviation or military out of Pendleton. As a private pilot, that could be fun. Other than that, I don't know anything about tuning antennas and I can't even tuna fish. We'll see how old you are. LOL.
Sorry - I thought I removed that line when I posted. It was a recycled/dumpster-dive/gift. My wife is very forgiving of my hobby, but I agree, purchasing that would mean she and kids go on the next two family vacations to Disneyland without me. "I just spent my tickets..."
Professionally I usually deal with the PCTEL MWB1320 and Laird B132 for mobile installs where I have a metal roof. But I've got one of those on a tripod with a mobile-to-base kit that supplies ground radials with an NMO mount, and UHF connector and they work great for any of my temporary/field setups. I cut them to 162 to cover the 150-174 band, and then for one that I operate 2m ham on, I cut to about 155 so I'm not heating up the radio as much, and lose a bit on the upper end (shrug).
HappilyRetired
Member
Sorry - I thought I removed that line when I posted. It was a recycled/dumpster-dive/gift. My wife is very forgiving of my hobby, but I agree, purchasing that would mean she and kids go on the next two family vacations to Disneyland without me. "I just spent my tickets..."
Professionally I usually deal with the PCTEL MWB1320 and Laird B132 for mobile installs where I have a metal roof. But I've got one of those on a tripod with a mobile-to-base kit that supplies ground radials with an NMO mount, and UHF connector and they work great for any of my temporary/field setups. I cut them to 162 to cover the 150-174 band, and then for one that I operate 2m ham on, I cut to about 155 so I'm not heating up the radio as much, and lose a bit on the upper end (shrug).
Well, you wouldn't want to miss out on Disneyland. But from what I hear, not everything at the Magic Kingdom is going swell. Mickey Mouse wants a divorce from Minnie Mouse. Mickey spoke to the judge about the separation. "I'm sorry Mickey, but I can't legally separate you two on the grounds that Minnie is mentally insane..." Mickey told the judge, "I didn't say she was mentally insane, I said that she's $%=/>;% Goofy!" Now might not be a good time to visit.
As far as the rest of it I'll have to get a better handle on what all of that means. I did read somewhere that the PCTEL antenna is the choice for fire departments because of its broadband nature on VHF. What I don't understand is why Orange County, San Bernardino County, and Los Angeles County are not on VHF but everybody else is. I can hear calfire all the way to the Mexican border.
I know that we're really only like halfway through the traditional fire season even though fire season in California never really ends. I'd like to get a good run down somewhere on this site of what frequencies are used when a fire goes past initial attack per area. I downloaded a cheat sheet that tells me what some of the fire speak means. Being trained in NIMS I already know what operational periods are. As I recall from my training there's an ICS form that gets filled out that has the frequencies on it each day but I don't know where to get that online.
What I don't get is when a fire is under unified command what channels to listen to after it gets so big that the initial primary agency gets pushed out of the way and a type 1 or type 2 team gets called in for management. I've looked at the NICS frequencies but there's so many.
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