NMO (new motorola) connectors

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oft

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Moderator:

Please feel free to move the thread as you wish. I really did not know which section to place this post in.

I am looking for plain NMO connectors or something like a NMO to BNC adapter connector. I have found pre-made NMO to BNC with 12-16 feet of wire between the connectors where you drill a 3/8 inch hole into metal and install from the bottom-side up and place a nut on the top side to tighten the assembly. However, I am looking for something very compact. I looked at radio shack and online at allied, digi-key, Newark, Mouser, Jameco, Arrow, and Ramsey with no success.

The reason why I am looking for NMO connectors is because I am seriously considering procuring a Austin Spectra antenna because of the reviews about it being very flexible across the entire radio frequency spectrum. Even though I live three miles from the coast, the rubber ducky antenna on my BCD396XT scanner will not pickup the marine radio band but picks up the aircraft bands in the 130MHZ and also the rail band 160MHZ and NOAA weather 162 MHZ band with ease. So I wanted to try something different.

I would have to mount it internally in the attic because of the terms of my lease so any outdoor scanner antenna mounted outside is out of the question. Thinking about this, I was wondering how I would create a ground plane since most applications of this antenna use either a magnet-mount base or a trunk-mount bracket that has the NMO with cable and use the metal of the car as a ground plane.

The ground plane ideas I thought about was either the ground plane antenna with four horizontal elements or four to eight elements bent at a 45° angle similar to some of the discone antennas I have seen.

Is there something out there that I may have missed? Thanks for your help in advance
 

thomast77

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Your interests seem to be mainly in the VHF range. You would probably be better off building a 1/4 wave ground plane. It would be cheaper and I would think it should work better in VHF than a wideband antenna. UHF should work very well too. I would make it for somewhere around 150-155 mhz.

BUILD A GROUND PLANE ANTENNA FOR 2 METERS AND MORE - SIMPLE AND EASY!

Edited to add: If you do decide to go with the Spectra. There is another user in another thread who mentioned he was happy with the Larsen BSAKIT ground plane kit. It converts the Spectra to a ground plane. And would convert the NMO mount to an SO-239. You could then attach whatever length of Coax you desire.
 
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KJ6HCB

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Get a mag mount NMO antenna base with the connector of your choice on the end, slap the mag on a cookie sheet as a ground plane and place in attic - done! :D
 

n9mxq

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To add to KJ6HCB's suggestion.. I've also used pizza pans, the side from an old computer case, a file cabinet...
 
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