NMO or mag mount?

[BryanTheRed]

Should I use a moble vhf/uhf/800mhz NMO or mag mount or does it even matter?

 

[jim202]

It depends on how bad you want to scratch up the paint where you use the
mag mount. Any long term use will scuff the paint. It doesn't matter how
clean you keep the mag mount. Take it from us that have used the mag
mounts as temp antennas. I use them on rental cars all the time and keep
some auto polish hand just to try and buff out the scratches.

Jim

Should I use a moble vhf/uhf/800mhz NMO or mag mount or does it even matter?

 

[daedalus]

A solid NMO mount will provide superior reception as compared to a mag-mount with the same antenna. It all really depends on the signal strength of what you want to monitor.

I've always had body mounts, usually NMO, on my vehicles - eventually. When the car is old enough that I stop worrying about the first ding - on goes the NMO! Before that I usually settle for a mag-mount or even a thru-the-glass antenna. I keep trying thru-the-glass and learn every time tha tthey are virtually worthless for anything other than very strong signals.

I suspect, but can't prove, that the NMO is better than the mag-mount because of the true ground that it provides.

I just got a new car recently. Started with a new Valor thru-the-glass antenna and switched the following day to a mag-mount with a "Hershey's Kiss" size mount. The thru-the-glass acted almost a a dummy-load! I was concerned at first about it staying in place because the magnet is so small. No problem, even in rain and at a speed that I won't publish. My interest is VHF high and UHF only. I don't know that I'd want to try a small magnet with an antenna tuned for the VHF low band.

 

[BryanTheRed]

Well here it will be used to monitor SHP on VHF low band, and since I have a 2 way VHF high I would only need to monitor VHF low and 800mhz trunked I looked at some antennas and I am mainly finding split band antennas in the VHF high UHF and 800 range, and I'm not much for the huge 1/4 wave low bander.. so maybe that will help. But I actually think the SHP low band is patched to a trs 800 system, I know the portables they carry now are XTS 5000's so........

 

[daedalus]

It sounds as if you may need the VHF low band solution. In that case I'd look at going with the NMO body mount. Anything much more than VHF high and a mag-mount is prone to either falling off at speed or marring the paint.

 

[BryanTheRed]

will this be ok for the 800 band also?

 

[Al42]

will this be ok for the 800 band also?

Not really - it's just a random length wire mounted close to the vehicle body (a bad thing) on 800.

All scanner antennas are a compromise - you have to decide whether 800 or VHF-lo is more important, use an antenna that covers the band that's important to you, and take whatever you get on other bands. Remember, 800 is almost always repeated and VHF-lo is almost never repeated, so your range (using a proper antenna for the band) will almost always be greater on 800 than it is on VHF-lo.