Vehicle Setup - ID5100a with two antennas

[spitzman]

I'm about to pull the trigger on a ID5100a. I have an 880h now and looking for some more options when scanning/transmitting. I have a 3/4 ton truck with about 9" of clearance to the top of the header board going into the garage. A friend of mine recommended some Stico antennas citing they were incredibly flexible and performed very well. I see they offer a flexible whip in single band antennas only. With this being a dual band radio, would it be possible to use an antenna splitter to filter the 2m/70cm bands to their respective antennas? I have two NMO mounts on the roof of the truck. I was thinking of using one for the 2m band and one for the 70cm band.

Thoughts? Am I better off getting a single band radio for each antenna, plus a scanner in addition? The 5100a can scan one one side and tx on the other simultaneously which is a nice feature.

Thanks in advance as I build out my truck's radio!

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, the Stico antennas work well. Very flexible and won't have an issue with 9" of clearance. They are not cheap, though.

Consider a regular NMO 1/4 wave, they are also really flexible and a lot cheaper. My dad had a 1/4 wave VHF antenna on top of a Chevy that went in and out of the garage all the time, no issues.

As for options….
A single 1/4 wave 2 meter antenna will act like a 3/4 wave on 70 centimeters. I've done it for years, no issues. SWR is nice an low. Radiation pattern on 70cm lobs a bit high, but it's still usable. So, either way, Stico flexi whip or a standard NMO 1/4 wave, it'll work as a dual band antenna.

I've found the Larsen antennas with the spring in the base are very tolerant to garages and low tree branches. I've never had an issue with them, other that one where I had about 4 inches of clearance and the spring took a permanent set.

 

[spitzman]

How expensive are the Stico antennas? I've seen them about $60 a pop. Good to know about the 3/4 wave on 70cm. I didn't know that. If I'm being honest with myself, I don't TX on 70cm that often if at all ever over a period of a few months. My biggest use case is TX on 2m and scanning public safety. I'm on a fire department so being able to scan all bands is nice.

If I did want to go with an antenna for each band, are splitters even a realistic option? Or are they just awful in signal loss that it's not worth it?

 

[mmckenna]

$60 sounds about right for a single purchase for consumer/ham price.

When I ran a dual band ham radio, I was like you, rarely used 70cm, primarily used 2 meters. But the antenna didn't care either way. I'm on the West Coast, so usually repeaters are on mountain tops, so a slightly higher radiation angle on UHF wasn't an issue at all.

Should work just fine for VHF and UHF use. On VHF, 1/4 wave are very broad banded. I've swept mine with 2:1 or less SWR from 144 all the way up to 174. UHF will be less, but reality is most of the stuff you want to listen to is in the 460 range, so not a big deal. Probably not going to be a stellar performer on 7/800MHz. If you want that, you might be better served by one of the new Larsen multi-band antennas with the spring in the base.

You can use a diplexer to split the common antenna port on the radio out to a VHF port and a UHF port. They work just fine. They add a negligible amount of loss (in most cases). Costs more, plus you need two antennas.

I never had an issue just running a single VHF 1/4 wave whip.