To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:
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To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.
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For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).
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If I'm not mistaken I think they do but on vhf your rx and tx is going to be diminished because of the antenna length/design. What prevents you from using a traditional 1/4 wave?
Yes they do, but like WCFC80 and FFPM571 say, they suck.
We have one on a fire truck, and it's got no range at all, compared to a 1/4 wave whip.
If you really need low profile, put a 1/4 wave on, and bend it back.
Yes they do, but like WCFC80 and FFPM571 say, they suck.
We have one on a fire truck, and it's got no range at all, compared to a 1/4 wave whip.
If you really need low profile, put a 1/4 wave on, and bend it back.
I use Laird Phantom antennas extensively. They are the cat'a meow on 700/800 and are acceptable on UHF. On VHF they are quite large (about 5" in diameter) and their bandwidth is only about 1MHz. Unless you have a specialty application that requires minimal vertical clearance, need very minimal bandwidth and are working with a very strong system they wouldn't be advisable.
An option if you want something that blends in is the Sharkee. We have had pretty good luck with them and you get a lot of use out of a single roof penetration. http://www.sharkeenow.com/