What NMO antenna has the best SWR for GMRS on a mobile setup that is under 120$?

[nokones]

Well, I'm done with Laird products. I've been buying Antenex and Laird products for decades. Also, the B4502 base coil antennae are problematic. The antenna rod tuned to an acceptable VSWR should be in the area of 11-13 inches in length not 21 inches. The best I can do with a 21 inch rod is 2.8:1 VSWR. A 11-13 inch rod at best was about 3.8:1 VSWR. I had this situation on three B4502 base coils. I wonder if these base coils are wound for a different operating band range and mislabeled. I did sweep the coils for T-Band freqs and down in the area of 420 MHz and I was seeing 4+ and 5 VSWRs.

At least the merchant I bought the antennae from is willing to exchange them for another brand.

 

[madrabbitt]

heres what that little quarter wave looks like

 

[03msc]

I’ve ordered this one which I’ll cut down to the upper half of the 2m band. Hopefully it proves to be as good as I’ve heard they are.

EM Wave EMFLX-M10001 108-520 MHz Tunable, VHF UHF Broad Band Quarter-Wave Mobile Antenna, with Flex® Poly spring

EM Wave EMFLX-M10001 VHF UHF 108-520 MHz Tunable Broad Band 1/4 Wave Mobile Antenna - Flex® Poly Spring

theantennafarm.com

 

[mmckenna]

I’ve ordered this one which I’ll cut down to the upper half of the 2m band. Hopefully it proves to be as good as I’ve heard they are.

EM Wave EMFLX-M10001 108-520 MHz Tunable, VHF UHF Broad Band Quarter-Wave Mobile Antenna, with Flex® Poly spring

EM Wave EMFLX-M10001 VHF UHF 108-520 MHz Tunable Broad Band 1/4 Wave Mobile Antenna - Flex® Poly Spring

theantennafarm.com

I'm still really happy with mine. Currently on top of my personal truck. I've got zero complaints.

 

[madrabbitt]

 

[nokones]

This is to correct my Thursday posting about the statement I made on the quality of the Laird QWB450 Unity Gain antenna. Arcadian's Level of Customer Service regarding this matter has beyond the best a customer can expect. Arcadian over night the shipment of the replacement antennae and mag-mount. They replaced the Laird QWB460 with a Larsen Unity 450 1/4 wave antenna and the defective Laird mag-mount with an RF Max mag-mount.

I immediately swept the replacement antennae using the new mag-mount and the best VSWR I could get was 4.8:1. So, I grabbed the second Laird mag-mount I purchased last week and swept the antennae again and the VSWRs were 5+. I decided to sweep a known Laird B4505 that I know the VSWR swept at 1.2:1 at 465 MHz and it swept in the 4s with both the Laird and RF Max mag-mounts. When I swept the B4505 in the 1s, I was using a Midland mag-mount.

I decided to see what the Larsen Unity Gain 1/4 wave would sweep at on the Midland mag-mount and if swept 1.3:1 at 465 MHz. The end result, the Laird and RF Max mag-mounts performance is poor and the Midland performance was acceptable.

I emailed Arcadian with my findings and they're going to issue an RMA so I can return the two mag-mounts. I'm keeping the two Larsen antennae. I also ordered a couple more Midland mag-mounts since I've been getting good results with the Midland mag-mounts.

I have a good suspicion that the Laird QWB450 antennae would have swept pretty good on the Midland Mag-mounts

 

[prcguy]

This is to correct my Thursday posting about the statement I made on the quality of the Laird QWB450 Unity Gain antenna. Arcadian's Level of Customer Service regarding this matter has beyond the best a customer can expect. Arcadian over night the shipment of the replacement antennae and mag-mount. They replaced the Laird QWB460 with a Larsen Unity 450 1/4 wave antenna and the defective Laird mag-mount with an RF Max mag-mount.

I immediately swept the replacement antennae using the new mag-mount and the best VSWR I could get was 4.8:1. So, I grabbed the second Laird mag-mount I purchased last week and swept the antennae again and the VSWRs were 5+. I decided to sweep a known Laird B4505 that I know the VSWR swept at 1.2:1 at 465 MHz and it swept in the 4s with both the Laird and RF Max mag-mounts. When I swept the B4505 in the 1s, I was using a Midland mag-mount.

I decided to see what the Larsen Unity Gain 1/4 wave would sweep at on the Midland mag-mount and if swept 1.3:1 at 465 MHz. The end result, the Laird and RF Max mag-mounts performance is poor and the Midland performance was acceptable.

I emailed Arcadian with my findings and they're going to issue an RMA so I can return the two mag-mounts. I'm keeping the two Larsen antennae. I also ordered a couple more Midland mag-mounts since I've been getting good results with the Midland mag-mounts.

I have a good suspicion that the Laird QWB450 antennae would have swept pretty good on the Midland Mag-mounts

Something seems very wrong here and I don't think its the antennas or mounts. You had a Laird QWB460 1/4 wave whip replaced? There is more that can go wrong with a new baseball bat than can go wrong with a 6" long piece of wire antenna. Did you test at just one particular frequency or did you sweep it to see if it resonates anywhere? I also can't imagine that many mag mounts or other things going wrong otherwise the entire two way radio industry would be reporting things like this and their not.

What are you using to measure VSWR?

 

[nokones]

Something seems very wrong here and I don't think its the antennas or mounts. You had a Laird QWB460 1/4 wave whip replaced? There is more that can go wrong with a new baseball bat than can go wrong with a 6" long piece of wire antenna. Did you test at just one particular frequency or did you sweep it to see if it resonates anywhere? I also can't imagine that many mag mounts or other things going wrong otherwise the entire two way radio industry would be reporting things like this and their not.

What are you using to measure VSWR?

MFJ269D Antenna Analyzer and a Bird 43. I did sweep 450-470 MHz to see what the antenna would do and it just got worst in the 450s. I don't care about the 450 MHz freqs, my main focus is 462-467 MHz with a tune for 465.000 MHz.

 

[mmckenna]

I agree, there's something going on here.

Making sure the center button on the 1/4 wave antenna makes good contact with the center button on the NMO mount is important.

Attach the antenna to the mount with no gaskets under the antenna. Try moving the whip up and down to see if there is any movement. There should not be. If there is, it's possible that there is either no contact, or intermittent contact, and that will throw the SWR high like that.

 

[prcguy]

MFJ269D Antenna Analyzer and a Bird 43.

As a sanity check is there anyone local with an antenna analyzer you can compare your measurements with?

 

[nokones]

How many more instruments am I suppose to compare with. I have three which were used to compare. I also have a MFJ849 wattmeter/VSWR and yes, things were wiggled and were swept without the gasket. So, if you doubt my testing procedures and ability, how do you explain that two Midland mag-mounts performed well which I have had for about a year and the three new ones failed. Don't forget, one mag-mount caused a 99:1 VSWR reading.

Also, Arcadian stated other customers have made the same complaints that I have and returned their items. Arcadian stated this morning that I was one of the very few of their customers that performed a very detailed and thorough evaluation describing the facts.

Last weekend a friend brought over a Browning wideband antenna and his antenna swept almost as advertised but failed on my new RF Max mag-mount and were confirmed with all three instruments.

 

[mmckenna]

So, if you doubt my testing procedures and ability,

I don't. Just pointing out the common issues that some miss. Blind trust in test equipment can be a bad thing, double checking is always a good plan.

Does sound like you found a crappy mag mount. Likely coax issues. Quality Control must have left the chat. Sending it back and letting the dealer sort it out was the right thing. No reason you should have to deal with it.

 

[prcguy]

How many more instruments am I suppose to compare with. I have three which were used to compare. I also have a MFJ849 wattmeter/VSWR and yes, things were wiggled and were swept without the gasket. So, if you doubt my testing procedures and ability, how do you explain that two Midland mag-mounts performed well which I have had for about a year and the three new ones failed. Don't forget, one mag-mount caused a 99:1 VSWR reading.

Also, Arcadian stated other customers have made the same complaints that I have and returned their items. Arcadian stated this morning that I was one of the very few of their customers that performed a very detailed and thorough evaluation describing the facts.

Last weekend a friend brought over a Browning wideband antenna and his antenna swept almost as advertised but failed on my new RF Max mag-mount and were confirmed with all three instruments.

I have a lot of experience with antennas and running RF tests and occasionally something doesn't look right and needs further investigation. It might be three or four different things check bad but some other stuff checks ok and on rare occasion I've had three new items in a row that ended up being bad. It happens but that's very rare. Most of the time I regroup and swap test equipment and it tuns out something in my test setup was messed up, a cable, low batteries, etc. Sometimes its the environment like lack of ground plane or some external metal thing has skewed the test field. But I always do what I can to rule out me, my test equipment or the environment to find out if multiple antennas, mounts or coax are actually bad.

 

[03msc]

I'm still really happy with mine. Currently on top of my personal truck. I've got zero complaints.

Following-up (as if you all were waiting for it):
Got the antenna in. Got it trimmed and installed yesterday. First cut and the RigExpert StickPro analyzer was showing 1.09:1 on 146.500 so I left it alone. Also 1.1:1 on 446.000. Not going to complain about that!

 

[madrabbitt]

So, on those EM Waves, you're going to want to install the bottom-most part as tight as you can on your roof, and when you need to remove it for car washes or whatnot, the antenna separates at the base of the spring (or the base of the whip for spring-less ones)

Leaving the base on the NMO mount actually seals it much better then just a bare NMO or an antenna cap.

Hint: di-electric grease on the threads will do two things. 1. reduce corrosion when the threads get wet, 2. tightens up the connection a bit.

I've run them for years and really prefer them.

 

[Nikontraveler]

These are the two antennas that I use.
1.

https://www.amazon.com/Browning-450MHz-470MHz-3dBd-Mobile-Antenna/dp/B00IDTJ2EA?pd_rd_w=PbIbr&content-id=amzn1.sym.80b2efcb-1985-4e3a-b8e5-050c8b58b7cf&pf_rd_p=80b2efcb-1985-4e3a-b8e5-050c8b58b7cf&pf_rd_r=FDEKBJQVVMDQMQSD9846&pd_rd_wg=PAIgF&pd_rd_r=1937a274-a95c-4332-acd5-0da67423049a&pd_rd_i=B00IDTJ2EA&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_1_ec_pd_rhf_ee_s_rp_c_d_sccl_2_1_t

I trimmed this antenna to Channel GMRS Chaneel 16 to 1.02 SWR.
2. https://www.amazon.com/Midland-Antenna-Durable-Connection-MicroMobile/dp/B084BPXNC5?pd_rd_w=JM011&content-id=amzn1.sym.80b2efcb-1985-4e3a-b8e5-050c8b58b7cf&pf_rd_p=80b2efcb-1985-4e3a-b8e5-050c8b58b7cf&pf_rd_r=K4ZF1GN021E7M400QH90&pd_rd_wg=iictc&pd_rd_r=106d295f-14b7-4f04-93ae-5f86dee8f1d6&pd_rd_i=B084BPXNC5&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_1_ec_pd_rhf_ee_s_rp_c_d_sccl_2_8_t
This antenna did not need any trimming. it had a perfect SWR on Channel 16.