what's a GOOD NMO mag mount??

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I need some suggestions on a good mag mount !? I bought a Motorola mag mount off of ebay but it performs very terrible, I've tried 800/VHF/UHF and they're performing very little to nothing at all , so I returned it and I'm wondering what do you recommend for another mag mount to try???? I'm using it for a handheld scanner with a scanner antenna I have different and antennas for it

thanks in advance!
 

mmckenna

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The one you purchased off e-Bay not working would have warranted some testing to see what the issue was. While magnetic mount antennas sometimes get a bad rap, they should work pretty well, compared to a permanent mount. A bad connector, damaged coax, or serious water damage would be a likely culprit.

I've always had good luck with Larsen, including one of their NMO mag mount bases. I've got the rectangular one and have probably owned it for close to 25 years now. I rarely ever used it on my vehicle, but more often used it for testing radios on the bench.

Any brand name should work well. Just make sure it has good coax and a properly installed connector that matches your scanner. Motorola probably didn't make the one you bought. They likely had it built by someone else and sold it. Larsen, Antenex, Laird, ComTelco, etc should all be good units.
 

W8RMH

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I purchased one from The Antenna Farm a few years ago and it is still going strong.

I have found that the black powder-coated ones hold up better than the chrome ones. I like the rubber boot too.

You have to use a little caution when purchasing off of ebay. I bought a VHF antenna and the mag mount rusted through in about six months.
 

krokus

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Go to one of your larger local hamfests, and buy one from a known vendor. They might be able to help you with your selection, too.

You did not say how the mount failed to perform. Did it not stay on the vehicle, and/or did it get you the signal quality you were hoping for? Either way, what were the conditions of the failure?

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Joined
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Messages
453
Location
In the Western US Mountains :)
Go to one of your larger local hamfests, and buy one from a known vendor. They might be able to help you with your selection, too.

You did not say how the mount failed to perform. Did it not stay on the vehicle, and/or did it get you the signal quality you were hoping for? Either way, what were the conditions of the failure?

Sent via Tapatalk


that's a good idea on the local hamfest!!!

the mag mount I had failed to perform because it will not receive at all or very well
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2014
Messages
453
Location
In the Western US Mountains :)
The one you purchased off e-Bay not working would have warranted some testing to see what the issue was. While magnetic mount antennas sometimes get a bad rap, they should work pretty well, compared to a permanent mount. A bad connector, damaged coax, or serious water damage would be a likely culprit.

I've always had good luck with Larsen, including one of their NMO mag mount bases. I've got the rectangular one and have probably owned it for close to 25 years now. I rarely ever used it on my vehicle, but more often used it for testing radios on the bench.

Any brand name should work well. Just make sure it has good coax and a properly installed connector that matches your scanner. Motorola probably didn't make the one you bought. They likely had it built by someone else and sold it. Larsen, Antenex, Laird, ComTelco, etc should all be good units.

the seller off of ebay and me did a it a little bit of testing to see if it was a grounding issue or something similar to that but no luck , the part did not say Motorola on it but the paperwork had Motorola logo and stuff like that so it could have been a wanna be Motorola item , anyways I send it back to the seller and he did more testing and he said he couldn't find any problems but I'm pretty sure of getting very poor performance, the coax and connector seem to be fine but it could have had a break somewhere in the line , and no water damage at all
 
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Joined
Mar 14, 2014
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Location
In the Western US Mountains :)
I purchased one from The Antenna Farm a few years ago and it is still going strong.

I have found that the black powder-coated ones hold up better than the chrome ones. I like the rubber boot too.

You have to use a little caution when purchasing off of ebay. I bought a VHF antenna and the mag mount rusted through in about six months.


I will be buying that mount! now thank you very much for that suggestion !! I just placed an order through the antenna farm last night and ordered a triband scanner antenna , so hopefully that mag mount will be a good match
 
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when I had the mount I was trying to determine if it was an antenna problem or mount problem but my antennas seemed to work fine on a NMO through the roof mount, the antenna as I have tried are: VHF quarter wave UHF quarter-wave and 800 quarter wave
 
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