Batboard

Looking for some help, would like to just have 1 antenna on my new truck. I been reading up on the duel band and triband antennas and you need the duplexer. but does anyone have this setup and could recomend what good for the job or works good not worth it losses RX/TX
using UHF spectra and VHF spectra possable a low band in the future.
would like to hear some imput on this. Thanks

A VHF/UHF/lowband antenna would be a difficult item to find, even if it does exist, which I really doubt.

The duplexer will hurt you somewhat on the receive side, but not much on the transmit side if you're running a decent amount of power.

A dual-band antenna with decent gain will probably be two feet or so in height which might be too much on top of a truck cab.

So, why not do two holes? Then put a quarter wave for each band on top. With decent transmit power you will end up with unobtrusive, low antennas, plus a low radiation angle that will work great in almost all locations for getting into repeaters. And if you do need gain antennas, for whatever reason, there are tons of choices for you.

Thanks Tom, looking to mount it on the front hood side rail. see how much I loose. But I might just have to do the 2 seperate 1/4 waves on the roof.

"do the 2 seperate 1/4 waves on the roof."

When you do drill the holes, make sure that the antennas are at least 1/4 wave absolote minimum from another at the lowest frequency. This will eliminate the interaction between the antennas.

I use at least 24" from the VHF to any other antenna. And at least 1/4 wave from any edge.

Yes they exist. From Diamond alone:

http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/cr627b.html

http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/cr627bnmo.html

http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/sgm911.html

Or how about 10/6/2/.7 meters in one ant

http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/cr8900a.html

Or 10/6/2/.7 with option ot adding 40/20/15
http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/hv7a.html

They are not bullit proof, you can't go banging them into trees forever. They do provide acceptable service for a compromise antenna.

If you don't want to drill two holes, a simple VHF quarter wave antenna will work very well on both bands. Use the heavy duty (thick) whip with the spring base for better bandwidth. Get the duplexer. It will keep your TX out of the other radio. This is a clean antenna install if you want to avoid looking like a tow truck that needs a "hair cut". As soon as you go gain antenna, you get loading coils which narrow the bandwidth considerably (down to 10 MHz). I've been using quarter waves for years. I've used the 3dB gain dual bands too. In my opinion, they aren't worth the trouble unless you drive in the fringes.
Good luck.

RFDude

thanks RFDUDE gonna try that before putting 2 holes see how it works

Sti-co makes a dual band UHF/VHF in a fixed mount, glass mount, and trunk lid mount that will work on your hood. A little pricey but we have several and they work very well.

http://www.sti-co.com/tm.asp

You may want to check out STI-CO. You could go with a VHF/UHF fendermount or the cellular look. They offer great antennas. They are a bit high but the quality is very good. Law enforcement uses them all the time. They also have a great lowband fendermount option. I've used them myself often.


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This is the absolute best mobile antenna in my opinion. It does all bands (33.000 - 1000 Mhz) It is a bit expensive but well worth the investment. http://www.rfwiz.com/AustinAntenna/Aust ... pectra.htm

-Nate

Also depending on how many radios you plan on running if you only want one antenna you can get a multi-coupler and run many different radios off of one antenna. Good luck!

-Nate

A friend of mine is using that new Larson tri-band antenna (150/450/800) with a VHF Spectra and 800 MCS2000, duplexed into a Diamond unit (1.6-170MHz/400-1300 MHz) in his truck and it works very well.

I was skeptical of this setup until I saw it in use....it's a clean setup and there is no interaction between radios.

Thanks for all the input guys. I ended up going with 3 seperate 1/4 wave's drilled in the roof. Found black ones to match the truck so looks good and not very noticable