Batboard

Can anyone direct me to a short dual band vhf/uhf antenna that is nmo mount. I'm looking for something that is 12 inches or shorter.

Thanks

Jason

Both Comet and Diamond, I believe, make these.
Also another aftermarket outfit makes one with
a coil in the center; I've used it for many years
with no problems. Measures flat SWR on both
hambands. As I recall the gain figures for these
are something like 0db on VHF and 2.7db on UHF.
I got my original one from Antenna World in Miami
but this morning the database on their site is
down. The second one I got from a similar place
but I can't recall who it was.

(Edited/added later the same day...)

I just measured the thing and it's about 17 inches
tall overall, including the NMO base. It appears to
be the equivalent of a VHF quarter wave with a
shortening coil in the center and the coil must act
as a matching transformer on UHF for two quarter
wave antennas. Whatever the theory and/or
configuration, the damn thing works very well
around town and, best of all, it never hits a
sprinkler pipe or anything else in parking garages.

12 inches and dual band? You should be expecting the performance to be rather lousy compared to a real antenna.

Antenex made some "salt-shaker" size antennas. I don't know if they have that size in dual-band however. The 900 MHz version is about 3 inches tall by 1-1/4 inches in diameter with an NMO mount.

Bob M.

Im not too concerned about performance. Its hooked up to a XTVA which I mainly will be using for monitoring (ie I will TX from it once in a great while). Im more concerned with the antenna not getting banged up from when I go in and out of the garage . Its terrible right now, mainly because the antenna I have now is rather stiff. Something in the 6 inch to 10 inch range would be perfect.

Jason

Larsen makes a NMO 2/70 SH that is 19" tall with a spring.

What about two antennas and a diplexer? A 19" VHF wideband whip (or, ugh, a transit antenna), plus a UHF 3dB whip or quarterwave through a diplexer would provide better performance. Plus, you could buy stuff made for the commercial band... not hammy crap.

Try the Phantom antennas from Antenex.

Finally came across the site where I got the last one
of these I purchased:

http://www.eur-am.com/com-nmo.htm

Cost is $15.00 plus shipping and they say it's 16.5 inches
long.

I have used the Comet B-10NMO which measures exactly 12" for years on my vehicles. I love it. Had no problems with performance. Its great for getting in and out of the garage and not having some giant antenna to mess with.

Big BOB

I am using this Diamond - http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/nr72bnmo.html on the new ride (and on the old one).

On VHF it seems to be doing very well on the VHF Astro thru a triplexer and on APRS straight to the radio. UHF seems to work decently, but I haven't really used it on U yet to make good judgement.

Its 13.8"

EPC_1111 wrote:Try the Phantom antennas from Antenex.

We used these for GSM data on our courier vans, before we swapped to the Intermec and Moto handheld scanners. We kept on looseing signal in some areas. My older van had a 13" whip and it had no problems.

Comet makes the SBB-1 antenna which is 16" long. A friend has one on his car and it works great in the city. But, don't expect too much out of it if you're hoping to break any distance records. It's certainly a compromise over size.[/img]

Several manufacturers have fold-over antennas and mounts. If you don't want to get out of the car, you could get a motorized one.