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Polaris ranger radio antenna booster9/23/2023 ![]() While I understand the idea behind the fold over mount, it's going to make getting a full ground plane under the antenna mount very difficult. Having a proper ground plane under the antennas will make for much better performance. The dual band and CB antenna can be easily removed. The cell antenna will only be a few inches tall, and shouldn't be an issue in a parking garage, it'll be lower than your spare. ![]() If parking garages are part of the plan, then you may want to remove them. OK, I don't disagree with that, but a truck like yours is going to draw a lot more attention than a few antennas will.įor what you are doing, NMO mount antennas will spring bases will do fine in areas with low branches. The 2/70 ham antenna could go off to one side if you had about 19" of space around the antenna, so 19" in from the side of the roof. At the higher frequencies used by GPS and cellular, the coaxial losses will be higher, so best to keep those cables short. That would also keep the coax runs short. You could stick that in one corner of the front of the cab. Putting them off to either side is going to result in a lopsided radiation pattern.Ĭell booster and GPS antennas won't need much ground plane, maybe 4 inches around the base. Ideally your CB antenna(s) need to go on the center line to get the most amount of ground plane under them. Placement needs to consider the required ground plane for the antennas. Fabricating a fold down mount is cool and all, but if you want performance out of these antennas, you need to make sure they have a good ground plane under them.Īnd forgive me for asking, but why two CB antennas? If you have enough clearance for the spare tire, you should have enough clearance for the antennas. Why do you need to fold the antennas down? You are not going to have enough cable length to be a problem, unless you are driving a Greyhound bus and want to mount the antenna on the rear and your radios up front. The standard RG-58 that comes with the NMO mounts will work fine. Run that antenna to your multi-coupler and split it off to all your radios's's's's's's's'…. If you are in an area that uses low band VHF, consider adding a dedicated low band antenna and connect it to a dedicated radio. Don't cut corners with cheap Chinese/hobby/amateur grade antennas, mounts, connectors, etc. Do it right, do it once, and you won't regret it. Use one single Larsen NMO-150/450/756 on a permanent mount NMO base mounted smack in the middle of the vehicle roof. They are the antennas that people point and laugh at when you see them in the parking lot at the local ham fest. That's a joke of an amateur radio antenna, and a poor joke at that. Please don't install that antenna and expect anyone to take you seriously as a news gatherer. If the runs are short from the multicoupler to the radios, like 2ft then I would use a good quality RG-58 or LMR-195 because the multicoupler has extra gain per channel and you can afford a little loss in the cables to the radios. Again, as mentioned, Times LMR-240UF would be one of my first choices and if the run was very short like under 10ft maybe LMR-195 and this is for the run from the antenna to the multicoupler. I believe any of these antennas will work much better and more consistent than a Diamond D220R for chasing sirens, uhhh, I mean, news gathering.Īs for cable, it depends on how long the run is. Then there is the COMPACtenna Scan III which is no slouch and covers a good chunk of the VHF/UHF/700/800bands very well. Or a Laird WPD136M6C or a Maxrad BMAXSCAN1000 or a Comtelco, bla bla bla.Īll these resonate within the VHF/UHF/800 public service bands at the minimum and a few like the Laird work fine in the 2m, 70cm, 23cm amateur bands. As mentioned, a Larsen tri-band would probably work better. I would not use a Diamond D220R for public service monitoring, I believe its top whip is tuned to the amateur bands and the Discone part probably doesn't come into play until 400MHz or higher.
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