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I currently have a 1/4 wave antenna up in a tree 22' feet high, it works great, but I'm still unable to reach some local repeaters or reach certain areas "Home to Car" around my area. So I have been looking at high gain base antennas but they are all to tall, so I decided to make a Slim Jim and do some testing with some of my toys. Both antennas were designed using online calculators and tuned to 462mhz I tested the antennas with a: 138mhz-4.4ghz USB Spektrum analyzer Digital VHF/UHF SWR meter Radio used on the test Baofeng UV82 Both antennas used 30' of rg8x coax and altitude of 7' from the ground I was using a steady transmission close by as my reference: The ground plane had 1-2db gain over the Slim jim when the antennas were inside the garage with the door open, the ground plane could pick up the "reference" signal better, I was a little disappointing, BUT once I moved the antennas outside the slim jim gain 2-3db over the ground plane. My current ground plane installed 22' from the ground had the same gain the slim jim installed only at 7'. This Slim Jim likes altitude, playing around the higher it went the more gain it had over the ground plane both at the same altitude, I could only datalog the 7' altitude gain wich is about 2-3 db more than the ground plane, can't wait to test it at 22' . So far I recommend the Slim Jim over the 1/4 wave ground plane, but I still need to do some testing at 22' and compare. hopefully tomorrow if it stops raining , hurricane Mathew is entering FL tonight lol. Antennas:

I tried the Disney repeater when we were there in July. Never made it in. AntiSquid Disclaimer: All comments made are personal opinion only and may not indicate actual fact.

I love his antennas! I've ordered lots. I'm looking into making my own for the fun and learning of it. I couldn't hit a GMRS Repeater about 15 miles away with a 25 watt base unit with an antenna about 8 foot up, but when I got Ed Fong's antenna, I put that up in a tree about the same height as the other antenna, and with 4 watts, I could hit it and receive it clear as day.. And nothing was wrong with the base or antennas, I tried 2 different radios and 3 different antennas, and 3 different locations, Ed's antenna worked great, and I appreciate the hours he spent with me on the phone talking about repeaters and the process of building his and everything.