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Actually your are wrong.. Both are good antennas for their purpose.. Both are 1/2 wave antennas and require no ground plane. If you have a situation like an RV, Boat an Apartment building or application where you need to keep your antenna 'under cover' I guarantee you cant beat the J-Pole. I use a Copper J-Pole for my RV while camping and won't use anything else for that propose.. Yes,,,like anything, you can build a crappy J-Pole.. Getting them right is tricky but do it right, you have a decent good performing antenna

They are real antennas, and they do work.

I went with a copper j-pole for 3 reasons. Weighs 1 pound, it has next to no wind resistance, and cost. With my cobbled together setup consisting of thin 1 1/4” aluminum electrical conduit with some wood slats to help anchor it from swaying, it made the most sense. There will always be something better. There will always be something worse. For me it works well and does what i ask of it. No complaints. I also have another j-pole that i have 50 feet up for my small solar powered GMRS repeater. I set it up for our (semi rural) neighborhood to use, but it actually covers about 10 miles. Again, no complaints. People can crap on them all they want, but a copper j-pole wont snap in half or splinter like fiberglass does. Oh, and i clear coated mine, so don’t yell at me about oxidation. J-pole base station antenna at about 30 feet. (Don’t mind my cat. He loves it up there). J-pole repeater antenna at 50 feet on 30’ flagpole + 20’ aluminum electrical conduit.

Sitting here, eating pop-corn, reading this thread and listening to my Midland = Priceless!

Well, I got up and running with my new antenna, a $40 “uayosek”(whopping 2.5db) off Amazon and 25 ft of DXEng RG8X connected the BF UV5G Plus. At 16’ in the air with my handheld, it got 4.84 watts on high @1.04 swr. Worked well enough I bumped it down to medium and got 3.42w, and 1.62w at low. I was able to hit the big repeater on Sunday full quiet at high, and a little scratchy on medium. Having listened to suggestions made, and the Euro being about even with the dollar, I ordered 25 feet of MP Ultraflex 7 Sahara, which arrived today. Preliminary test shows 7.94w, 4.95w, and 2.61w, a significant improvement. SWR appears a tiny bit higher, but it is coiled and only tested on the antenna down so that will probably change. Price wasn’t too crazy for the Ultraflex, about $65 assembled and shipped. It definitely fits the bill though, lighter than LMR400, only .28 thick, the BNC connectors they put on it look like they were straight up machined out of bar stock, and its db loss is only a touch higher(.1 or .2 db) than LMR400UF. I am gonna try to get it all put up tomorrow night for the local net, but so far it looks like it will work well.

Height might and elevation is propagation.

The shout out to So Cal had me rolling . If the roof is metal then center of it is best but putting your antenna elsewhere isn’t going to kill your radio though. I use a bracket by the drivers side A pillar and it works perfectly fine and plenty of Jeep people put theirs in the rear off the spare mount. I agree with @SteveShannon on the antenna choices and would add the Comet SBB5 antenna works pretty good for Ham and GMRS as well.

Hey folks... one of the big things many new users (and some of us old guys) enjoy doing is figuring out how far their radio can reach. It's always fun to contact someone from say 80 or 100 miles away on a handheld radio. In September of 2023, we went as a group up to Reddish Knob and played Radio for the afternoon. Everyone either used their handheld radio, mobile radio, and some extravagant "portable" setups to see what kind of range they could get from the mountain top. With GMRS (and some amateur radio) being a line of site service, its possible to make contacts from as far as 150-180 miles away while we are up there. I personally talked about 162 miles. We had a great time. Does anyone have any interest in doing something like this again this Spring? Just bring whatever gear you want to test out... you can try some of my gear, etc. It is paved all the way to the top of the mountain and any vehicle can access it.

That's really the whole issue most of the time.

Exactly. They have almost exactly the same low gain and RF pattern as a dipole with a null in the direction of the axis of the element. They’re vertically polarized. And they’re relatively easy and inexpensive to build if a person has an antenna analyzer, tubing cutter, tape measure, and can follow simple instructions. Saying get a real antenna is simply a way to put down others. I don’t believe @tweiss3 intended it that way because it’s out of character for him (I was surprised to see that in his post), but it’s true to @Socalgmrs character.

You might be onto something there, just skipped the final programming before hitting the box.

Some of the frequencies are in consecutive steps of exactly 100KHz too, so it's not even based on some standard channel spacing either. My first guess is these were "test" frequencies used to "tune" the radio's PLL circuits. I know my commercial radios have a special bank of frequencies just for that purpose. The attached photo is from my NX-1300 for example.

Looks like they didn’t fill the notch with an excess of solder. I wouldn’t worry about it. If you’re concerned, leave the cable unattached and the antenna removed and take an ohm meter and test that there is no continuity between the center and shield. I’m sure it’s probably fine. edit- as @OffRoaderX said, test that it’s not shorted. This is good practice regardless of what the ends look like especially after dragging the cable through the firewall and what not.

I have used dozens of 'special' connectors like that with zero ill effects.. If you have an SWR meter just check it after you hook it up to make sure it's making contact/not shorted.

Exactly what makes you think Amateur Radio Service is dying?

A lot of hams grumble about the perception that GMRS is "ham lite", but in some ways it is. You can gain comfort with using and programming a radio, basics of radio science, experience with repeaters, and more. Were it not for GMRS, I probably would never have been interested enough to go for an amateur license.

The radio world equivalent of "There's no replacement for displacement".

We have a guy who comes to our nets on the Holyoke 575 and in order for him to reach he gets up in his cupola in his barn. Richmond Vt to Holyoke Ma

Yup,, I'm with you on that too. .. I have also learned that GMRS is a great stepping stone with many many taking the leap to Ham.

If the roof is steel and you are not keen on drilling into your new Bronco go with a good quality mag mount in the center of your roof. I believe you can find ones under 20 inches tall. If that is still too tall I second the recommendation for a low profile Midland. I personally like the Midland MXTA26, but its pretty tall and looks kind of ridiculous on a compact car. Believe it or not I have had good results with the small mag-mount that came with the mid-land. Of course it's not dual band.

DOH! My mind skipped that 1 word. Anyways, UHF is great, you can use a 6" whip antenna and get great performance, plus be less likely to be noticed. I'll just say it, drill the hole and do an NMO mount. There, now I'll drop it.

Yes, those are the ones. I was thinking about clearing my garage door as well. Plus, they look like they'd draw less attention from those a-holes that like to mess with people's antennas.

If you are talking about the Ghost antennas, The Midland Ghost MXTA25 and Melowave Shadow are pretty good for being so short and they work better than the Nagoya UT-72G antenna. But they won't work as well as a taller antenna such as the Midland MXTA26 or Comet 2x4SR. I have a height restriction since I park in the garage so I run a Tram 1174 tuned for GMRS on my Ford Escape.

I've seen people use NMO mounts on fiberglass/plastic tops on Jeeps, Broncos and truck toppers. They will epoxy a metal plate to the underside of the top for a ground plane. That would be another option for you. Mounting an antenna to a luggage rack will definitely reduce the ground plane. How much that affects things will depend on the size of the rack and how far it is above the roof. A expanded mesh metal roof basket will help increase the ground plane compared to just the rack. Another option is the Midland MXTA38 plate. I have one on an aluminum toolbox that works well holding my Midland magnet mount and Comet 2x4SR on my SxS. You will still need some type of ground plane under the MXTA38 plate though.

No, wasn't meant in that way. With the cost of copper, or the PVC required for an EdFong, the cost difference is indistinguishable between a jpole and a commercially sold antenna. I've put up too many "good enough" antennas only to have more problems replacing them than it was worth just a year or so later. I can't find where it was documented, but there was a a study/model that showed a horizontal null with the jpole. I was able to find this null while rotating an edfong antenna. It's now used in the attic for a single frequency monitor where the null doesn't matter. I encourage everyone to build antennas of all kinds, and everyone should have one (or more) sitting around to toss up in a temporary setup. The jpole is almost perfect for that.

That's really the whole issue most of the time. That's really LIFE most of the time.

I wouldn’t use that antenna for GMRS. If you really need an antenna that’s good for GMRS the mxta26 from Midland is very good. If you need an antenna that’ll handle both ham and GMRS the Comet 2x4 is what I would get. I’m honestly trying to understand what this Hys antenna is supposed to be. It looks like it might want to be a j-pole but the feed isn’t right.

I did some quick screen captures of a Ham 70cm J-Pole simulation I had done some time back to show what people can expect. The radiation pattern of most interest is the azimuth one, perpendicular to the vertical element. As seen in the attached images there is some asymmetrical gain variation. The vertical, elevation, pattern is more complex and only of interest if the other station is at high angles , above or below, the perpendicular point.

The club member that has made a bunch of j pole antennas actually uses some old solid center conductor 75 ohm coax cable for the GMRS j pole antennas. So far they have held up through all types of weather conditions. The center conductor on the 75 ohm coax is fairly large so it holds up well.

What @WRUU653 suggested is definitely worth trying. Plus those RJ connectors are not the strongest and will wear out with constant movement of the cable/cord. It could be something as simple as the connector went bad or there is a break in the wires. And the RJ connector going bad or wires breaking can happen with any brand of radio. RJ connectors are not the best choice for this application since the cables are constantly getting moved around. plus the wires are small too.

I wonder if the button has gone bad. I realize the scan button is on the radio body but I would try unplugging the mic on the off chance there is a short in the cord and see if there’s any change. This probably isn’t much help but doesn’t hurt to try.

@brasda91 Thanks for sharing that link. Yes that is always an option. But I don't want to have speakers right next to my head like that for several reasons. One is the fact that I wear hearing aids. Another is safety, I try to keep things that can be projectiles in an accident down to a minimum I cringe every time I see people bejewel their steering wheels and dashes right overtop the airbags. Thats nothing but a claymore waiting to go off.

I have two homemade versions of the J-Pole, the copper, the twin lead J-Pole.. Both work as a pretty decent GMRS antenna, especially considering the cheap cost building them.. I use the copper j-pole for my portable camping antenna because it's light, compact, easy to store, easy to set up and it offers pretty decent performance.. I can talk 75-80 miles with no problems with the copper J-Pole, it's very omnidirectional. It works ok in flat valleys but likes to be elevated to get best coverage (i.e. high elevations like up in Mammoth area)... Mine is built on the KB9VBR's design with a few medications which i posted on this forum.. The twin lead is also a good choice but i've had better luck with the copper version. The Twin Lead is a little more complex to build. . Neither antenna will out perform a good medium gain base antenna but will come close.. Bottom line, for the cost to build one, (about $20 bucks for a copper J-pole) you can't go wrong...

Man Road Runner would be neat to have. I could really aggravate my friends with that

When I was creating my Modified CPS for the UV-17 Pro GPS and related radio models (and later the official BF-F8HP Pro CPS), one of the features is a "Voice Pack Editor" originally written by Sander van der Wel and enhanced by me. It allows changing the various spoken prompts in the radio, but doesn't touch the various other sound effects (although it could). Letting someone change the roger beep would probably make people's heads explode. For example, if someone changed it to the Road Runner cartoon's "Meep! Meep!".

Check out this Bronco Sport forum. Several different approaches to your exact situation. One drilled the roof and he gives measurements as to where. Anyway looks like a few options to consider. Good luck.

I have owned my 2023 Ford Escape for a year now and I have not gotten the courage to drill the roof for NMO mounts. Part of that is I hate messing with the headliner since there are airbags there.

They do work and are great for those with height restrictions. They aren't high gain like the 38" or taller antennas but they do beat the Nagoya UT-72G. As you mentioned, they are more discreet too.

Do you have the Bronco: or Bronco Sport: As far as I'm aware (I'm not in the market, so I may be wrong), but the Bronco, even with the hard top, is not a metal roof.

No, that's not impossible but that antenna looks like a gimmick. There are a lot of dual band antennas with narrower bandwidth. The Comet CA-2x4SRNMO is a commercial quality antenna that advertises SWR under 2.0:1 from 140-160MHz / 435-465MHz: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-ca-2x4srnmo?ppckw=dxedsa-br-comet-antennas&gclid=CjwKCAiAlPu9BhAjEiwA5NDSA391BAQ5nheA3lTesm2uL_RtcAxEGeTVdPk02M-JzNlz8vamfTEcAhoCnZgQAvD_BwE#overview

You are going to have to look for another option for an antenna. A bronco (not sport) will have trouble getting anything magnetic/ground plane on top. I'm not sure if the hood is aluminum, but if it is, a magnet mount is not going to work. You should be looking for a 1/2 wave (12-13") and something with a NMO or 3/8 stud mount. Location that has worked for others on a bronco are middle of the hood, side of hood, rear corner. You will need more than just the antenna, you need an appropriate mount for your location and the coaxial, some come packaged together.

When plugging in the microphone make sure you hear a click. Maybe you'll need to push back the rubber protector on the plug then plug in the microphone. If that doesn't make a difference then you have a defective microphone.

Butte, America! Appreciate it. I've watched a few of his and he keeps it entertaining. Miss the old M&M...

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for drinks that might be spit onto screens and/or keyboards.

Well that didn't take long. I knew Negative Nancy would put his worthless half a pence in. The negative vibes need to go. Plenty of people use J pole antennas with great results. One of my friends has made several J poles for GMRS for other club members and they all work. He has also made a 6m j pole out of copper and a giant 11m/CB j pole out of aluminum tubing. It works well too. I have a 2m j pole made from 3/8" aluminum rod that works well and sometimes use it portable. I also made the faraday clothe j poles for portable work.

Well said!

More info:

I used to feel that way but I gradually realized that it’s not up to me. It is a hobby for many. Just like Citizen Band many people use GMRS as a way to chat with people who they might not know.