kidphc

Either use a shorty for when she is using the truck and swap out for longer when you drive. Even on a hood mount any all band style antenna is going to be long. Hoping out of the truckbto fold the 2x4sr got old fast. Not to mention even with the spring it's a thick stiff antenna. I don't think it will take whacks well. Hence why I switched back to the Larsen 2/70sh back on. Mine has a permanent kink in the open coil and has tons of paint missing from all the whacks. Yes it's loud, but it takes a beating. Didn't help the wind load was high and the mount+antenna was always rocking. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

HT antenna are usually not rated for more than 5w so most don't try. They are usually very compromised and are a barely passible design for the job. The elbow connectors are generally really bad. They a lot of time are not constructed internally very well. The 90° design often induces other issues. Generally, speaking avoid them. If the ground plane is an issue. How's about a jpole or slim jim. They are compact and integrate a counterpoise into the design, so no ground plane necessary. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

For me the shortest multi-band antenna that actually is pretty broad banded, does depend on the frequencies. Are 1/4 antennas. For gmrs, amatuer radio "70cm" and "65 cm" lmr frequencies the 1/4 is cheap short and does the job incredible well. It when you throw in 2m and vhf lmr it gets hairy, since 1/4 vhf usually is going to be 3/4 for the cm services we use. I don't like ³/4 wave antennas. 98% of the time for ham, gmrs 90% of the time it's a 5/8th wave modified to accept a notinol whip. The other 10% of the time it's a 1/4 or 5/8 over 5/8. For all band coverage. The usual 2x4sr and diamond counterparts. Be forewarned on hood mounts they perform meh and have terrible swr. The diamond seems to have better swr in that location. For my hood/ditch light mount I use a 2/70sh so it can take a beating. It's a bit directional, borderline terrible on the hood of the LC when compared to when it was on the roof of the suburban. The ftm400 it is connected to does have the caps mod. I however really use it to monitor. The XTL5k is connected to the roof antenna, it hears and reaches out about 500% better. Due to antenna location. Really just depends on what is important and what exactly you want.

Randy ala xoffroaderx had a video on the Kraken SDR tracker on YouTube. The signed kraken unit was sitting with a local here for a bit. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Considering 7300 is an SDR radio you gain a pan adapter and maybe a hair more sensitivity. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Some great responses. Wish there was something like this thread 4+ years ago. If you are learning and just playing, then a cheap RTLSdr is more than adequate. Paired with even rabbit ears it can be fun. If budget allows, it active/passive antennas and discones expand its capability and can be re-used. I had mine set up with the usual recommendations with omni rig for a while as a psedu waterfall. Ended up switching to a rsplay1 for more HF versatility, at the same time switched to SDR console, liked the cleaner interface and book marks. Also got tired of the winamp look, heheheh. Future want/plan is to ditch it all and go straight to an Apache labs or Flex style SDR radio. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I was going to install a 900 in my truck. What stopped me? Another brick for one band. A band that is being over taken by SCADA equipment, that alsi has one repeater locally, with very little usage and is kinda far for me. With an SDR I was shocked at the noise floor locally on 900 MHz. You may want to look at old public safety gear. For example here is a XTL2500 BRICK 900. You will still need the head, mic, speaker, cables, programming cable, cps etc. Although not difficult, if you have very little big "M" experience you could fall down a rabbit hole of learning. https://www.ebay.com/itm/135159923563?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=iZAsytqvQCq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=a03yk-vsq9o&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY A cheaper option might be to try using or having some program a Motorla GTX in 900. They are going to have other issues, for example battery might be dead. But hell they pop-up on Fleabay for $50. LSCOTT, might now what to look for in the older Kenwood 900 mobiles. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Reasoning? Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Well to be fair I was trying to be generic with the answer. If you are wide they are narrow. You would sound loud to them. They would sound like they are under deviating and need to turn the mic gain up or yell into the mic Going through the repeater (set to narrow) it would really matter if you were wide banded. The repeater would clip the audio and retransmit as narrow and sound a bit to quiet. Sound fidelity wise, wide sounds more natural where narrow there is often clipping of the highs and lows. There is just more bandwidth to play with. Think playing music at 40bits vs 256 bits. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Audio would have been quieter. Like the mic gain was too low. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

If you are chasing gain. Try quad antennas, they usually have a narrow cone when compared to a yagi. When I say narrower I mean, less spread vertically as well as the pattern was more focused from what I in antenna software and theories. I just ran into issues when trying to DIY due to the spreaders. I just wasn't very happy with the materials Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I think Marc had the same experience. With a good solid ground plane, the SWRs are good. Even if it is a bit off of good, it starts nose diving. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Alternatively, you could punch a hole in the camper top and install a 20" (will be usable for 2m later on) or so steel plate in the camper interior to act as a ground plane. As long as the radiating portion is clear of the roof rack should have minimum impact on the radiation pattern. I also had the same problem with the 2x4sr on a ditch light/hood mount. It really wants a good solid ground plane. Atleast the fold over will help with clearance on the cab of the roof. It still sticks up about 6" high though. My EMS buddies all chose aluminum camper tops for their personal f150/f250s, to accommodate the porcupine look and offer enough groundplane and separation for all the antennas. Guess you are in the same boat as us. We purposely choose places for meets/dinners that would have us avoiding garages and such. Picture for shits and giggles, of one of my customer's roof whom was assigned an old DC brigade truck while her normal patrol was in for maintenance. She is normally responsible for the interoperability/logistics at the Marine Corp 10k. If you get a chance and can make it past security to see the Lt. at the ops tent, say Cha says hi to her. Picture is really to help those intimating in popping the first hole.. lol Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I had a similar issue with my trucks. 1.) I dismount my antennas and place a cap (sometimes don't even bother with the cap). When i was placing my truck on the lift. Hell this was in a commercial bay with 22' ceilings even there if I didn't pull the antennas they would be bent or strike the roll up garage doors. 2.) Best antennas, this is very subjective. With trying to be widebanded to cover both services there are a crap ton of compromises. It gets even worse when you look at hood mounts etc. I currently am running a 2/70sh on a hood mount for the FTM400 cap modded. With a Laird B4505cns on the roof connected to a XTL 5000. I had the 2x4sr, it performed well but even on the shoulder it took terrible whacks entering the parking garages. So instead of dealing with the fold-over I went back the Larsen. It has taken a beating the top half of the antenna is bent and the coating is missing all over the place. Even the Laird has a bend in it. Normally now a days I switch to a 1/4 or 5/8th Laird that I modified with a Signal stalk whip for potential garage excursions. Are you trying to maximize simplex or repeater work on both radios? Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

The infamous low flying animal catcher. Lol Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

That kinda looks like an older version of the old one. Later version looked similar but had different arrays. New one that I saw, well looks like the newer suburban. With kinda a fiberlass topper glued on to the roof and a crap ton of antennas. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Might be something like roadrunner. A former secret service customer I had mentioned that roadrunner, usually was staffed by former military electronic warfare specialists. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

No I haven't. I will ask some of the public safety guys, probably not anytime soon if they know anything about it. For a while I couldn't get GPS, cellular or 2 way radio coms around the David Taylor Naval Research Center. But that was moons ago and there were patriot batteries right by the road. I got laughed at when I mentioned, because it seems a EMF dampeners were active in the area at the time. I just didn't know, but my friend were aware, 100+ feet down the road and everything was normal. But I know where roadrunner gets fixed fairly often. Would be suprised if it wasn't active during an inauguration. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Been working with HIPPA since the requirements came in. I was working at a fortune 5 software company. Our division dealt with document management. The amount of NDA with various organizations I signed is staggering. I wish I could say the same here as far as HIPPA compliance and transmissions. Listen long enough to the conversations, and name, address, age, vital stats, previous medical conditions come across. Especially, on FD/EMS dispatched calls. That type of traffic irregardless of purpose should be encrypted, IMO. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I have heard of them discussing here. Having dispatch outbound un-encrypted and the rest encrypted. Personally, I am in favor of encryption. There is just traffic that the average people do not need access to. It could save the life of a first responder, HIPPA compliance etc. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

To the original question you posted. During the rush in the Capital. I could see the increased activity through the Simulcast repeaters on the SDR. But the data meant crap, obviously I don't have the keys, so it like trying to listen Charlie Browns teacher and decipher it. MoCo had switched to some encrypted TAC inoperability channels, to assist. Since the rioters were using HTs, no buneo on traffic from where I am. I am better off turning on the t.v. and watching for smoke over the horizon. I wish sometimes...lol most i get on gmrs is from friends whom use to know my commute. They would inform me of avoid areas due to accidents and such.

I would say for those purposes you would be better off buying a dedicated scanner. Still won't help you with encrypted traffic. Which you already know. They were purpose-built for scanning. They can fly through the memory bank so much FASTER. Really disappointed at how slow some of my Yaesu gear is. Which is still 1000% than a Baofeng. Here outside of D.C. almost makes no sense to waste radio gear on scanning. In D.C. the Office of Unified Communications has everything encrypted, you can't hear them talking about the explosion in a porta potty.. Only PG County police and Moco aren't encrypted yet. Although both have been talking about flipping the switch.

Yes, that is what my setup in the house with the blade antenna. I chose a pryamid power supply with a cigarette lighter outlet built in. So I could unplug it and drop the radio in the wife's van. She didn't want a radio so ease of removal was a high priority. Everything else I own uses power pole connectors. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Socal is correct everything in everything he is saying. Antennas will be much better when outside, when properly tuned for your service, have a proper ground plane (counterpoise), with the lowest loss coax for that frequency and high as you can get it. Then they will perform up 1000% better than the same setup on the ground. VHF/UHF are line of sight for the most part. Get them up high, limit their obstructions and they start performing well. I had a buddy on a roof top (15 stories up) some 20 miles away he was able to hit me on simplex with 5w. We could do 15 miles of simplex with his base. But his antenna was over 100 feet up using air core hardline. RiP WRPJ758, 73. The old fart understood the basics. When it comes down to it pretty much all antennas are a compromise to begin with. Make them smaller, shove them inside of house, put it on a ht, use a hi-gain antenna, etc and you are adding compromises on top of compromises. Any reason you are trying to use indoor antennas? Just about everyone will recommend against it right away. Almost all my gmrs/ham gear is in the basement. This blade antenna I built was for my wife to use on rare occasions. Really was onl built to cover the neighborhood to get in touch with the kid. We used it all night for Halloween. For grounding, if everything is indoors than no you will not need grounding. If anything exits the house I recommend grounding. Even if is just the co-ax. You can get static buildup just from dust blowing over it in the wind. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I use external antennas mainly when I can for hf. For the ham uhf/vhf stuff it's in the attic. Fortunately, I have almost 10 feet in height to work with. So up went a 8ft long fiberglass vertical. All this because of the HOA. More inline to answer your question, I made an indoor blade antenna. I took a N9Tax slim jim tuned for gmrs, only because I got lazy. I ran inside some plastic wiring track up to the 2nd floor in a vaulted area of my house. Marginal success with both the wife and ht. It started to shine when I hooked up a db-20g/at-779uv to it. The range from the ht went from 600ft to closer 1500-1700 ft on simplex at 20w. Keep in mind a moderately Heavily wooded suburban area. It was enough for my wife to be able call me at a local Plaza while I was about 30ft inside a Walgreen, when I was on a ht. As far as repeater work it was almost as good as being outside with the ht. But really that is how good the local gmrs repeaters around here are. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk