OffRoaderX

I've been declared a shill and I dont even say that!

and for deconfuckulation: You will experience zero noticeable degradation in performance if you roll-up the extra few feet of cable and tuck it away somewhere, vs shortening it, in-despite of what "some people" will try to tell you.

Unless you are trying to bounce your signal off the moon, just mount your antenna in the best spot you can, as high as you can get it, and it will work fine for for highway/trail comms.
My antenna is mounted above the rear tail-light/rear fender of my jeep, below the roofline, where many "experts" warned me it "will not work". and while it certainly does not work as well as it could, it works just fine. I can hit a repeater with it at 92 miles and regularly get 20+ miles on simplex and have never had issues on the trail where i could not hear someone that others could, or they could not hear me.
My two words of advice are:
1) ignore the 'experts'
B ) - dont over-think it.

Yes. You have to pay extra but it's worth it.

Yes. You have to pay extra but it's worth it.

The final days of our "Delta" repeater were pretty pathetic.. After we shut it down a couple of the jammers and troublemakers moved over to the other high-level repeaters in the area.  
These people are absolute losers at life.  i'm not just saying that - I know who they are, and they truly are pathetic nothings.

More lies perpetrated by the Sad-H.A.M. cartels.

More lies perpetrated by the Sad-H.A.M. cartels.

99.9999998% of the time, NO...

Warning: Do NOT listen to the "experts" that love to spend your money - for occasional tuning/testing of your antenna you do NOT NEED a $500+ SWR meter.
Normal people use inexpensive meters like the Surecom SW-33 or SW-102, and they work just fine.
If you plan on testing/tuning antennas professionally or as some kind of a hobby, then by all means get one that costs much more and is *slightly* more accurate.

Radios seems to attract a certain type of person, often with similar personalty defects... 

Warning: Do NOT listen to the "experts" that love to spend your money - for occasional tuning/testing of your antenna you do NOT NEED a $500+ SWR meter.
Normal people use inexpensive meters like the Surecom SW-33 or SW-102, and they work just fine.
If you plan on testing/tuning antennas professionally or as some kind of a hobby, then by all means get one that costs much more and is *slightly* more accurate.

As someone that has recommended a few radios to a few people in my day, i have, and still do recommend Midlands to "regular people" that just need simple vehicle to vehicle comms; ie; The Jeep Crowd.
Radio Dorks and latent hams will require something with more bells and whistles, but MANY normal people are more than satisfied with the simplicity and performance of the Midland mobiles. 
Choose the radio with the features that are right for you, and ignore the online "experts" that look down on you for not being the same kind of socially reet-ard-ed know-it-alls that they are - it's difficult, becuase there are a lot of them right here in this forum.. Even in this thread..

Be careful!!1 I have read that the rubicon guy is just a shill for cheap chinese radios and will say anything the manufactures tell him to say!!!1
I know it must be true because the people that say that have been licensed ham radio operators for 20+ years, it says so right in their forum signature!!1

I have a 1486 that I have used with my KG1000G, my XTL5000, my repeater made of two KG1000Gs and my VXR7000 repeater.  it works very well - on simplex i'm getting 40+ miles with it.
Per the instructions I cut all 3 elements, and IIRC, the SWR was about 1.01:1 .  Ignore anyone that tells you to not follow the manufacture's instructions how how/what to cut.

Warning: Do NOT listen to the "experts" that love to spend your money - for occasional tuning/testing of your antenna you do NOT NEED a $500+ SWR meter.
Normal people use inexpensive meters like the Surecom SW-33 or SW-102, and they work just fine.
If you plan on testing/tuning antennas professionally or as some kind of a hobby, then by all means get one that costs much more and is *slightly* more accurate.

Unless you are trying to bounce your signal off the moon, just mount your antenna in the best spot you can, as high as you can get it, and it will work fine for for highway/trail comms.
My antenna is mounted above the rear tail-light/rear fender of my jeep, below the roofline, where many "experts" warned me it "will not work". and while it certainly does not work as well as it could, it works just fine. I can hit a repeater with it at 92 miles and regularly get 20+ miles on simplex and have never had issues on the trail where i could not hear someone that others could, or they could not hear me.
My two words of advice are:
1) ignore the 'experts'
B ) - dont over-think it.

I'm not sure why, but, I think I like this guy.

50W is good, especially when you have a long-run of that leaky coax, to get more juice squirting from the antenna.
50W is also good to step on the other guy that is irritating everyone but only has 20W.. all else being equal.

Radios seems to attract a certain type of person, often with similar personalty defects... 

The struggle is real.

Radios seems to attract a certain type of person, often with similar personalty defects... 

I've been declared a shill and I dont even say that!

I'm not sure why, but, I think I like this guy.

Radios seems to attract a certain type of person, often with similar personalty defects...