WRTZ361

Thank you for the suggestion I will ask around.

Can I just get an SWR meter and dummy load on amazon? Or do I need something of better quality to give me accurate numbers? That was the antenna I was going to get based on the height. 36" for the other ones is just a bit tall for me.

I got some ferrite cores that I can clamp on the cables and power wires at the recommendation of WRYZ926. I put 4 along the coax trying to place them evenly along it, and I put 2 on each end of the radio units power wires. I now am receiving all but 1 of the signal bars on my radio. There is a hint of static left, but it is a massive improvement. I am already looking at getting a 5/8 wave antenna, so that should improve things. How important is VSWR for mobile radios. In HT I never dealt with this so I never invested in the equipment. If it makes my equipment last longer or get better reception then I don't mind getting it, just not sure if its worth it.

I was thinking of switching to Nagoya or tram. I like the Nagoya antennas on my HT. Don't know if that will translate to the mobile antennas though.

I have it centered on my roof. The roof is steel, and I tried to get the teeth on the bottom of the NMO base to bite into the metal. I looked for solder joints anywhere and I do not see anything visible. everything has shrink tube or plastic overmolding.

This is all really good info, thank you. I don't have any spare pieces for a build like this. This is my first attempt at making a mobile setup. It is the same antenna. the only thing that changed was the cable mount combo. They both had the cable built into the mount. I didn't make my own. The height of the antenna is not a concern for me. I am more concerned with performance, Hopefully the beads help. Is there such a thing as too many beads or putting them in the wrong locations?

I had very minimal noise when I was running the magnetic mount. If it helps at all I have everything installed on 2015 jeep cherokee. The only thing I can say surprised me about the performance of the radio system when it was mag mounted is the range seemed short. My Wouxun UV9GX HT got just as much reception as the mobile system. That could be due to the 1/4 wave antenna though. On a side note, it seems the best performance for GMRS comes from using a 1/2 wave antenna. Just haven't had anyone verify that it is an upgrade worth doing. The power leads came with the radio, with the positive being fused. I wired the radio to my remote switch panel, which is then feed through a voltage protection module which will automatically cut "accessory" systems if the voltage gets too low. . This was not an issue at first installation with the magnetic mount. What is a good brand of ferrite beads to get, I imagine its pretty easy to sell something like it which will do nothing for me.

I know I can't recognize quality just by reading the brand name. Mostly I bought based on reviews of people that gave reasons as to why they liked or hated it. I will try and be as detailed about what I have and then you guys can tell me what to replace or do differently. Antenna: Melowave stealth 1/4 wave GMRS nmo mount Cable & Mount: Midland MXTA24 low profile NMO mount Radio unit: KG 1000-G Plus

I went out to my car this morning and turned my car on. Turned on the radio and it just worked. I changed nothing since trying it last night and it just started receiving. There is a small amount of noise coming in with the transmission, but still less noise than my HT at that same location. If I grab the coax cable with my hand. the noise diminishes. the tighter I grab it, the less noise there is. Now I might have been stupid for doing this, but I wrapped the extra coax in a nice clean coil. I am self diagnosing this as poor shielding, and my body is acting like a ground for it. Let me know if I am wrong in that thinking. I am trying to learn as much as I can about these systems. I have already been bitten by the small bug of collecting HT radios. This is my first foray into anything more intricate than that. I am completely self taught with people like you guys helping me along.

I will try that, by only leaving the center connected what am I testing for? I do have a multimeter. I don't know what an antenna analyzer is.

I have been using a magnetic NMO mount on my vehicle for about 6 months. I did not like the cord showing so I decided to install a through hole mount in my roof since people are saying it is just overall better to mount this way. I installed it as according to the instructions and when I went to turn the radio on, it would not receive anything. My radio is capable of receiving the NOAA radio channels and I was planning on tuning into the strongest one for my area before I attempted to transmit. I assumed that if I did not set up the antenna correctly. I would damage my radio if I tried to transmit. The interesting part of this is that when I turned the vehicle off, the radio began receiving the NOAA channel very clearly for the 3 seconds it takes for it to turn off. I have no idea what this means. I believe I assembled everything correctly and I checked all of the connections at the radio itself. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

That makes sense. I will have to do some research into those gain numbers for information sake. It sounds like I won't be sacrificing anything by using a magnetic mount.

Thanks for the info. You are in fact the only person yet to advise against a 6db antenna. I am mainly in hilly environments, so probably better with a low db antenna. I have heard no one bring up ground plane issues with this setup, but I have read on other forums that a magnetic mount will give you higher SWR numbers due to RF coming back down your cable. Additionally it has been stated that magnetic mounts don't have a true ground plane as it is insulated from the vehicle roof. If this information is not necessarily true, I do not want to spend the extra time getting up inside my headliner to install a through hole type antenna connector. If it will make a substantial difference to do so. I will spend the time installing a through hole type. Anyone have experience with both?

Do you have any suggestions for antennas you have had success with? My only GMRS experience is with HT's . I think the parts should work for me, but I wont know till I build my first one.

I am mounting it in a jeep Cherokee, I was thinking middle back roof for the mounting location, But only because I was reading somewhere about ground plane in regards to vehicle mounts. Might not be a concern for GMRS, but I dont have any preference at this point.