Gmrs Base Station Antenna

[Guest Steven Ulrich]

I live on the 30th floor of a highrise in a metropolitan area need a recommendation for a base station antenna that is high quality but not to large or conspicuous that my neighbors or the association does not a heart attack over its size or shape?

[PACNWComms]

Here is the link for a previous thread on this subject. 

 

For my own use on the second floor of my house, I just use a New Motorola (NMO) mount UHF antenna, a magnet mount, and have it mounted on the top of a 19" network rack. Other people use metal baking pans for GMRS antennas as a ground plane. GMRS antennas do not have to be big, or even outdoors to work....I get consistent 8-10 miles in a mountainous environment, but this drops to about 5-8 miles when I move my base station to the first floor (daylight basement) setting.

[Mikeam]

2 hours ago, PACNWComms said:

Here is the link for a previous thread on this subject. 

 

For my own use on the second floor of my house, I just use a New Motorola (NMO) mount UHF antenna, a magnet mount, and have it mounted on the top of a 19" network rack. Other people use metal baking pans for GMRS antennas as a ground plane. GMRS antennas do not have to be big, or even outdoors to work....I get consistent 8-10 miles in a mountainous environment, but this drops to about 5-8 miles when I move my base station to the first floor (daylight basement) setting.

I use the baking sheet and a 3 Browning 450MHz-470MHz UHF 3dBd Land Mobile NMO Antenna . I get good local coverage including two repeaters and one repeater I listen to that is 56 miles.

[wayoverthere]

18 hours ago, Mikeam said:

I use the baking sheet and a 3 Browning 450MHz-470MHz UHF 3dBd Land Mobile NMO Antenna . I get good local coverage including two repeaters and one repeater I listen to that is 56 miles.

my 'base' isn't too far off of that....3db (5/8 wave) midland whip (what they sold before the current 'ghost'), mag mounted on a 8"x12" piece of sheet metal on top of a bookcase. can't say much for simplex, but makes repeaters just fine at 30 and 60 miles out.

i believe laird makes a similar whip for 450-470mhz, and both that and mine are around 12" tall.  for best results you may want to have it outdoors when in use, on a window ledge or balcony, as many high rises use low emmissivity glass (low-e), which in addition to blocking heat, also somewhat blocks radio signals.

[PACNWComms]

On 4/16/2022 at 7:11 PM, wayoverthere said:

i believe laird makes a similar whip for 450-470mhz

I had to look back at my gallery posts, to see the Laird antennas I use. It is the 6" QW450, with the GB8UM magnet mount base, then placed onto a metal object for a small ground plane. 

[wayoverthere]

6 minutes ago, PACNWComms said:

I had to look back at my gallery posts, to see the Laird antennas I use. It is the 6" QW450, with the GB8UM magnet mount base, then placed onto a metal object for a small ground plane. 

At 6", that would be a 1/4 wave, correct?

It looks like the closest laird equivalent to the Midland I have is the b4502, which is a base loaded 1/2 wave, 12.6" long and no ground plane required. There is an all black version as well (I have one for 430-450mhz), and spring versions in both colors.

[PACNWComms]

18 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

At 6", that would be a 1/4 wave, correct?

Yes, 1/4 wave antenna for UHF. On my car, I use a dual band Tram (VHF/UHF) NMO mounted antenna, and it is about 1.5 feet long that would work pretty well in an apartment too if someone were to need dual band, and a small antenna on a magnet mount, baking sheet ground plane setup. 

[donniefitz2]

I really liked this Sirio CX455 antenna as a base. It's not big at all, works very well, SWR of 1.01 - 1.02 on GMRS and the build quality is top notch. I don't see it mentioned here ever. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Sirio-CX455-455-470MHz-GMRS-Antenna/dp/B07FZHNBH6