Melowave Shadow?

[Extreme]

https://www.buytwowayradios.com/melowave-anm-133g.html

Anyone?  I have the phantom stubby antenna and it works ok but no 'testing'.  I've reverted to 1/4 6" on a ground plane and it also works well but have torn one off in the trees in the past.

Is the Melowave Shadow (specifically 'tuned to GMRS') really a step up from the Phantom?  I get a lot of stuff from and refer a lot of folks to BTWR.

Working on an install for a buddies Wrangler JK and considering his rear high mount cargo rack/basket as a place to put a ground plane plate.

[marcspaz]

I absolutely hate these style antennas. Just person opinion. 

 

A 1/4 wave antenna is about the smallest pure mechanical antenna you can have and have it be reliable. Antennas like the one you linked are 1/8th wave antennas and have a capacitance hat to kind of 'fake it' for the other 1/8 wave required. My problem is, in my personal experience the design is way more susceptible to failure due to damage and aging due to weather, and even over-driving the antenna with too much power.  Me and friends of mine have own many of them over the years and there has been a 100% failure rate among us. Sometimes they broke within weeks. The longest anyone I know personal who had one that worked was about 2 years.

 

I also think they are ugly. For whatever that is worth. LOL 

 

A 1/4 wave is literally just a 6 to 7 inch piece of stainless spring steel. Unless you use tools to damage it, the 1/4 wave will last several lifetimes.  One of my 1/4 wave antennas is older than I am, and I have 3 grandchildren. Still looks great and works perfectly. 

 

I have a 5/8 wave rubber ducky antenna fir when I'm wheeling and I don't want to risk breaking the mount or stripping the antenna off the mount. 

[Extreme]

30 minutes ago, marcspaz said:

I have a 5/8 wave rubber ducky antenna fir when I'm wheeling and I don't want to risk breaking the mount or stripping the antenna off the mount. 

Looking online for the Rubber Duck in NMO... ??

[SteveShannon]

Notarubicon did a recent video which showed pretty surprising results for a Ghost antenna.

 

[marcspaz]

15 minutes ago, Extreme said:

Looking online for the Rubber Duck in NMO... ??

 

No, it a UHF mount.  I can't remember is it's by Diamond or Comet.  I'm going out in about 30 minute. I'll grab the make and model number.  Works great out in the woods truck to truck, but I wouldn't try to get much distance out if it, even though it has a good match.  It's not bad, it's just not great.

[Extreme]

13 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

Notarubicon did a recent video which showed pretty surprising results for a Ghost antenna.

 

Same guy (hi there) who claims in another video that the 6" 1/4 wave is the worst performer.  There are likely variables in terrain, etc. that might counter that claim.  My personal experience has been pretty impressive in the mountainous high desert (hit 16 miles, not quite LOS mobile to HT 5x5).

[marcspaz]

 

@Extreme my flexible antenna is a Comet SSB antenna. There is an SSB1 and an SS2. The 1 is a bit shorter than the 2. They are both available in NMO or UHF mount options. 

 

 

As for NotARubicon and the 1/4 wave antennas, while I haven't seen the video you mentioned, the general statement is not wrong. Generally speaking, a 1/4 wave antenna will be the lowest performing antenna with regard to overall gain. There are other benefits to a 1/4 wave, such as better coverage in high eleven variations, for example. 

 

Now, I wasn't at Randy's house or Chris's house while they were performing the test in the the video that's linked above.  However understanding that the quarter wave antenna is better for elevation differences versus the Nagoya and the Midland high gain antennas are design for longer distances, I'm not surprised to see Randy's results. Randy is up on the side of a high hill or mountain while Chris is down in a valley. I would assume that the results between the 2 high gain antennas compared to the ghost antenna would be dramatically different as the two radios became more level with each other elevation wise, as well as when the distance increases, or a combination of both. The ghost antenna would not perform as well distance wise, if the comparison had been done with both in the same elevation plain.  However, there is nothing wrong with that. The antennas fundamentally are designed for different purposes.  Randy did a great job demonstrating that the ghost antenna isn't trash, as some imply.  I am pretty sure that was the whole point of the video.

 

Just my opinion, but basically the reason the ghost antenna did as well as it did at a lower gain level than the other two is because the radiation pattern was simply more well suited for the elevation differences. The reality is, I am very surprised the 2 higher gain antennas worked as well as they did, comparatively speaking.

[wayoverthere]

Sbb-1 is one one that's pretty much a rubber duck, and it's been the only one that clears the work garages on a mag mount on the roof...that couple inches difference from the sbb-2 (which is more of a classic whip with a phasing coil in the middle) is just enough to clear.

(Previously ran a 1/4 wave signal stalk, that's also 18"...it hit every beam in the parking structure)

[KAF6045]

25 minutes ago, wayoverthere said:

(Previously ran a 1/4 wave signal stalk, that's also 18"...it hit every beam in the parking structure)

18" and 1/4 wave? Sounds a lot more like a 2m VHF antenna rather than a UHF band.

[wayoverthere]

11 minutes ago, KAF6045 said:

18" and 1/4 wave? Sounds a lot more like a 2m VHF antenna rather than a UHF band.

Yep, the signal stalks are ham antennas.

And while I won't say they don't exist, I haven't seen anything similar to that sbb1 that was tuned for GMRS...one upside of a super basic whip is the ability to trim it a little to tune for gmrs

[Duck218]

I bought and tried the melowave version.  Failed in about a week.  I'm looking for a 1/4 wave nmo mount now.

[WRQC527]

In my experience, these stubby antennas are a major compromise if they work at all. The one I tried, a Browning GMRS unit, was so far off resonance that it was unusable for GMRS. Some folks have good luck with them. I stick with 1/4  wave VHF and 1/2 or 5/8 wave UHF antennas. Even with them on top of my van I can still fit in the garage and I can easily hit repeaters. 

[wayoverthere]

25 minutes ago, WRQC527 said:

In my experience, these stubby antennas are a major compromise if they work at all. The one I tried, a Browning GMRS unit, was so far off resonance that it was unusable for GMRS. Some folks have good luck with them. I stick with 1/4  wave VHF and 1/2 or 5/8 wave UHF antennas. Even with them on top of my van I can still fit in the garage and I can easily hit repeaters. 

I'm honestly tempted to try one just for giggles...I have a spare mount, and will have a diplexer free once I shuffle radios, since those all seem to be single band antennas.  Since I don't have a source of freebies for testing, if I do give one a try, it'll most likely be a laird.