Bingfu low profile antenna.

[SvenMarbles]

So the story behind this antenna is that I actually didn’t even want it.

I was simply looking to pick up an NMO mag mount base because the antenna that I was interested in was a Melowave Shadow antenna, but don’t currently have an NMO platform for it to be on. After shopping various options everywhere I spotted this Chinese bundle of what appears to be a copy of these Shadow/Ghost style antennas. But it included the mag NMO base that I was after, for less than the price of just only the base everywhere else I looked ($25 to my door from Amazon). I pulled the trigger and figured I could just pitch the antenna part in the trash and still be ahead of the game.. 

Obviously though, being a radio nerd that I am I had to at least have a look at it. I connected it to my VNA and surprisingly it has a very nice dip across the GMRS portion. 1.3-1. I then took it for a ride checking into some repeaters in my area and got really good reports. Receive copy was great as well. Repeaters ranged from 10-26 miles away. 
 

If you read some of the user reviews online for this antenna, it’s not great. But here’s the thing about it. It’s being sold as a “ham radio, 2M/70cm dual bander”. It’s even labeled as such with a sticker right on the antenna itself. There’s no spot on VHF that is even usable for this antenna. SWR is like 6+. Even on 70cm the numbers are on the high side of the usable slope. So if you bought this antenna for those purposes, it is bad. But fortunately and luckily for GMRS users, this antenna lands resonant (by dumb luck?) at the GMRS region. 
 

This antenna is sneakily, and possibly entirely by accident, a quite good GMRS mobile antenna! 
 

Has anyone else tried one out?
 

 

[Ian]

Think you just sold me an antenna!  I want one of the red ones to match the car's paint…  Looks like it'll do the job.

[Lscott]

On 4/3/2024 at 4:36 PM, WSAK691 said:

There’s no spot on VHF that is even usable for this antenna. SWR is like 6+. Even on 70cm the numbers are on the high side of the usable slope. So if you bought this antenna for those purposes, it is bad. But fortunately and luckily for GMRS users, this antenna lands resonant (by dumb luck?) at the GMRS region. 

My experience with a similar type I picked up cheap at a Ham swap. On the Ham 70cm band it wasn't too bad. On VHF it was VERY narrow banded to the point of being mostly useless. The SWR on GMRS put it out of the running. Oh well I got a decent magnet mount out of the deal.

[SvenMarbles]

6 hours ago, Lscott said:

My experience with a similar type I picked up cheap at a Ham swap. On the Ham 70cm band it wasn't too bad. On VHF it was VERY narrow banded to the point of being mostly useless. The SWR on GMRS put it out of the running. Oh well I got a decent magnet mount out of the deal.

I think there may have been some variations of it, but as you can see on the VNA, this model lands nicely into GMRS. I’ve been talking on it very reliably and getting good reports. 

[WRUW493]

On 4/3/2024 at 2:36 PM, WSAK691 said:

So the story behind this antenna is that I actually didn’t even want it.

I was simply looking to pick up an NMO mag mount base because the antenna that I was interested in was a Melowave Shadow antenna, but don’t currently have an NMO platform for it to be on. After shopping various options everywhere I spotted this Chinese bundle of what appears to be a copy of these Shadow/Ghost style antennas. But it included the mag NMO base that I was after, for less than the price of just only the base everywhere else I looked ($25 to my door from Amazon). I pulled the trigger and figured I could just pitch the antenna part in the trash and still be ahead of the game.. 

Obviously though, being a radio nerd that I am I had to at least have a look at it. I connected it to my VNA and surprisingly it has a very nice dip across the GMRS portion. 1.3-1. I then took it for a ride checking into some repeaters in my area and got really good reports. Receive copy was great as well. Repeaters ranged from 10-26 miles away. 
 

If you read some of the user reviews online for this antenna, it’s not great. But here’s the thing about it. It’s being sold as a “ham radio, 2M/70cm dual bander”. It’s even labeled as such with a sticker right on the antenna itself. There’s no spot on VHF that is even usable for this antenna. SWR is like 6+. Even on 70cm the numbers are on the high side of the usable slope. So if you bought this antenna for those purposes, it is bad. But fortunately and luckily for GMRS users, this antenna lands resonant (by dumb luck?) at the GMRS region. 
 

This antenna is sneakily, and possibly entirely by accident, a quite good GMRS mobile antenna! 
 

Has anyone else tried one out?
 

 

How tall is it? 1/4 wave at GMRS is 6 inches. It would be rather easy to make a 3 inch tall one turn helical antenna that is only a dB or so worse than a straight 1/4 wave which would be impossible for us to observe with just real world testing. Nice review!

[SvenMarbles]

10 hours ago, WRUW493 said:

How tall is it? 1/4 wave at GMRS is 6 inches. It would be rather easy to make a 3 inch tall one turn helical antenna that is only a dB or so worse than a straight 1/4 wave which would be impossible for us to observe with just real world testing. Nice review!

The NMO base is probably about 3/8ths, so the antenna itself is right at about 3 1/2”. 
 

Here’s how it sits on my wife’s car. Very subtle. It’s her antenna now because it’s the first time she would allow an antenna be put on her car, due to its small form factor. 
 

As for gain, I am sure it’s not more than a couple db. I’m actually in the process of re-thinking my strategy with mobile antenna gain though. I’m likely to replace my own with an intentionally lower gain antenna. I suspect that the shallow radiation lobes of the higher gain mobile antennas create dead spots around terrain height variations, whereas a 3db or lower, more Omni-directional in the X axis, performs better. 
 

With this antenna and a 4 watt UV5R, I get told on the comeback from radio checks into repeaters that are 10-15 miles away that I’m full quieting and loud. . Not sure if it’s just some kind of lucky anomaly, but this ultra cheapo setup ($50ish dollars all-in) just talks all over town quite nicely…

[SvenMarbles]

On 4/8/2024 at 9:53 PM, Ian said:

Think you just sold me an antenna!  I want one of the red ones to match the car's paint…  Looks like it'll do the job.

I really hope it works out well for you. My only concern with these antennas are if the QC is such that no 2 of them are the same tune.

[WRUW493]

This looks good WSAK961. Yeah, in hilly terrain the lower angle of radiation can work against you. I'd say it's due to not radiating upwards to the hill top where the scatterer is to get over the hill.

The shorter than 1/4 helical has a near horizon radiation pattern but also is very broad in the Z plane. As the helical gets shorter they eventually turn into nearly spherical in pattern (not polarization that's different).

Agree that QC is an issue but I can also say a near 1/4 wave is rather broadband do is tolerant of dimensions. But build QC is a different thing.

 

Nice that you got the wife to tolerate any antenna. 

 

 

[SvenMarbles]

7 hours ago, WRUW493 said:

This looks good WSAK961. Yeah, in hilly terrain the lower angle of radiation can work against you. I'd say it's due to not radiating upwards to the hill top where the scatterer is to get over the hill.

The shorter than 1/4 helical has a near horizon radiation pattern but also is very broad in the Z plane. As the helical gets shorter they eventually turn into nearly spherical in pattern (not polarization that's different).

Agree that QC is an issue but I can also say a near 1/4 wave is rather broadband do is tolerant of dimensions. But build QC is a different thing.

 

Nice that you got the wife to tolerate any antenna. 

 

 

I think there is a sort of broad misunderstanding of what you can do on UHF, with watts and DB antennas. People want the 50 watters and the 9db gain antennas thinking that's the best way to operate. For your home setup, and with an antenna up high, sure... But it's more to do with the height/LOS. You could probably be achieving the same result with 10 watts if you're doing nice in that configuration. 

For the mobile side, you're a low plane level antenna. No matter what,... You can't punch through that dirt grade with watts. 50 or 5,000. The only thing that you can have control of is your take-off angles. The higher DB antennas are shallow. Give up on the watts or ERP. Just radiate more omni.. I've found that that it's been the solution. 5 watts can sound like 50 if it's clear to radiate. On UHF, you're due to lose the contact by terrain long before petering out on power. People CW on 5 watts across the planet. 

Power isn't the thing folks.. HF does it by ricocheting off of the  ionosphere. 

Power only matters if you care to step over a guy. Do we do that in polite society?

 

 

[csboddy]

I absolutely had this antenna (ordered it by accident) and found the same results.  Never metered it but the performance was amazing hidden inside the roof rack of my minivan.

[WSAA635]

I'm running the same stubby antenna (only UHF so239 mount) on my truck znd it seems to work well enough for my needs. I wanted something that would be less profile and inconspicuous and this works well in that roll.

[WSAA254]

On 4/14/2024 at 3:26 PM, SvenMarbles said:

I think there is a sort of broad misunderstanding of what you can do on UHF, with watts and DB antennas. People want the 50 watters and the 9db gain antennas thinking that's the best way to operate. For your home setup, and with an antenna up high, sure... But it's more to do with the height/LOS. You could probably be achieving the same result with 10 watts if you're doing nice in that configuration. 

For the mobile side, you're a low plane level antenna. No matter what,... You can't punch through that dirt grade with watts. 50 or 5,000. The only thing that you can have control of is your take-off angles. The higher DB antennas are shallow. Give up on the watts or ERP. Just radiate more omni.. I've found that that it's been the solution. 5 watts can sound like 50 if it's clear to radiate. On UHF, you're due to lose the contact by terrain long before petering out on power. People CW on 5 watts across the planet. 

Power isn't the thing folks.. HF does it by ricocheting off of the  ionosphere. 

Power only matters if you care to step over a guy. Do we do that in polite society?

 

 

Very well said.  I never really appreciated the whole line of sight, until I experienced it first hand.