MXT115 Antenna Options

[Swetch85]

I am running my Midland MXT115 as a base unit indoors. Thinking of a Laird FG4505W omni fiberglass antenna run up to the roof of my office building. Looking to hit a secondary location that is about 5-7 miles away. Will the 5dB gain with the better outdoor placement do the trick to pull in better reception? This tiny little magnet mount antenna is horrible. 1 bar indoors maybe 2-3 bars outdoors mounted on my truck. Very new to using two way radios but understand some of the tech side of it all. 

[axorlov]

Consider the cable length. 50ft of RG58 will turn your 15W of power into 4W and murder the sensitivity of your radio too. Look at the attenuation chart here: http://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html

[WQYC236]

I think a lot of us out here use LMR-400 or something similar for roof mounted antennas. The shorter the better so plan carefully. I have a 75 foot run of LMR-400 to a 4 db antenna and it does OK. I will either put my antenna higher or cut the coax by 20 feet soon, haven't decided which way to go yet.

 

I'm using this antenna (http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_gmrs.html#gmrsvert) and it will typically talk 15 miles over average terrain to a mobile, roof mounted antenna. The antenna is mounted 40 feet above the ground.