Earlier today I decided to stop in at Gigaparts here in Huntsville Alabama. A lot of people are very familiar with their online store but I actually have the pleasure of getting to shop around in person. That is something not many hams get to do. There is very big lack of ham radio shops or so it seems. I usually do my casual talking, skywarn activities, and listening in on scanner traffic on the 2 meter band. I have been using the run of the mill quarter wave mag mount antenna from MFJ which comes at a very reasonable price of about $25. I also had a few other mag mounts on the top of my car from previous use with better weather radio and cb radio coverage, but today those came off.
Below is my newly installed Comet 5/8 wave 2 meter antenna. Yes, my radio is a dual band(2m/40cm) but all I personally need is 2 meter. I just have never really had a use for 40cm. It stands 48 inches tall making it really stand out in a rugged way which I personally love. It is mounted where my rear spare tire mount use to be. When I got the vehicle it was already bent so it has been removed for a while, leaving a perfect sturdy spot to mount a good quality antenna. So far I have gotten great results from this antenna. I have gotten great signal reports all on low power. When I had my simple quarter wave I would sometimes have to bump my power up to 20 watts to get into the repeater clearly. Now, 5 watts is all it takes. I cannot wait to try this out at a longer distance!
73 guys!
N5WXW
Vince
73 guys!
N5WXW
Vince
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