Congratulation's on your license Zach. I concur with Colin and David's
remarks about mag mount antennas. I would just add that I have owned both a
2 meter five eighths Larsen, and a dual band 2 meter, 70 CM Larsen antenna
which is the one I most often use. You want the most gain you can get for
the little output you will get from your HT. If you don't have an alternate
way of powering the rig from the car, you will soon eat up your battery
power if you run the rig on its high power. I always try to use as little
transmitting power as necessary which is the rule anyway. Back on the mag
mount antennas, I have had the Larsons for probably 20 years and they still
are working fine. The fewer connectors you need in line, the better because
each new connector will introduce some degree of signal loss. I don't
think I ever tuned the antennas, maybe once many years ago. Good luck on
programming the rig and have a safe and fun trip. Jim WA6EKS
-----Original Message-----
From: Zach Shifflett
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2013 11:05 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: a couple antenna questions
Hi all.
Still haven't gotten my license yet, but it should be coming in some
time this week.
I just received my radio in the mail, though. It's a baofeng uv5r
duel band handheld.
I'm taking an extended road trip in a few days, and assuming my
license is in by that point, I want to work some repeaters up and down
the east coast as we travel.
I plan on replacing the standard rubber duck with a mag mount for the
roof of our car, and am looking for some advice.
I'd like one that I can use with relatively little hastle on both the
2 m and 70 cm bands, though if I would be better off using a single
band antenna, I'd rather work 2m.
I've read a lot of stuff online about tuning, and how much tuning is
necessary for these antennas. Is there a duel band I could use
without tuning? If not, could I get a single band to operate on 2m?
If I do end up having to tune the antenna, what's the best way to
accomplish this? Is there a talking swr meter out there somewhere?
I know I'll need to tune antennas in the future, especially for dxing
and hf work, but as a total newbie, I'd kind of just like to get on
the air for a little while before I have to spend a lot of money on
talking tuners and taking my radio apart.
Thanks for any advice!
Zach
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