Its finally March! For me that's exciting because it's generally the last month where we get cold weather here in central PA, and there are usually more nice days than cold days. This post will be a short one, so I apologize if you were looking for a long soliloquy on the merits of antennas. I did however, want to fill everyone in on a my recent shopping trip to HRO. I was at my company's New Castle DE location conducting a training session on the the 24th and 25th, so I had to stop by the candy store.
I didn't actually "need" anything - but then again, nothing in this hobby is about needs...... While I was there, I did however get a new dual band antenna for the roof of my car, and some powerpole connectors. I had run out of one of the sizes I regularly use. As far as the antenna goes, I had been using a short little jobbie, that was a 1/4 wave on 2m, and 5/8 wave on 70cm. It worked fine for me, and being on the roof of the car, performed better than many bigger antenna's often do, when you consider how some bigger antennas often get installed.
I decided to "upgrade" to the standard Larsen NMO 2/70 antenna, which is basically a 1/2 wave on 2 meters and a collinear antenna on 70cm. Here are a couple pictures of the new antenna (and my 20 meter hamstick) on the car, if you can see it.....even when antennas are tall, they can blend in pretty easily depending on the background!
I didn't actually "need" anything - but then again, nothing in this hobby is about needs...... While I was there, I did however get a new dual band antenna for the roof of my car, and some powerpole connectors. I had run out of one of the sizes I regularly use. As far as the antenna goes, I had been using a short little jobbie, that was a 1/4 wave on 2m, and 5/8 wave on 70cm. It worked fine for me, and being on the roof of the car, performed better than many bigger antenna's often do, when you consider how some bigger antennas often get installed.
I decided to "upgrade" to the standard Larsen NMO 2/70 antenna, which is basically a 1/2 wave on 2 meters and a collinear antenna on 70cm. Here are a couple pictures of the new antenna (and my 20 meter hamstick) on the car, if you can see it.....even when antennas are tall, they can blend in pretty easily depending on the background!
 It might be old news to some, but because there are always new people out there, and future hams that are still learning, the common understanding is that when installed permanently on the top of a car, the smaller antenna types (1/4 wave) will have less gain, with a high takeoff angle, and will perform quite well if you live in a hilly area, |  |
where the repeaters are on top of nearby hills and mountains. The taller antenna types (1/2 wave, 5/8 wave, etc.) will have more gain but at a lower takeoff angle. This is fine if you live somewhere fairly flat like I do, but if you are in a mountainous region, you can end up wasting a lot of signal energy shooting radio waves into the base of the mountains. It all varies based on reflections of natural and man-made objects, propagation conditions etc., but that's the general idea.
I love this stuff!
I love this stuff!
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