Recommendations for a HT stubby antenna?

[zuren]

I am a member of the ski patrol at a small ski area and I'm looking into buying a VHF radio to use out there. The radios supplied by the patrol are something similar to the Motorola HT750 (below) and operate around 151 MHz. The area that I need to Tx/Rx is less than a mile in diameter:

http://www.motorola.com/Business/US...e+Radios/Wide+Area+Communications/HT750_US-EN

The way I carry my radio when patrolling is in a harness on a vest that is under a shell jacket to keep it out of the elements. The 6"+ rubber duck antennas on them tend to get in the way and snag on my jacket when moving around. I started looking around for possible solutions and found "stubby" antennas like this:


http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-001580

The one above is only 1.75". I want it to be concealable yet have adequate performance. I've never used anything shorter than about 4.5" long so I'm wondering how well one of these would work for this specific environment? If anyone has used this style, I'd appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

 

[DaveInDenver]

The Motorola PMAD4025 seems like the most obvious choice, it's a 3" factory antenna and typically is around $10.

Here's one on eBay for $3.99

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VHF-136-174...294?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6893ce86

If you want aftermarket, Larsen SPHS10156 or Laird EXS-150-MX are their equivalent stubbies.

 

[4x4mike]

I've got and like my Diamond 519 with SMA connector. I wear it in this chest harness: http://www.coaxsher.com/Radio-Chest-Harness-p/rp203.htm

It's not an over built antenna but is thin and works great. I also have a diamond antenna srh77ca but it's much longer but more heavy duty. In my chest harness the antenna shoots out to the side so I'm not going to poke my eye out with it. The 519 is up there in signal but not quite what the 77ca gets.

The stubbys you linked never get good reviews but they are nice and small. I think that in the terrain you're likely to see and your need to be available all the time the stubby is a no.

 

[4x4mike]

I was interested in the radio you're using. Google turned up this site and towards the bottom are all the options and accessories for the Motorola. Looks like they make a stubby antenna for that radio, it also looks pretty stout.

Make sure you figure out which radio you're using. They appear to all be low power but UHF. VHF, etc.

LINK
http://www.aaacomm.com/motorola_ht750.htm