Midland MXAT04 heavy duty GMRS antenna

[donmontalvo]

I’m still searching for the most durable GMRS antenna. Has anyone bought and used one of these?

MXAT04 6.6dB Heavy-Duty Bullbar Antenna | Midland Radio

Heavy-duty 6.6dB bullbar antenna (MXAT04) for MicroMobile radios. Rugged spring base handles off-road abuse—extended range for vehicles. Built tough by Midla...

midlandusa.com

I wonder how it compares with the Melowave ANM-123G:

Thoughts on the new Melowave Overlander ANM-123G (GMRS)

I just snapped my Wouxun ANO-050G antenna on a weekend overlanding trip. It was a 5/8 wave GMRS antenna that worked great and was mounted at the back of my Jeep. It stuck up far enough over my roof, for one of the many branches to snap it off the mount (can't be fixed). Luckily I carry spares...

forum.expeditionportal.com

Full transparency, I’ve been using HAM primarily but am going to Colorado soon and need to decide on a heavy duty GMRS antenna.

Thoughts?

TIA

 

[kidphc]

No clue. It has a limited use case, imo. For simplex it will probably work fine. For repeater work adequate. It's going to have limited gp (the biggest comprimise) some directionally due to mounting location. It really is just a randome antenna.

Unfortunately, you probably know this, there, is no magic to antennas. We can't just bend the laws of physics enough to make a magic one.

I run a laird 4505 5/8 over 5/8 as my normal nmo on my lc100. It's been dealing well with the parking garages and the trees on the trail of wva.

I do have a laird 4503, where I took a signal stalk (it's 3/4 on gmrs and 70cm, 1/4 on 2m) apart and hacked the stalk down to 5/8 gmrs to fit on the 4503 nmo. Makes it a very flexible 5/8. Works really well.

But since you are heading into CO with mountainous terrain, have you thought about a simple 1/4 (for the radiation pattern, not the reach).. super broadband and small.

Guess that is why most of the hard-core cruisers (expedition portal and ih8mud) run

1/4 on the rack out west.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

 

[donmontalvo]

Thanks, I carry a number of antennas in the Jeep. Some small stealth antennas, 1/4 wave, 5/8 wave, etc., for HAM and GMRS.
What I've been looking for is an antenna that will survive trips through wooded areas. The folks I travel with are usually pretty close, so guessing 1/4 mile is what I'd need under most circumstances.

I live in Plano, where we have a secure garage at our building, with a 7' max height. So the antenna has to be tough enough to not break if it bends in the woods or in my garage.

I'm not an antenna expert, but I do understand that without a proper ground plane, performance is compromised. I might at some point attach an NMO mount onto a steel circular plate and attach it to my roof. Unfortunately I don't have a roof rack anymore because it and my iKamper lost a fight with a 7' garage ceiling (can be repaired some day).

 

[Redfernsoljah]

I’m still searching for the most durable GMRS antenna. Has anyone bought and used one of these?

MXAT04 6.6dB Heavy-Duty Bullbar Antenna | Midland Radio

Heavy-duty 6.6dB bullbar antenna (MXAT04) for MicroMobile radios. Rugged spring base handles off-road abuse—extended range for vehicles. Built tough by Midla...

midlandusa.com

I wonder how it compares with the Melowave ANM-123G:

Thoughts on the new Melowave Overlander ANM-123G (GMRS)

I just snapped my Wouxun ANO-050G antenna on a weekend overlanding trip. It was a 5/8 wave GMRS antenna that worked great and was mounted at the back of my Jeep. It stuck up far enough over my roof, for one of the many branches to snap it off the mount (can't be fixed). Luckily I carry spares...

forum.expeditionportal.com

Full transparency, I’ve been using HAM primarily but am going to Colorado soon and need to decide on a heavy duty GMRS antenna.

Thoughts?

TIA

I would check out the following.

I’m still searching for the most durable GMRS antenna. Has anyone bought and used one of these?

MXAT04 6.6dB Heavy-Duty Bullbar Antenna | Midland Radio

Heavy-duty 6.6dB bullbar antenna (MXAT04) for MicroMobile radios. Rugged spring base handles off-road abuse—extended range for vehicles. Built tough by Midla...

midlandusa.com

I wonder how it compares with the Melowave ANM-123G:

Thoughts on the new Melowave Overlander ANM-123G (GMRS)

I just snapped my Wouxun ANO-050G antenna on a weekend overlanding trip. It was a 5/8 wave GMRS antenna that worked great and was mounted at the back of my Jeep. It stuck up far enough over my roof, for one of the many branches to snap it off the mount (can't be fixed). Luckily I carry spares...

forum.expeditionportal.com

Full transparency, I’ve been using HAM primarily but am going to Colorado soon and need to decide on a heavy duty GMRS antenna.

Thoughts?

TIA

Personally Id check out the following as theyve been making radome antennas for a while for GMRS, 2meter, and CB.

Rugged, Overland Mobile Radio Antennas

The new original mobile overland radio antenna. Alamosa Antennas are rugged, weather- and travel-proof, high-gain radome antennas factory-tuned for the Americas radio bands (GMRS, FRS, CB, Ham)

antennas.alamosa.mobi

 

[DaveInDenver]

As KC3NSR mentions for simple and rugged it's hard to beat plain old 1/4λ mounted on the roof.

I've always had good luck with the STI-CO Flexi-whips. These aren't cheap but if you look closely to the antennas they mount on wildland fire trucks and that sort of thing these are what you'd find. About the only way to break them is to literally run the obstruction over your roof close enough to shear off the NMO.

You can make one almost dual banded, at least if you're trying to overlap 2m and 70cm ham bands. An antenna cut to be 1/4λ on 2m is 3/4λ on 70cm. This is where the relatively generous bandwidth of an antenna without coils works to your advantage. If you set your 2m resonant point to be 145 MHz you'll be just slightly below the middle of the 2m ham band but will be right in the middle of 70cm at 435 MHz. You should easily achieve under 3:1 SWR, the 2m will be 2:1 or lower. You get a funky pattern on 70cm with a null at 45° but you gain energy at 90° and 0° so it actually works better on the horizon and overhead than a 1/4λ.

Flexi-Whip™ NMO Mount - Field Tunable Antenna - 136 MHz - 1000 GHz

sti-co.com

They don't look like you're driving around a UN truck or ready to go into the Outback. You also don't get any gain. So you could keep a stacked element whip to put on if you're in the wide open. But, again to reinforce what's already said, the laws of physics must be obeyed so you're chasing a couple of dB of gain in a whip. If you're worried about trying to hit a very distant repeater I'd suggest keeping a handheld Yagi in the truck so that you can really focus the energy if you need to. Mobile whips are by their nature omni-directional in at least one plane so no matter what it's a major compromise. It's like trying to use a bare light bulb when a flashlight is more appropriate.