Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 05:30
LOL last year I was crossing the Simpson with 3 other vehicles, all of which had bull bar mounted antennas including one that had a massive broomstick, must have cost him $250.
On one occasion there were some vehicles coming the other way, but about 10 - 15 km away. I was having a discussion with the oncoming group for several minutes, chatting about traffic, track conditions, chit chat etc. They came in loud and clear. After the conversation I asked our group if they got all that, and all said they could really only hear my transmissions. The guy with the huge broomstick said he could occasionally make out something, but could not understand anything of what they said.
My lil ol AE409 for $100 on the roof left em for dead. Also it has a PL259 connector and I replace it with a 6" rubber ducky antenna when there is a lot of overhead trees and we are in a tight group. Another story is prior to moving the antenna from the bull bar I could never trigger a repeater on Mt Dandenong from my house with a 6.5db antenna. After moving it to the roof, even my little rubber dick antenna could contact the repeater reliably.
The down side is that I always end up leading or tail end charlie on dusty dirt roads so we can spread out more. Not enough range for 3 - 4 vehicles with a bull bar mounted antenna to allow the tail end to talk to the front.
I recon bull bar mounted antennas were started by ARB putting a mount there and people sheepishly followed. It make no sense and ARB is a steel company, not a radio company.
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