RFI UHF Broomstick Aerials?

Hi Bob

They must be pulling your leg regarding the price of the aerials. The AE4705 sells for around the $199 mark and is around the 1 metre high and the AE4706 from memory and around the 2 metre height sells for around the $260 mark and made in Sydney.

I know the RFI aerials are made in Melbourne, abut have not had any experience with them, even though we used to sell them a good number of years ago.

Tell your dealer to lift his game and sharpen his pencil......lol




Cheers



Stephen

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Hi Bob,

I had a broomstick mounted on the bullbar. It was destroyed by bashing on scrub.

I put a MobileOne M474 flexible monopole on the roof which elevates it and acts as a ground plane.
Works a treat. 600mm long, 4.5dBi. $35 including base and cable.

I don't have that specific model but I do have a RFI broom stick for the UHF CB and one for the mobile phone mounted on the bull bar, both work very well.

The RFI units though expensive are very good quality and used by a lot of armature radio operators.

As mentioned they might be possible to damage them by tree hits etc though I have done a lot of kilometers on overgrown tracks and never had an issue though the antennas I have are around 800mm long.

If you are worried about hitting things with the antenna then make up a 'knock down' bracket for it.
Dead simple, couple of stainless plates with a copper washer in between for a bit of friction...

Plenty of AE4705's on ebay so stock is still around.

I've been using a Bushcomm 'Stinger' antenna on the bullbar (with their spring base) for years and it's coped heaps of abuse over corrugations, bent backwards pushing through thick scrub, etc.
Definitely not cheap (over $300 for antenna and spring), but I have found it to be well worth the cost.
http://www.bushcomm-online.com/index.php/component/virtuemart/mobile-uhf-whips.html
Hope the info is of some use.
John

I have 2 of the RFI Phone Antenna's, 1 for the vehicle and a base station with 10m of coax for the back of the van when stopped at a camp. Both work well, the one on the van is over 6m high when installed.

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I know you are probably not looking for a lecture on the pitfalls of bullbar mounting ........ but it IS your problem.

The bullbar is possibly the worst place to mount an aerial for a number of reasons.

1/As others have mentioned, mounting on the bullbar is a big performance disadvantage compared to mounting high on the vehicle.
People spend a lot of money to get a big white stick mounted on their bullbar, fact is, a smaller, far cheaper aerial mounted high on the vehicle will outperform pretty much any bullbar mount ....... remember line of sight is the predominating limitation on UHF and that extra meter of height putting the aerial high and clear makes a very big difference.

2/ The bull bar is at the furthest extremity of the vehicle and rigidly attached to the chassis ....... there is simply no other possible place that could be worse for vibration and shock.
There are some manufacturers that simply will not warranty some of their aerial models mounted on the bullbar.
Yeh you can put a spring on the aerial ...... but that will do nothing for vibration, possibly make it worse

3/ yes of course there are the impact and frontal damage issues of mounting on the bullbar ...... in fact if the letter of the law and the ADRs where inforced, bullbar mounts would be illegal.

I can tell you from personal experience that moving my aerial from the bullbar to the roof rack produced a significant improvement in range and performance.
There are many including posters above that will testify likewise.

By far the best bang for buck aerial on the market is the 6 db elevated feed aerial like the GME AE4017K2. ..... GME make this aerial in a number of forms (wire or fiberglass whips, colours different springs and mounts), pretty much every aerial manufacturer has one or more versions of this same aerial.
You can get into one of these for $100 retail all day.

If you are concerned about it being knocked or damaged ...... as mentioned a very effective knockdown mount can be made out of two angle brackets, a bolt and and some sort of friction pad ..... copper washer was mentioned, I prefer fibre washers.

Another option is one of the 4db gain rubber duckies ...... these are very common in earth moving, they are short near impossible to kill Jaycar will sell you one for $70 retail, Axis and several others also make them.

Mounted high and clear they will give many bullbar mounted big white sticks a run for their money.

Serioulsy save yourself some money, and get some better performance, get your aerial off your bullbar.

cheers

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No doubt about it Bob........ you ask for experience of a particular product and everybody, including me, advises you to use a different product. But I guess that is the charm of forums. LOL

OK .... I'll go the other side of the argument. I bought this Aerial off ebay from a bloke who made them in West-Wallsend (outside Newcastle) about 4-5 years ago. It has been whacked / bent / thrashed from here to the christ-almighty over the last few years (AB twice / CSR / Madigan / etc etc.) and hasn't shown any signs of degredation or wear and tear. Just bounces right back up and keeps on working. BTW, the reception is great !

If you want to spend some extra money on a roof mount try the below.
I have been using them for many years with no problems.
One has a multi band antenna 2m /70cm.
The other has a RFI ground independent Air Band antenna.
I lower and raise the antennas at least 6 times a day at various work sites due to the height of my work van.
I rate the RFI antenna very highly for construction and receive performance.

K9000 motorised antenna mount and fittings $119
Mounting brackets are extra $39
0° to 90° angular movement takes about 4 secs.
Have a look at Andrews Communications under antennas / Diamond or Google
Diamond Antennas. Strictly Ham also sell them for the same price.

John

Hello Bob, can't help with the witches stick, it is a pity Access can't compete as they are a good mob to deal with. Have used them a few times for truck and 4wd related radio problems,

Have used the 8 db RFI units and found them ok.