UHF antennae

Suitcase.
Mentioned once before, Electric Bug owner in Adelaide advised me a long time ago to throw a bar mounted aerial away. He said, the position is not optimal and mentioned the long white ones are not much good in performance. I had a long aerial on a bull bar but after his advice changed to a bottom loaded with a single heavy wire upper which has it's wire wound as a 3turn coil half way up. It looks like a cylinder with an aerial screwed on top. Mounted on side of roof rack or central on roof rack as it is now, it has performed very well. There is no substitute for up high. Some brackets are available which allow the aerial to liedown rearward so as to minimize any damage from low branches.
I have never considered a big long aerial or out front since.

The secret to good reception is the antenna and it’s location. Antennas come in various styles, they can be long or short fibreglass broom sticks, or something that resembles a heavy single wire with a “spring” type coil half way up, plus a few others. The choice is yours as to which type you go for.

Antennas are generally designated into three “types”, 9 dbi, 3 dbi, & 6 dbi. Depending on where you spend the most time travelling, will determine which one to get. If in mainly flat areas, a 9 dbi antenna will give you the longest distance. If in hilly terrain, a 3 dbi antenna is generally considered better. If you do both, for a compromise, a 6 dbi is probably the better choice.

There was a good article on unsealed 4x4 regarding UHF Antennas that is worth a read.

I have a 6 dbi GME AE4704B antenna on a spring base matched to my GME XRS Radio.

Macca.

Has anyone tried one of these ? Kaon Bracket?

Somebody once said nothing vibrates like an ARB bullbar on a Prado and it’s just a matter of when an antenna will break.

Somebody else told me to get a bit of poly pipe of right size and length and slip it over the antenna. This is just a generic Jaycar whip on a GME base.

My bit of tube goes on as soon as I hit the gravel. It stops the antenna whipping about and has survived the worst of the Canning Stock Route when I’d had two breakages on lesser tracks.

It aint fancy but it’s cheap.

I have had a GME AE409L stainless skinny wire antenna set to 6db on my bullbar for 13 years now and it has never let me down. Because feedback was that these failed regularly I carry spare parts for it with me but have never needed to fix it. Maybe I am just lucky.

Mine is a Uniden 6db on a fold-down bracket on the roof. I have an identical spare which I found on a track :-) plus a cheap wire spare that twice I've given to travel mates whose BB mounted aerials have snapped off.



No BB harmonics up there to fatigue the wire and break it and the fold down bracket protects it against low branches. The radiating part of the antenna is above the firewood basket so range is good in all directions and it's ground independent (like most) so doesn't need to be in the middle of the roof.

I've a Kilpatrick Communications 6.6dB aerial, simple spring base and fiberglass whip. On heavily corrugated roads it will sometimes develop a standing wave which I figure can't be good. I like rocco2010's idea of the polytube and wonder if hot water pipe foam insulation would do the same job, given you just need to alter or disrupt the harmonic?

I have used a Uniden AT880 Twin (6.6/3db) antenna for the last 5 years or so. Mounted on the Cruiser's bullbar it has survived the CSR, ABH, CSH, GCR and Tanami (i.e. plenty of corrugations) without a problem. Range seems fine though I have'nt tried to measure it as such.

Regards

RFI CD 51-68-73 if you can get hold of one if possible roof mount for best reception.

CD51-68-70 is the antenna minus the coax from memory.

Small very light weight won't break unlike steel or very heavy fibreglass styles do.

a few specs:

Whip Material Copper braid element in flexible nylon tubing
Whip Length mm 360
Cable And Connector Not included, order separately. See note (2)
Tuning Field tune to minimum VSWR using supplied tuning chart
Band 450 - 520MHz
Frequency Range 450 - 520
Power w 50
Nominal Gain Dbi 4