Need advice on UHF Antenna

If its mostly mountains then I would look at a 4.5dB antenna, I have the 4705 and am happy with it, but the other also looks good.

A very wise choice of radio Baden, as for Antenna all I use is a little one that looks like a phone antenna with the coil in the center and it works like a dream

If you go to this link you will see an antenna on the left of the screen same as mine and it gets out for many Ks, costs about $60 /$70

Site Link

Doug

In very hilly I would be using a quarter wave on the elevated base.In the High Country they work better than a 4.5dB or greater antenna.

Baden,
I have the same radio & 4705 aerial and find it works well. Whilst I know that everyone wants to get the maximum range I only want it to pick up other travellers nearby and others in my group, though we mostly travel on our own. The people that are on UHF CB routinely leave a lot to be desired (!).
alastair

Hi Baden

The GME4400 is not to bad a radio , it one of afew we have , it does have two technical weaknesses , the CTCSS feature does not discriminate enough and second the front facing speaker tends to pole a bit .

Technically the best place for the antenna is in the middle of the roof, particularly in hilly country, anywhere else tends to give a distorted field strength pattern.

Consistent with the above the best antenna is also the cheapset.
A $13 1/4 wave whip sold at places like DSE.

Robin Miller

Don't expect good performance from UHF CB in the High Country - it's fine when you're on top of a hill but from the valleys you'll often be lucky to get 1 or 2km (irrespective of the antenna) so don't consider it as an emergency radio. Probably worth buying a cheap hand held UHF CB too at least then you have the option of walking to high ground and trying to contact someone. I would also suggest the Dick Smith 4.5dB antenna.

Mike Harding

Depends on where you mount the aerial.
A roof mount will perform best - even without gutters, there's neat ways of doing this. For a roof mount, the simple rubber stubbies ($15 aerial + $30 for base and coax) offer surprising performance. Its what I use 95% of the time. They are also unbreakable and won't be bothered by carparks, thieves, trees etc And tehy actually perform better in the very hilly country. I also have a 60cm long one with a pigtail in the middle (??Db) when I want maximum range in open country.

If bullbar mounting an aerial, you need a tall expensive one to get good performance.

Baden
Have a look at the GME site explains it all if your in mountains 4.5

Site Link

All the above posts are spot on, but with my Navara ST-R ( bull bar mount ) I never got any real distance or clarity till I actually got a separate earth wire from the bottom of the spring base, ( on top to the bull bar ) to the earth strap, thats on the left side front,,

The difference it made was incredible
Problem was that there is too much paint and coatiings for a good earth

Cheers
Bucky

Thanks for all the replies. I've decided to go with a GME AE4018K1.