Any mag mount quarter-wave antenna should be a huge improvement over the rubber duck, especially the rubber duck inside a car's Faraday cage.? I don't have a specific brand recommendation, but I do recommend getting an external antenna.? If it's just for the FT-60, you don't need an antenna capable of handling high power, so consider that as you shop.
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Some anecdotal evidence: From my home, I can see the local repeater I most often use, on a hilltop about 2 miles away.? I'm in an?area with excellent coverage.? With a homemade?rooftop jpole?(copper cactus), 500mW is reliably full quieting, and I don't have equipment that I can turn down lower than that to see?just how little power it requires.? With the rubber duck antenna, standing outdoors, 5 watts is?reliably copyable, but not always full quieting.? Take the rubber duck inside the closed?car, and 5 watts won't always be copyable.? It's been a while since I played with a rooftop magmount, but if I recall correctly, it performed nearly as well as the jpole.
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While you're antenna shopping, consider getting a longer "rubber duck" style whip, about 19" long.? The diamond?SRH77CA is one popular model.? It's a little more cumbersome than the factory rubber duck, but offers a significant signal improvement while handheld.? It's my default antenna when using the?FT-60?handheld -- I only use the factory one when I really value portability over signal quality.
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73 de AG6QR
---In FT-60@..., <rgsparber.ya@...> wrote :
Even though I don't have my radio in hand yet (HRO $162 including tax), I'm already thinking about buying or making a 2m / 70 cm magnetic base antenna for my car. There are plenty of plans on line but I also see that Amazon has one for $16 including shipping.
I expect to mostly use my radio around Phoenix where the repeaters might let me operate with just the rubber duck inside my car. I will try that before buying an external antenna. On rare occasions I drive to Tucson and see value in an external antenna for that trip.
