FYI Here in california we have to have hands free devices although the radio is legal to use in your car it can be construed as interfering with driving an ensuing ticket. ?I use a 1/4 wave mag mount and repeater range is about 30-35 miles with it.
On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 4:21 PM,
rcochran@... [FT-60]
<FT-60@...> wrote:
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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@..., 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.
