Bingfu Vehicle Mobile Ham Radio Antenna VHF UHF 136-174MHz 400-470MHz Car Truck Amateur Two Way Radio Antenna with Lip Mount Fixed Bracket PL259 Male 5m 16.5 feet RG58 Cable

I was very hesitant because of the 3.9 stars when I purchased, but it’s a great antenna. I use it on my house for a base station and it’s great with 1.05 SWR. Crystal clear and no issues hitting a repeater 30 miles away with a 10W VHF/UHF radio. It’s unobtrusive, so the neighbors don’t bother me. A very light petroleum jelly coating on the antenna and a drop of loctite on the screws works miracles. As a mobile application I can see its shortcomings as it is brittle and long, so you probably need a spring mount so it doesn’t snap off if you hit something. Haven’t had any rust issues, but I also prepped the surface per above.

Pro: Works great. Con: low wind loading for a mobile antenna. First one snapped at the base in I95 travel. On car. Second one on motorcycle had held up well.

This antenna was fairly decent when it was mounted new, but after a single rainstorm the entire steel portion of the antenna began to rust. My SWR jumped from 1.1 to 6.5 and no amount of cleaning/tuning was able to reduce this. Spend the extra money and purchase a brand name antenna.

Logic suggests that while designed for mobile use, leaving it mounted while moving is a really bad idea. I bought this for a portable repeater. After adding ground plane radials, I was able to adjust the SWR down to near perfect! As for rusting, I painted the entire setup to match the forest where it will be deployed. I honestly expect it to last many years. It would also be ideal for an inexpensive base station antenna. Again, I'd protect it from the elements. Possibly going to the extreme of placing it inside a capped PVC pipe. (PVC should be invisible to RF) Are there better options? Absolutely... but they all cost more. For budget applications and common sense protective precautions, this should work great. Again, adjust SWR and protect it from weather.

Don't buy is you don't have a VSWR tester or don't plan on buying a tester. Heck if you are a do it yourself and you don't have a VSWR tester why are you doing it yourself? You need to test your antenna and that is just a fact. The testers are cheap. Yes, you need to cut the antenna with a hacksaw or ideally with a strong pair of wire cutters. Once you cut it you test it and keep testing it until you the VSWR correct. The antenna will work for GMRS it just needs to be cut to work and tested. You need to test the antenna every year or 6 months depending on weather conditions and where you drive. Pretty basic RF stuff. VSWR testing is required on all cellular systems. Most of them have auto test now in the equipment but in the old school days I had to manually test those big cell sites and it took time. ;) You need to test your systems.

I have an ICOM 706MKIIG and I needed just a dual band antenna. So I thought that I would spend a little extra and get the very long one to see if it was better. Boy is it! I can pick up a repeater that's probably 30-40 miles away and it and I are both in the northern part of West Virginia in the mountains. So that's saying a lot. Sometimes I can't even reach the repeater in the same county I live in on the old antennas. I'm hitting some I haven't hit in forever. I just have it clipped on the edge of one of my gutters! Works great and a great deal.

I have had this antenna for maybe a month. It’s a great 2M/70CM mobile antenna for stationary use. I would NOT recommend mounting on a roof or anywhere in the main airstream while traveling. Due to the construction of the collapsible joint it does not hold up under wind pressure from highway speeds. It tends to lift the antenna and bend it back on this collapsible joint. After prolonged use (maybe 5 times running on highway with it up) the collapsible joint failed, breaking in two and loosing the antenna all together.

Se mejoro considerablemente la señal y recepción de mi radio base, muy buena calidad de todos sus componentes