ICOM IC-E2820 Antenna Question

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knight
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ICOM IC-E2820 Antenna Question

Post by knight »

I looking for ideas on what Antenna to buy with the E2820 for mobile use as well as home use.
26TM5890
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Re: ICOM IC-E2820 Antenna Question

Post by 26TM5890 »

for mobile work you could get a mag mount dual band 2m/70cm

for at home you could get a dual band 2m/70cm colinear
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SgtBilko302
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Re: ICOM IC-E2820 Antenna Question

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paulears
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Re: ICOM IC-E2820 Antenna Question

Post by paulears »

Choosing an antenna has become a pig in a poke. So many products, so many youtube unboxing reviews and stupid opinions, and very few people doing any research at all - just I want X because Fred has X and he can talk to Jim on it!

For many years mobile aerials on vehicles have interested me in the basic designs - not the brands. Hell, I don't even know what brands are on the roof of my van!

My own experience has been repeated on numerous vehicles and I spot patterns. ¼ wave designs always work if they are surrounded by a decent amount of metal roof. UHF ¼ waves are just a bit short, so while the gain is a known factor, the shorter length makes it less efficient at collecting and radiating - although often not as bad as imagined. 5/8th designs have some claimed gain - and while many opinions side on the gain being limited, I'm happy with the 3dB over the ¼ wave, in terms of improvement. For a period, over here, our police on 452MHz fitted their local cars with ⅝ over ¼ wave designs which seemed pretty good, and I fitted the same for UHF and was pretty happy with the performance. The main difference is the radiation angle, which helps the gain but can work against you in other circumstances, so all these designs have different compromises.

Over these years, I've tried all sorts and they all have pros and cons, but I still keep going back to ¼ waves for repeatability and solid performance. VHF ones work pretty well at UHF to, as a ¾ wave. They are shortish, stiff and remain up in the air at speed. The lovely posh designs are great but if you see them on people's cars on the road doing 70mph, they're banana shaped. A ¼ wave on the roof, or a clever stacked one on the rear near an edge, or any variation seem to make more differences than spending huge amounts of money. Nobody ever makes an antenna and then shows you the polar diagram you get from different vehicle positions. If they did, we could all pick the most appropriate one, but they just quote figures that might or might not be achievable on your own vehicle.
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