ARC Wireless Solutions decal antenna question

[DPEMA140]

I don't know if this is the right forum or not, but we'll give it a shot. Has anyone ever used one of the ARC Decal Antennas for their mobile? One of the neighboring towns uses them for their MDT's, but I was considering it for my Tahoe. Before anyone jumps all over me, hear me out. My garage door is EXACTLY seven feet. I regularly park at the airport, and the clearance there is 6' 6". My Tahoe is 76.7" tall. If I put a wire on the roof, it will be gone in a week. Same for a glass mount. If I use an L-bracket on the front, it sticks out into the "elbow zone" for anyone walking by my car.

So, my choices are the ARC decal antenna, or the Antenex Phantom Elite. My buddy has the Phantom, and it works very well, but I am not sure on the height. I know very little about the ARC antenna. Any help is appreciated.

Here is a link to their website: http://www.antennas.com/products.php?id=117&rcat=142

[resqguy911]

You say your Tahoe is 76.7" tall, is that the height at the top of the luggage rack at the back of the vehicle? Or is that the height of the sheetmetal at the desired antenna location? What frequency are we talking about? The Antenex Phantom Elite antennas are 2.375" at 150-160mhz, 2.7" at 800-900mhz, and 3.4" at 450-490mhz.

[wa2zdy]

I suppose if you're close enough to your repeater it'll work. That's the neat thing about land mobile, you can design the entire system to do the required job with specified components. If you need to get by with crummy mobile antennas, you design the repeater to accomodate.

In the case of hams, the best antenna possible is always desired as the mobiles must be able to reach the desired base/repeater/other mobile, and coverage areas are not pre-defined (like in a police dept for example where the coverage area is mostly pre-defined to be within the confines of town for example.)

This antenna is a major compromise first off. Remember that anything less than a quarter wave is going to present LOSS as opposed to gain. Your transmitter power output might be 25w and your ERP be less than that. And looking at the specs the size is 3.5 inches square. That would allow a quarter wave on 800MHz but not on the lower bands. And the advertised gain is 3dBi which basically means no gain at all. At least they're semi-honest there although the spice it up by making it dBi - gain over an ideal antenna, such a thing as does not exist.

If this is the only thing that will fit where you need it and it is enough to do the job, I guess it'll do. But it's FAR from an ideal antenna. A dummy load won't do much worse.