Batboard

Just bought a new Ambulance on a GMC C4500 chassis. The hieght of this vehicle makes the Antennex VHF antenna scrape the overhead door. The motion of the door up and down, plus the ambulance going in and out, makes me nervous.

I am thinking of going to a low profile antenna. Any recommendations?

Making the door bigger is not an option at this time. (My preference.)

Thanks for your ideas.

Gary

Most of these 'low profile' antennas do not have a very good bandwidth. So if all your transmit frequencies are within a mhz or less they would work.

Also look at the A1611-152 antennas at comtelco.com they are a much better quality antenna and only 3" high.

Don't want to make the garage door taller? Expense huh? Try something more expensive, lower the ambulance. Low riding meat wagon, that would get some looks. As for the low profile antennas, have some individuals here who had to use them because of height of vehicles, and their not pleased with the performance. Got any open areas on top of passanger cab? Maybe an L bracket where the lightbar goes? Always got the expensive disguise antennas that replace the OEM radio antenna. Somehow there is a way to mount an antenna that will ease you worries..

Check out the Maxrad MPLV series. They have a frequency spread of around 4 MHZ. They come in all the popular bands...VHF, UHF, 800.
Tally carries them. Google Maxrad for the details.

mm

The Antenex and Maxrad VHF don't work for crap.

Comtelco's low profiles work really well and handle the power of any mobile radio.

The Untenna is also a great antenna and is more "long term" in terms of taking abuse from tree limbs when properly installed. The require tuning, however. They are three times as much $$$ as Comtelco.

I have the same situation with an International 4300 chassis ambulance. Tried the lo-pro antennas but performance was terrible. Now we buy the plain jane Antenex by the boxful and replace them as needed.

I've found that mounting the antenna lower works just as well the those beer cans do. I think someone said something about mounting on top of the cab.

Hello.

You could do what the military has been doing for years, fold the antenna over.
The best option is to have an antenna with a top quality spring and fold this over with the bungee part from the type of bungee cord that is black molded rubber and 2 "S" hooks, one on each end.
You remove the "S" hook and slip the whip in the hole.
You can use rubber cement to help keep it in place.
You can use the 36" bungees and have only a slight effect on range.
The only trouble with this is if you back up and get the antenna hung up in a tree it will usually rip the antenna off.
The other end of the bungee can easily be mounted to the vehicle with a bit of copper wire and a screw, it helps if the wire can break in case it does get tangled while backing.
I usually do this type of thing with MUCH longer antennas and have never had any trouble going forward.

I HAVE 5 LOW PROFILE ANTENNAS ON MY TRUCK AND THEY WORK GOOD OFF AND ON... WOULD RATHER HAVE WHIPS BUT DUE TO GARAGE PARKING CAN'T

2 800
2 UHF
1 VHF

AVFD2922 wrote:Don't want to make the garage door taller? Expense huh? Try something more expensive, lower the ambulance. Low riding meat wagon, that would get some looks. As for the low profile antennas, have some individuals here who had to use them because of height of vehicles, and their not pleased with the performance.

Yeah man, just put some coil-overs on that puppy! Then it'll look sharp! Sure, it'll ride like piss and go through shock absorbers like they are candy, but what the hey!

If you use a low-pro on a fiberglas roof, make sure you install a 15" x 15" groundplane under it.

What do you mean by "lo profile" ?
How long is the existing one and how short do you need to go?
What is the bandwidth required?

We use Sinclair SL221 (EXCAL221) and get good results, only unity gain but would survive anything, likely even a rollover.