Eric gave me the opportunity recently to test one of his new magnetic mount 29Mhz antennas so I duly plonked it on the Ranger & scooted off to Botsalano Game Reserve for the weekend.
The tests were not scientific but rather practical and under "normal" working conditions.
The mag mount, mounts quite solidly and survived a few arguments with branches etc so has quite a strong magnet built in. The cable comes with radio connector pre-installed so it is quite simply plug & play and the cable length seems to be just about perfect. In the Ranger, the mount was situated dead centre of roof, in line with the B pillar and the cable came across the roof, through the door, down next to the seat belt and then under the passenger seat to the radio that was mounted on the left of the front console, no slack to worry about.
The antenna whip is about 500mm shorter than the std 29Mhz antennas that have the load just above the spring and on the whip itself. In this case, the load is in the base so it is quite compact.
In terms of signal strength, as this was a test unit, it wasn't set-up & trimmed for optimal performance, I just unpacked it it and plugged it in. In Botsalano, the terrain is not particularly hilly but it is by no means flat and 3km range was easily obtainable with the other party having a suspect radio installation and a suction cup antenna installed. transmissions from my side were heard clearly with minimal static, and received further than I could hear their responses.
Out on the open road where it tended to be a bit flatter, a 5km speech range was achieved.
All in all, for those people who want a temporary installation or who dont want to drill holes in their vehicles, one of these antenna, trimmed to performance perfection would be a very good option.
As with all magnetic mount antennas, it would be a good idea to clean the area you are going to mount the antenna first and then put a very thin cloth between the antenna & the roof just to prevent scratching.
In the first pic the mag mount is shown, this includes the load and as can be seen, the whip just slides into the stand and is secured by a grub screw. The second pic is the full antenna monted on the ranger's roof.
