[Antennas] Fw: antenna for motorhome

[John King]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: John King 
To: antennas at qth.net 
Cc: Roy Ezell 
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 10:07 AM
Subject: antenna for motorhome


Thanks to all for the great information provided thus far. I should have provided more information to you to enable you to get a better picture of what I am trying to accomplish.

I already have a properly mounted screwdriver antenna on the motorhome and on the vehicle I am towing. I already have an Icom 706MKIIG in each vehicle and a solid state Metron Amp in each vehicle. IN ADDITION, I have an Icom 718 and Heath SB 221 in my motorhome as a rig that can be used fixed or mobile.

I presently have a GROUND MOUNTED  GAP TITAN VERTICAL for fixed use that I am using.

My experience has been, HERE IN ALASKA, that the vertical outperforms the screwdriver by far, and would even outperform a bugcatcher. I am an extremely experienced mobile station installer and user and short antennas are usually just "short antennas" with significant differences in performance  from  the gamut of antennas from helical wound short antennas to bugcatchers. Eventhough I have owned a number of  screwdriver antennas, I am convinced that a PROPERLY BUILT, INSTALLED AND TUNED bugcatcher performs best, but  who wants the trouble of tuning the bugcatcher for optimum with each frequency change and band change?

I am accustomed to having oustanding signals from my mobiles. I am just trying to do the best I can from a motorcoach and a screwdriver antenna is not the best I can do.

By the way, the coach is a 2004, fiberglass, and 40 feet long. 

John, K5PGW, Talkeetna, Alaska