[Elecraft] Mobile antenna breakthrough?

[Phil Kane]

On 8/20/2017 7:30 PM, Fred Jensen wrote:

> e now-defunct Southern Pacific Railroad, acquired by Union Pacific 20 or
> so years ago, used DDRR VHF antennas on their trackside signaling
> equipment.  They were cast steel [maybe brass under the finish], very
> low profile on top of the equipment box, small [they looked like a
> handle], and about as indestructible as the steel box they were on. 
> Indestructability is fairly important with stuff trackside in the middle
> of nowhere.  

In the rail industry, these are known as "Excalibur" antennas - the
model type made by Sinclair.  They were developed for the transit
industry for buses and locomotives to be able to go through industrial
wash racks with no damage  We used both the VHF Low-Band and VHF
High-Band models on a measurement truck and were very happy with them.
Use of this type of antenna on wayside equipment such as hot-box and
dragging equipment scanners is pretty much standard for the reasons that
you gave above.  I'd put one on our car but I don't know how the VHF
model that I would use for 2-meters would perform on UHF (3/4-meters)
like my 1/4-wave mag-mount vertical does.


73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402

>From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon