• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

Mobile New mag mount recommendations?

Cruiseomatic

Dark side of the Sun.
Dec 28, 2011
110
3
28
Looking for a new mag mount antenna that has a stinger or total length of 40" and below. I know theres wilson, K40, couple cheap knock offs, Etc... But what is a good one? I don't want the cheapest but I don't want the most expensive either. Looking to run a little extra later on so it should be able to handle at 500. Not looking to do more than 2-ish.
Thanks. I gave rebuilding my two little wills some thought and I came to the conclusion it would be best to retire them for now and get something that might be better and keep at least the good one as a backup.
 

And ALOT of these antennas look like Wilson knock offs. Stryker, Tram, Etc... And one thing I've also noticed is, NONE of them list the coax shielding percentage.
 
When I put it on top of my 4 wheel drive GMC Jimmy it will thump trees in my neighborhood, but it is a tall vehicle.
 
Looking for a new mag mount antenna that has a stinger or total length of 40" and below. I know theres wilson, K40, couple cheap knock offs, Etc... But what is a good one? I don't want the cheapest but I don't want the most expensive either. Looking to run a little extra later on so it should be able to handle at 500. Not looking to do more than 2-ish.
Thanks. I gave rebuilding my two little wills some thought and I came to the conclusion it would be best to retire them for now and get something that might be better and keep at least the good one as a backup.
Short and "good" are contradictions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: w9cll and The DB
So is good and cheap but it does happen sometimes. Little will coax is junk basically. Single solid strand center. I think truckstop coax is better than this. And talk about narrow bandwidth on this one..... It still needs some work.
What I need to do is find some "good" coax that has a 14-ish gauge center conductor with atleast 90-95% shielding and is 50 ohm.
 
Then . . . let's define 'good' in this context as 'efficient'.

Short antennas are inefficient on a few levels; so it isn't desirable or good.

Coax inefficiency is practically nonexistent when it is only a 1/2 wavelength long so the quality of the coax isn't that big of a deal here - unless you are running power.

Any antenna that is shorter than a 1/4 wave whip length has less than unity gain. So, any mobile antenna less than that has less efficiency. Add a poorly designed coil, and you add even more loss. You can make a short antenna resonant; but that is no guarantee of efficiency. In fact, it is a sum of compromises. The coax is the least of your concerns - IMO . . .
 
Last edited:
I know that short antennas are very inefficient, but they can work a lot better than what some are describing here. My old setup was a Uniden Pro 520XL with an old Commander 2 pill, running a Lil' Will on the roof of my '89 Mustang. I talked to a guy from Wichita Falls all the way to Bowie, Tx, which is about 50 miles, and we both heard each other clearly. He was in a mobile, too. Good conditions, yes, but still... pretty good for AM. Everyday use, the setup worked great for my travels. I certainly wouldn't put 500 watts into one, but it seemed to handle the 100 watts just fine, and the coil never burned up.

There are a couple "tweener" mag mounts that work quite well...bigger than a k30/lil' Will, but smaller than a Wilson 5000, Sirio, etc. Undertaker mentioned the Wilson 1000, and the other is Larsen. You have to look a little harder for Larsen antennas, but they make some great ones, and have an 11 meter model available. Add your the magnet base of your choice , though.

73,
Brett
 
Robb is completely correct on all aspects. After looking at the inside of a little will, I was looking for something maybe better built and "smaller" but, After searching, it is the smallest one made while still performing decently for how it is built and its size. The coax though is seriously lacking in every department. The core looks as if it is something left over from 75 ohm CATV batch. Solid core center about 20 gauge, and shady looking shielding. Yes, I do plan on running a little bit of power. About 200 max. These are "rated" for 300 but I don't see how that little "matching network" can handle it. Or the coax. I have no problems hearing anyone with it. As far as talking, That is limited by many factors other than wattage which I am working on.
 
Here is a monster mag mount I use for my Hamtennas. Quick twist locks for changing bands. You can run a huge antenna with some power very easily. All of my Hamtennas are eight feet long and that magmount won't move.
4373-1473024082-644ccca07869239f8abde03241ba169f.jpg
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • dxBot:
    Tucker442 has left the room.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    LIVE 10:00 AM EST :cool:
  • @ Charles Edwards:
    I'm looking for factory settings 1 through 59 for a AT 5555 n2 or AT500 M2 I only wrote down half the values feel like a idiot I need help will be appreciated