What If You Don't Have A Good Ground Plane? Do Ground Plane Kits Work? Use A Mobile Antenna At Home!

That's a big negatory on the diminished popularity of CB good buddy. Can I get a big 10-4?

I just passed my ham technician exam Saturday. Now I can finally tell Randy what he is doing wrong...

I ultimately solved the ground plane issue in my wrangler by sticking foil flue tape to the underside of the hard top, and ran a short ground strap from that to the roll bar. The dealer asked me about it when I traded it in and just told him I didn't like to wear my tinfoil hat while I was driving.

Randy, could you humor us and attach the second length of pieces and see if there's any further (Induction?) into the ether for the advantage if we have space? I'm going to suggest there may be a skosh more and particularly those of us mounting in an attic. Likewise for viewers who may be using attics, they may wish to make sure they are not directly above fluorescent light fixtures, x-ray equipment or leftovers from Sandia or Los Alamos National Labs.

I appreciate the info. Although I don’t consider myself a radio hobbyist, I do want my equipment to perform efficiently. Your videos help me do that. Thanks.

Curious to know what type of SWR you achieved when you bent the radials down. Thanks for the great wealth of knowledge you share with the YT community!

I love your videos, the fact you're able to explain complicated topics in a simple way and keep it entertaining is crazy.

I love CB! I have a converted DX 47HP that I’ve talked as many fars as Nova Scotia from East Texas! But you’re right! Ground plane is a significant issue on 27Mhz

Best t-shirt yet! I just bought one of those Nagoya kits a few days ago, my TRAM 1180 mobile antenna is now doing double duty as my base station antenna, and it works great.

That was the 1st video you've did in awhile that actually helped me lol. And I watch them all. Thanks

So glad you brought this out to your public watchers. Thanks

I’m new to ham radio, but have 20+ years in the communication field and understand how everything works…. I have to say I absolutely love your videos man. You are amazing and hilarious…. Thank you so much for all that you do…. Don’t change a thing. Dude, you’re freaking awesome. ✌️😎✌️

Hey Randy thanks for calling me back and helping me I am grateful for your help and all the advice you gave me.

I've got two of these that MFJ puts out. Use them for camping on a painter's pole or for emergency communications when things happen. They work very well and are compact enough to just keep in my vehicles. Worth the price to get a couple. CHEERS from Colorado

Great video i use a Firestik II 4 feet on a magnet mount on a 12x12 piece of sheet metal in my attic works good Low Swr

I’m so happy I subscribed to this channel. Always informative and always fun to watch. I enjoy your humor 😊

Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of Jun In a Kenworth pullin' logs Cab-over Pete with a reefer on And a Jimmy haulin' hogs We is headin' for bear on I-one-oh 'Bout a mile outta Shaky Town I says, "Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck" "And I'm about to put the hammer down"

Thanks for taking time to make the videos, very helpful.

Good stuff this.. I use 2 of them, one set up as you did for GMRS and the other using all the ground plane radial extenstions for my 2M, 220, 450Mhz tri-bander rig all mounted inside on a modded ex-coat rack.

As a graduate of the Betty Crocker University of half baked Hams, I can testify that the mag mounted cookie sheet antenna, works very well. I use one inside my home office, for my mobile base station rig. I just DO NOT run it on 25 to 50 watts. It tends to fry all the other wifi and bluetooth electronics, in the house! I have also built a camera tripod mounted, ground plane antenna (similar to yours), using the TRAM ground plane (NMO) base, with a mobile dual band antenna. I had to Jerry rig, a metal plate between the NMO antenna and the base, but it works. Actualy adding about 20 feet of coax to the radio, seems to help lower the SWR, even more. I suppose the coax is acting as a radial too? But with my 25 watt, mini mobile radio. I am hitting repeaters 40 - 60 miles away! Not to bad for cheap, portable, and 5 feet off the ground.