Tram 1185 Amateur Dual-Band Magnet Antenna

I have had this antenna on the top of my truck now for about a year. I got my ticket back in December 2013. At first I used this with my cheap Baofeng to improve the range and got by for a couple of months in the winter just fine. I finally got a "real mobile" rig and hooked this up to my Icom 880 and have gotten very good reports. I have used this to hit local repeaters and was able to hit one about 30 miles away on 50 watts. Works on DSTAR just fine and also get descent reports on Simplex while I am mobile. I always runs 50 watts when on simplex but typically use middle power when hitting repeaters. I think I got this during Christmas last year for like $18. The magnet is very strong and the SWR readings when I checked were favorable. It is a nice quality too and the magnet is a very good size. I checked them after a few months, my great uncle gave me an older meter that would work on 2 meters. Everyone says get a Larsen and "real hams" drill holes. I would like to get a 1/2 wave antenna in the future but I will wait on that a while. It works great! Don't waste your money on the smaller ones.

I've been a ham for a almost two decades now, and I used to travel a lot and let me tell you, I've had a bunch of mobile antennas...I don't think mag mounts are the way to go long term, if you're looking for a antenna to leave on your car year on end, any mag mount is NOT what you want to use. It will ruin the paint under and near it, the coax is exposed to the elements, and in most installs you're squashing it between a door or truck lid constantly. Do it right, drill the darn car for a NMO mount and just be done with it for it! :)OK now that I've gotten the preaching out of the way, this antenna is a great deal for the money. It's very well built, the coax looks good, the connector looks good, the antenna element itself has a nice black oxide coating on it, the setscrew it uses seems to be stainless and the base and antenna are the standard stud size that most whips use, so you can plug something else in the base, or put the antenna itself into another mount if you man up and get rid of the mag mount. You can adjust the element length or even take it out and cut it down a bit if needed. SWR was good on both bands for me out of the bag.Performance on 2m is typical for a 1/4 wave antenna, nothing magical here. 440 of course is a tiny bit of a compromise. Yea, it may have gain on 440, but it's a 3/4 wave antenna on that band, and the gain is not on the horizon, so it's useless. I've spent years using antennas just like this one on 440 and it works just fine on repeaters in town, or repeaters that are power houses on mountains and 1400ft up a tower like a few we have around here upwards of 60 miles away. But your standard 300ft high run of the mill repeater that is two towns over won't be so hot on a 3/4 wave antenna. I use a 6" 1/4 wave 440 antenna on my car a lot and it smokes dual band antennas like this at long range on 440. However this antenna, is what it is, it's a common design, works well, quality is good, and I'd buy again if I needed one.

Delivered in excellent shape. Fully packaged in plastic and boxed. A VERY strong and coated base magnet so as not to scratch paint on any vehicle or other metal it's attached to. Comes in two pieces: Antenna base/coax and the antenna wand. The wand screws easily into the base and is very secure. The wands threads also have an O-Ring for sealing out any moisture. A small hex head allen screw secures the wire antenna wand to the screw threads. The coax cable is TramFlex RG58A/U and is sufficient. Center conductor IS soldered in place, not crimped onto a standard strain relieved PL-259 connector. So far I have used this dual band antenna in both VHF (136-245 MHZ) & UHF (400-512 MHZ) frequencies and have not had any problems whatsoever in hitting repeaters and/or in receiving radio traffic/contacts. The antennas total height is about 19-1/2 inches tall when installed onto the base and affixed to a vehicle.Edit 6/7/16 - Switched to FIVE STARS (5) - NOW DUAL PURPOSED!Been using this antenna for a couple of weeks now, time to update you. I must say it is holding up extremely well! Very good in all sorts of weather, Great SWR (1.2 - nominal) ratios on dual bands. Antenna hasn't moved from its spot since attached to my Van. The coax cable is holding up very well. I have dual purposed this antenna and have connected an inline antenna switcher so when i'm not dx'ing for contacts I can switch from my Ham rig to a mobile scanner radio. (which I also love to listen to) The Tram antenna seems to work VERY well for this purpose (which i supposed it should).

Decent working 1/4 wave antenna, nothing extraordinary. Results on both bands are acceptable. I had to get this antenna because the top of my vehicle sits at 83", so add the additional 19" for this Tram antenna and I'm at 8'5". Under the most severe clearance situations, I have had to put the antenna on the hood, which then makes it directional and the signal gets a bit attenuated. I like the design and the mag mount holds on way way well, requiring a pretty good pull to get it off. If ever an antenna was to get slammed and damaged by low lying branches, I'd prefer it be this one instead of my $87.00 5/8 wave hi gain mag mount which sits 39" on top of 83". I would buy another one of these Tram antennas if it got wrecked.