What is the shortest base station antenna that is effective without high swr?
Efficiency and short length are sort of mutually exclusive. anything can be made to have a low VSWR - but short antennas are always a compromise. You can take a car type antenna, mount it on a ground plane and you get car performance attached to a building. That might be good enough for you? However, the longer ones, or the more sophisticated ones that are longer usually perform better?
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Thanks for the info. A local CB guy said the Tram 1499 was very good. I was rather skeptical when Bought it and when I just broke it open knowing it was a scam and sure enough it was just a wire in a plastic tube with a capacitor on the bottom. I miss the days when Lafayette and Radio Shack sold those 5/8’s wave antennas.