Tram 1185 Amateur Dual-Band Magnet Antenna

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.

I bought this for my new mobile HAM radio I set up as a base station and since I bought adapters as well I thought I would give it a try on my 5W HT which is a baofeng and it works better than of my other antennas. I tried it for the first time the day before this post and everyone said I was clear as a bell just using 5W. My new mobile HAM radio that is currently my base station can go up to 50W and with this antenna, I was able to make simplex contacts using only 10W and even some on 5W. It handled the max power of the radio which is 50W no problem. The base is nice and the magnet is powerful enough to cling to the metal inside my walls and stick without moving or sliding. Like another post mentions, if you put this on your vehicle make sure nothing is along for the ride so you don't damage your paint. I thought I would see how well it worked while on the road and even at 70MPH no movement. The base is even compatible with other antennas that are the same diameter. Cable length is good, you will need an extension if you want to place it on your roof, but more then enough to put just outside a window or on top of a car. Quite happy with this antenna so far. Planning on getting an analyzer soon so will update if the readings show anything bad. The antenna part does like to wiggle a lot, if you touch the antenna and let go it will keep wiggling for a while.

..this one’s 11in tall I think…thicker shorter then my other magnet TRAM 30in whip. Hits repeaters I think furthest was bout 7 miles straight line city to city. I recommend but only been using couple weeks.

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).