hopefully i won't offend you asking a few simple questions ...

Quote Originally Posted by coolbreeze View Post
doughboy. In competitions, the 12 foot rule applies. ..........
...... most half wave antenna, mobile and base straight sticks are a 1/2 wave over a 1/4 wave.

can you name a 1/2 wave base CB antenna that is a 1/2 wave over a 1/4 wave please ?

the dave rod of god, 55's or the replicas are a 1/4 wave base feeding the top 1/2 wave section through a capacitor. over all length is over 20 feet, which alone would tell you that you wont be driving down the road with them.

if there is a 12 ft length the rule for competitions , how can a 20 ft antenna be used ? it cant be driven with , too tall for comps ...... what are these antenna good for other than putting money in there sellers pockets ?

Ground radios will not help since the metal mobile is the ground!!!!!! the davemade style half waves require a specific puc so the bottom of the coil is at ground!!!!

end fed 1/2 waves don't need ground radials anyhow , the ringo is a good example of that . typically it doesn,t hurt to add them and in some installs they have shown benefits .

benifits of 1/2 waves. In my results I have found 12-15 db gain over 2 coils. so thats 20 db over 1 coil. now my 5 and 6 element fighting system does better ina shoot out, but the 1/2 waves are devistating in skip. I have proven this myself, along with many many happy 1/2 wave owners.

why not just put the top of a merlin on the mobile ? i've herd it does between 4 - 15 s-units more signal than even highly touted 5/8 . seems like that 24 - 90 db of gain would be more useful than the measly little 12-15 db the ROD and it's contemporary's give (according to your numbers given here) .

55's 1/2 waves are 950 shipped. Calm down, dont freak 900 for antennas, forget that! Negative!
you need to double your power for 3db gain. So if you had 2 coils, you would have to double your power 4-5 times to equal the output. if you have a 2 pill, how much would it cost to double your power 4-5 times?? WAYYYYYYYYYY more then 900 bucks. 4 times would require a much larger amp, more alternators, less gas milage! bigger coax and a bucket load of money!

since they can't be driven with and they're too tall for competition it seems they are pretty much just useful sitting in the drive way or driving to a hill to or clear open area to talk . seems like a home-brewed ringo could be made to handle just as much power for well under $100 for the power user and a imax would do as well of better for the other %99 of users .

so how are these antennas good value for the money asked for them ?

Now to others, befor you try to argue any findings of mine. Please buy a set, do your own testing, then report back. thank you