military spring antenna base for 2-meter operation

The most common mil-type spring bases are the MX-6707 for the VRC-12 series of radios, and the AS-3900 type for the SINCGARS series of radios. They are very rugged, the down side is they are for operation only between 30 and 75 MHz, approximately.

What mil-type spring antenna base should I look for if I want to operate a 2-meter radio, between 144 and 148 MHz? Is there one for the higher freqs? Autotune would be preferred, but I'll take what I can get.

Like this 4265A VHF/UHF by Shakespeare? I bet its spendy though.

Mike, check out this website. He set up a AS-3900 and ran the ham bands with a MFJ SWR analysizer. (I think I really misspelled that one).

n0eq Tests the AS3900 Antenna Temporary Base

Shakespear 2 meter antenna

Shakespear makes a matching unit that I believe was part of the PRC-128 high band kit that was designed for use in the 2 meter range. The one on my HMMWV says part number is 4255. It may be an obsolete product, I couldn't find it on Shakespears site.

Kurt
KG6KMJ

On Shakespeare's military products webpage, I don't see any mention of the 4255, but they carry the 4265A that uscgmatt mentioned, that falls in the 2-meter range. Like he hinted, though, I'd hate to ask what they want for it.

I picked up an AS-3900 at the GA SS Rally and looked at reflected power (return loss) from 10m ham band up through 6m band. Results were similar to the test referenced: not good enough anywhere for direct connection to a transceiver. SWR was nearly flat at 31 MHz, but that does no one any good! Using the AS-3900 behind an automatic tuner (LDG Z-11 Pro) worked great and many contacts were made on 29,400 FM with a PRC-77.

One thing to remember though, just because an SWR analyzer says a match is tolerable does not mean the antenna radiates well at that frequency. After all, a dummy load looks great on an SWR analyzer. The radiation pattern might be unusable. A complete test should include field strength readings, which I have not done either.

Bob WB4ETT

AceHigh said:

Mike, check out this website. He set up a AS-3900 and ran the ham bands with a MFJ SWR analysizer. (I think I really misspelled that one).

Click to expand...

There is the Shakespeare SF3512/VRC which is 30 to 512 Mhz.
I can get used ones.