Review on 📡 Enhance Communication Range with BR-136 Browning Multiband NMO Antenna by Justin Reese

Cabriolet VW Vanagons have a fiberglass roof, so this is a typical situation where an ungrounded antenna is needed. I ordered this based on the spec, thinking "it would be nice to have something that also covers ham" when I get my ham license. At this point I'm a little surprised at how well something designed to handle 3 scopes works on what I want. The NEEDS for me were no aircraft floor, no GMRS frequency support and no feathers, tk. the van is big. I recommend having an SWR meter or even better something like a NanoVNA antenna analyzer as you won't get a good SWR if you accidentally install it somewhere. It took me a long time to find and experiment with this place. I was planning on mounting it in the back, but closer to my roof rack the SWR increased dramatically. The biggest "aha" was that adding a small 3x3 steel plate between the antenna and the mount made a world of difference. Ignore the curve in the picture. It's just what I had on hand. After installing this panel, the SWR dropped from 2.5 to 1.2, including cable (at a frequency of 465 MHz). I'm very fortunate to have a great repeater in my area (Denver) and I was able to get crystal clear reception from 40 miles away.