Ham Radio Advice Needed

[John Erwin]

I'm about to buy a ham radio (why? I don't know, with cell phones they seem almost useless but I have this Christmas money I have to spend and I suppose it will be handy while convoying) I think I'm just going to go with the el cheapo Icom 2200H; my question is what antenna do I buy. My knowledge of hams is Zippo, I know about enough to set it to a frequency push the button and talk, so when looking at antennas I'm pretty clueless as to what I need, will someone please point me to a Mag Mount antenna (preferably short) that will work well with the non Dual Band IC 2200H? Thanks.

Just a couple points; even though your radio is only a single-band model you can use a multi-banded antenna just fine. In fact it will likely be easier to find a dual-band unit that meets your needs rather than trying to find a single-band model. Doing so will also insure your antenna will still work with a dual-band radio should you ever decide to obtain one.

I would also argue that cell-phones and ham radios are not mutually exclusive. Both serve their intended roles nicely. For one thing its difficult to talk to a bunch of people at the same time with a phone, something you can do with a ham radio. The radio tends to work better for co-ordinating group activities too.

Last point; although it's tempting to keep the size small, keep in mind that will directly impact performance out in the field. At home I have shorter antennas since I'm mostly on the repeaters, however when I go anywhere distant I always switch to longer models for increased range and performance.

Having said that I personally recommend Comet brand antennas, although there's other good brands out there. Here's a short (20") mag-mount model sold at Universal Radio for $37.95: http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamantm/2818.html

I would still recommend browsing some of the other models though since this unit would not perform well outside of an urban type environment.

Good luck!