It took a while, but my Bingfu dual-band mobile antenna finally arrived. It’s cheap, but the reviews were encouraging. Since I’ve been struggling to get good reception with the rubber duck on my handheld, I wanted to see how much difference an external antenna would make.

Setting it up

The antenna came with two sets of radials, three short and three long, and absolutely no instructions. So guessing on their length, I assumed the longer radials were intended for the 2m configuration, so those are the ones I installed.

It also came with about 10–12 feet of coax that felt excessive, and might be awkward to route through the car. But for this first test I set it up outside on my balcony, and it worked out perfectly! I could put the antenna outside while sitting comfortably indoors with the radio.

Bingfu dual-band mobile antenna set up outdoors
The antenna set up outside for its first test.

First impressions

So far, I’m getting good reception from W1BOS and K1BOS, which I expected. The real surprise was hearing a nice, clean signal from KC1US all the way from Reading. I had never heard that repeater with the rubber duck!

I’ll figure out how to mount everything in the car before my next mobile test. For now, though, so far so good!

73, KC1ZTY out.