An A-B test against other antennas on the pickup roof would be fun to try.
I don’t have a Predator, and that one in 5’ configuration is the price range competitor. (I don’t recall that it was available at that time; could be wrong). I don’t recall that comparison test (there are online reviews).
As memory served it got about 2+ feet above the sedan roof viewed from the front. 8-feet? 9-feet? (Been 15+ years since then). More clearance to play with, so the 7’ antennas would also be in contention.
“How much better” (if any) comes down to install location clearance questions.
Stationary:
1). Five & Seven Skipshooter
2). Five & Seven Predator
3). Seven Foot Texas
102” as control.
Where it falls in the mix (clearance vs performance).
But anonymous, it ain’t.
Wins “Attention-Getter” in a landslide.
It WAKES UP the AM-19 crowd out on the road. That’s a good thing.
East on IH-40 from the Armadillo thru OKC would be a natural test ground to see if one could keep the talk going every mile with this “help”.
“Funny-looking, huh? So how’s this mud-duck radio sound to you from Mile Marker XXX?”
Start getting radio check requests then right & left, that’s what. And let things drift off to Radio Performance in a big truck, as topic.
Intersecting that crowd on US-54 & US-287, then US-83 & US-283 means a whole lotta large cars with owner-ops running N-S. Big Radio Country. Looong Distance rigs.
Present employer manages most of the windmill hauling. Think they’re on AM-16.
Those highway intersections with IH-40 have some high spots “natural” to this. Get both roads.
The Petro at Amarillo would be a decent place to run the stationary test. I’ve both given & received some fair distance air checks from there several evenings just this year.
Guess I need to get to cracking on my pickup install. That’s sounding like a fun way to spend some vacation time away from Fort Worth. Up to the ‘dillo then across to OKC and back down.
Sadly, I won’t be able to broadcast,
“. . from the commanding heights of Mt. Norman!”
once I’m in metro OKC as the money-grubbers destroyed yet another artifact of WWII. In this case, USN Air Attack Training.
“It’s just a pile of dirt”.
And Little Round Top is just a farm field.
Ask the Japanese Naval Command about proficiency via the Battle of Midway.
.