The GMRS off road YouTube community are all about the buzz around a “Ghost” antenna and where they are mounting them.
The “Ghost” antenna is a small black antenna about 3 inches high with a protective black plastic cover over it. I see people mounting them on their bumpers to even under their hood and claim they get great results with them there. I do not see how they get great results from their poor locations or what their definition of results is. It is a cool antenna and it’s cool to say I got a ghost antenna BUT I can’t get any good results from mounting it where they claim to have and even work. I do see high SWR readings and that means blown GMRS radios fast.
How can you get this Ghost antenna to work without blowing up your radio?
The only place I see this ghost antenna working is on top of a roof with some kind of a ground plane to help the antenna.
I would suggest using a 1/4 wave antenna on the roof or bigger and tuned to your radio. You can not tune a ghost antenna.
I see this antenna mostly on people who go off roading and the 4 wheel drive vehicles look like they drive around the town. No dents , missing paint or even a roll cage. If they are going after a “Look” some of these 4 wheel drives look great. This leads me to a question and that is other than a look, why have this ghost antenna poorly mounted if you are going to use GMRS for off roading? Get a 5/8 whip with a spring and your GMRS radio will thank you and you will look even better.
LiGMRSradio.com 