mobile antenna

[CharlesHarris]

A magnetic mount works best on a car, but an improvised ground plane can almost always be found around the home or office, such as a metal filing cabinet, metal rubbish bin, baking sheet, rain gutter, refrigerator, window air conditioning unit, balcony railing or almost any other large metal object.

On boats, motorcycles, caravans or wooden balcony railings use a half-wave antenna, which gives unity gain without a ground plane. If you need to place an antenna on a caravan, camper shell, ambulance or other vehicle with nonmetallic body where a magnetic mount won’t "stick," use a suction cup mount such as the one shown here:

http://www.w5fc.org/pse_docs/KNOWLEDGE/qst_p56.pdf