RB-50 HD Magnet Mount

I had the old trusty Radio Shack Scanner Antenna, if you've been around long enough, you know the one. Actually, I had about 5 of them over the years, between my father and I. We would piece them together over the years, as we kept them on our vehicles, and constantly getting pinched in door jams and trunks would fray the wires over time. Honestly I got pretty good at fixing the wires, but it was really time to find an alternative. There is only so much wire you can cut off and splice. With radio shack being long gone, I had a hard time finding one that would actually do the job, I live in a pretty rural area, and asking an antenna to get reception of upto 10 or 15 miles away seemed like a task only fit for a radio shack antenna. I finally stumbled upon this one and have been running it for several years now, the cable has held up, and the magnet has only let go a few times. I'm getting the same reception I always have, and am very impressed with the quality of the material it is made out of.

I bought this to attach a dual band antenna to a rental car. This has low profile and a very strong hold. In fact, it was very difficult to remove before returning the car.

Good for an NMO mount antenna that I had for years, but the old mount was corroded. This is not for a PL-259 or N style mount. Works better than my original Larsen mount. Very pleased.

Purchased it to use with my GMRS radio in my truck, and a Nagoya antenna, roof mount. After about 5 months, the system went down. Had a short circuit in the mount itself, antenna and radio ok. Found severe corrosion under the top cover, seemed like cheap manufacture with poor quality control. Not going to even mess with them again.

UPDATE 2023-11-05 - Determined that the magnet is just fine. It's the anti scratch cover that was the problem. After removing that (and saving, just in case) the mount grips just fine, and made the ~200 mile trip with no issues at all. I strongly suggest to the manufacturer that the anti scratch be modified if possible so it doesn't impede the magnet strength. ***** INITIAL REVIEW 2023-11-03 - Waiting for the TB-320A antenna to show up today. It will be installed, and then it's off on a road trip for the weekend. That will be the first real test of this base. Ratings will be adjusted and the review edited as I continue testing. VALUE FOR MONEY: 5/5. To get a decent looking mag mount base for this price is something that hasn't really happened for me since the heyday of Radio Shack in the 80s and 90s. (Pay attention - you'll hear Radio Shack come up again in a bit.) DURABILITY: 3/5. I haven't road and load tested the base yet, score will be adjusted after I've done so. STURDINESS: 3/5. I haven't road and load tested the base yet, score will be adjusted after I've done so. My first impression of just the base alone is that it looks nice, it's a decent price, and it should work nicely...but I have one specific concern already, and that's the strength of the magnet itself. Compared to my now almost-ancient Radio Shack dual-band mobile mag mount antenna, the magnet strength seems noticeably weaker, far more so than could be accounted for due to just size difference. Once the Radio Shack base is stuck, it's STUCK, regardless of the car surface condition, and it won't move without at least some effort. This base, though, seems far too easy to move around just by hand, even without an antenna attached. I'm hoping that perhaps it's just my initial placement or that it was the car surface which was causing it - I've moved it to a better location that I wiped down and dried prior to attaching, so we'll see how that works out. I will probably be getting a ground plane attachment to test as well, as a comparison to using just the base itself. Stay tuned. 😎

Super Strong Magnet. I've tried a couple different models and brands for trunk mounted antennas, and this one was by far the strongest magnet. The built quality, rubber, cabling, magnet are all excellent. If your looking for an easy way to add an antenna, or something temporary this is a good selection.

This review is for the RB-50 NMO mag mount. It doesn't seem to stick well, and when exposed to rain the felt pad on the bottom of the mount gets soaked with water. It hasn't fallen off yet, even at highway speeds, but it doesn't reassure me. The first mount I was shipped I had to return as the PL-259 connector was chipped. The second was fine. I wish they would have switched out the felt bottom for the rubber bottom on their other mount. The other stuck very well.

I bought this to use with mobile HAM radio setup. The magnet did not come with a rubber protector, but that's fine since I usually take them off anyway. I was only able to get up to speeds of 50-60mph during an event I was recently supporting, but the mount (paired with a DIAMOND SG7500 antenna) held great and my Yaesu FTM-500D was able to get through to the repeaters I was connecting to with no problems at all. The NMO cap is a bonus too, which will be great when the mag mount is not in use. Overall I am very pleased with this purchase.

Very nice unit. Loss is at normal level for vhf/uhf. Would be nice if they use lower loss cable. Yes, make the coax thicker but I could live that.

Great mount for the middle on my van. With a strong magnet it should stay put.