On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 18:25:35 GMT, "Alex Clayton"
wrote:

[snip]

works. Is the longer antenna supposed to work better with other bands or
something? I would like to lop off a little more if it has no ill effect. I

The longer the antenna, the lower the frequency.

There are many resources out there that will show you how to use an
SWR to tune your antenna to the proper frequency, for stuff around
850MHz, 3.3 inches is the resonant length for 1/4 wavelength.. a
little bit shorter to account for the velocity in the material.

Be careful, get a good SWR if you can and use that. If not, I'd move
down to 1/8 to 1/4 inch snips at a time, not a full inch. As soon as
it starts to get worse, stop cutting, because you're at the low end of
the length.

Going below 1/4 wavelength you can't get any shorter and have it get
better. If you were going for 1/2 (6.6 inches @ 850mhz) and cut too
far, you could "start over" and keep cutting it down to 1/4, but
you're well past that if you're down to 4" already.