Comet SS-460SBNMO Dual-Band Mobile vs Midland MXTA25 Ghost Antenna

The Comet SS-460 is the clear winner for amateur radio use, scoring 64 to the Ghost's 45.

The critical difference is electrical length. The SS-460 operates at 0.23 wavelengths on VHF (quarter wave) and 0.68 wavelengths on UHF (5/8 wave), delivering realistic gains of 1.6 and 4.9 dBi respectively. The Ghost is electrically short at just 0.14 wavelengths on GMRS, producing a realistic loss of about 0.9 dBi. Short antennas require increasingly complex matching and suffer efficiency penalties that no design trick can fully overcome. This is not marketing talk but physics.

The SS-460 claims 3.8 dBi, which aligns with its longer UHF element and is realistic overall. The Ghost provides no gain figure, which is honest given its compromised electrical length.

Buy the Comet SS-460 if you operate VHF, UHF, or both and want a mobile antenna that actually works. Buy the Ghost only if you are committed to GMRS exclusively and accept the performance tradeoff for its compact size in a vehicle with severe space constraints.

For general amateur radio mobile use, the SS-460 is the logical choice.