RS 20-176 with Ringo Ranger ARX-2B radials?

[n9lea]

I really appreciate all of the advice on my ARX-2B problem.

I'm going to climb on the roof later this week to sort this out. If I can't lick the Ringo Ranger issues, I'm thinking of replacing it with a Radio Shack 20-176 ground plane. It has good reviews as a scanner antenna and apparently tunes up okay on 2m/70cm, too.

Since it's up there already, assuming the coax stub is okay, should I leave up the Ringo Ranger's ring and radials, and feed the ground plane antenna through that? Will the radials help the Radio Shack antenna's performance or will they hurt?

[kb2vxa]

Can't hurt, I've seen plenty of older commercial ground planes with radial skirts. They lower the vertical radiation angle somewhat giving a slight additional gain and "decouple" the antenna by reducing common mode currents on the outer conductor of the coax.

BTW, don't think that RS antenna is a dual bander. Although a 1/4 wave on 2M is a 3/4 wave on 70cM and also presents a 50 ohm load it has a higher vertical takeoff angle so while it'll work a 1/4 wave ground plane works somewhat better. Now here's a bee in your bonnet, you could fabricate a mount with radials and use a quality dual band mobile antenna. I've done it several times with excellent results using high gain UHF commercial antennas, yours should be similar. As a matter of fact I'm using a 6dB gain 800MHz mobile antenna that way and it's working like a champ.

OH! I just noticed you plan on using the ring, don't. I said above that it's a gamma matching section to lower the feed point impedance to 50 ohms so just unscrew the coax from the antenna itself and screw it into the ground plane.

[n9lea]

That's a good suggestion. I'm probably going to tear down the Ringo Ranger and replace it with the RS, as I have the RS in hand and should work okay for now.

I like your idea as a future improvement, though! Perhaps in the Spring...

[kb2vxa]

I wouldn't call it an improvement, commercial base station antennas cost a fortune and having a pile of discarded mobile antennas on hand I simply took the cheap way out being for personal use. Adapting a mobile antenna may be the cheap and dirty way but there's more than meets the eye like waterproofing the underside of the mount so I suggest you go the normal route with a base station antenna, weather permitting. Meanwhile at least you'll have an antenna, now come down from there before you're frozen to the mast like Ralphie and the flag pole.

[n9lea]

I put up the 20-176 on Friday and it seems to work great. Now I have the
winter to mess with the Ringo. Thanks for everyone's suggestions and
advice!

N9LEA