Is the D-130J going to meet my needs?

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MrMikeAZ

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Hello,

I will start off that I am a novice and am learning about all this now. I am looking to setup a small antenna to communicate with my local homesteaders in my area. The idea is to be able to communicate within the 8 to 10 mile area of my house. I happen to be in the middle of our group of friends out here. I am thinking I could be the center of communications for everyone. I know they could not talk to each other and we cannot communicate outside of cellular right now(CB and FRS at ground level has too much interference), but I can communicate to everyone for others. We were thinking of CB communications for this. And it seems that this antenna would do CB as well as FRS and various other frequencies. Would CB be the easiest/best?

We want to be able to have hand held units on everyone's homestead that we can walk around with. I know with the antenna, I will be limited to what is actually connected to the antenna if I am understanding this correctly( cant have a CB radio in hand and use the antenna if its not connected).

I was thinking this antenna would be good as it would allow me to play around and listen to other bands as well as allow us to use other bands like FRS or something else as well. I think it would be fun to be able to listen to various things at night when I have down time. If I am liking the hobby more than just comms with neighbors, I was thinking of getting a license. But time will tell.

The idea was to mount this to a very large tree that I have. I have one of the biggest trees in the area at around 70 feet where the antenna would be mounted on a previously cut branch(about 90% up the tree). And its pretty close to my house so the line would not have to run too far(less than 200 feet). Of course, going to use 2 grounding rods on this with some thick insulated grounding wire running from the antenna to the grounding rods.

Thanks for your time!
 

prcguy

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The D130J is not a CB antenna but it will work for MURS, FRS and GMRS frequencies, although not all that great. For a CB base antenna you would be looking for something much larger like this:


Or this:


But under no circumstances this:

 

vagrant

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1. A 200' run of coaxial cable will be extremely unfriendly in signal loss for both transmit and receive. Mount whatever antenna above your roofline and use LMR-400, or LDF4-50A coaxial cable with as short a run as you can get. You'll need a pigtail at the radio end as that coax is stiff.

2. Perhaps get everyone on board with GMRS and their own licenses. No testing, just pay a $35 FCC fee for each family. If so, you could setup a GMRS repeater at your home, presuming you are central to everyone. The repeater part is easier said than done and has an investment cost such as a UHF Quantar repeater that is aligned and ready for GMRS. LDF4-50A coaxial cable. A "tuned" UHF duplexer that handles GMRS freqs. Jumper cables from the duplexer to the repeater. A tuned GMRS antenna. Again, this is very involved and is easily over $1000 of gear and not counting labor/tuning and whatever I forgot to note.

3. GMRS again, but with a license people could use 5W handhelds as well as 50W radios with external antennas on vehicles and rooftops. Communication would be simplex (no repeater), so some may not be able to communicate with others, or they might. A tuned GMRS antenna would be best and not a discone.

4. MURS is another option. It is licensed by rule and no fee to pay. There are five frequencies that can be used, but with a limit of two watts maximum. The wavelength is longer than GMRS, so it can work better for distance.

- FRS uses most of the same frequencies as GMRS, but FRS has lower transmit power limits. Avoid those radios.
- CB radio in a handheld and even mobile units is a compromise due to the short antenna lengths and lack of ground plane. Avoid.

You could start with a discone and use it for GMRS or MURS and eventually use it for receive only on the other side of your home if you step up to an antenna with some gain dedicated for GMRS or MURS.
 

MrMikeAZ

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The D130J is not a CB antenna but it will work for MURS, FRS and GMRS frequencies, although not all that great.

Would you suggest CB for this range? Would something be better for what our goals are?
 

MrMikeAZ

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1. A 200' run of coaxial cable will be extremely unfriendly in signal loss for both transmit and receive.

Ok, so short as possible. got it. Is 100 feet short enough? And my roof is really low. Only 10 feet above ground. Would this be enough elevation? it wont get over other houses/barns and many trees and rock formations around.

Also, Loss at 200 ft, would this be unusable if it was 200 ft? Or at the less than 10 mile range, we wont really have much of an effect?

2. Perhaps get everyone on board with GMRS and their own licenses. No testing, just pay a $35 FCC fee for each family.

We are pretty anti government and, while we don't want to break laws, we don't want to be involved with the govt more than needed.

Again, this is very involved and is easily over $1000 of gear and not counting labor/tuning and whatever I forgot to note.

I am hoping to complete my aspect(antenna, coax, equipment for less than 1k. Hopefully below 800. And then everyone gets their own hand held unit on their own.

Does this change what may be best for our situation?

4. MURS is another option. It is licensed by rule and no fee to pay. There are five frequencies that can be used, but with a limit of two watts maximum. The wavelength is longer than GMRS, so it can work better for distance.

You could start with a discone and use it for GMRS or MURS and eventually use it for receive only on the other side of your home if you step up to an antenna with some gain dedicated for GMRS or MURS.

So, this Discone antenna(D-130J) would work for MURS and the range of less than 10 miles, especially with the height of the antenna, MURS should be adequate for our needs. If I am understanding this correctly. This seems like it would be something that would fit in my budget goals and accomplish our goals. Would I be correct in that analysis?

*edit*Fixed Quotes
 
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vagrant

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Your results are unknown due to your geographic location and system. An antenna with gain for the frequency you will use will work better than a wide band discone. Whether it will accomplish your goals is an unknown. You will need to experiment.

You can try your 200’ of coax plan. If it does not work you can cut it for a shorter run and connect new ends. Getting the antenna above “nearby” structures is prudent. You should read up on coaxial cable attenuation and antenna gain. Also look up a Line Of Sight Calculator. It will help you get an idea of range based on height.
 

jaspence

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Murs antennas do have a height restriction of 20 feet. Hills, trees, water towers, etc. can reduce range. A typical ham HT runs 5 watts, and with a decent outside a good antenna can talk to another HT, but 5 miles is stretching it under any but ideal conditions GMRS is the only choice where you can buy a radio with enough power to make this possible with a base or mobile radio and good outside antenna. The license free choices are not going to give you the range you want with any reliability.
 
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