Antenna Suggestiong for High Winds

[mike_s104]

The main reason I have not installed an antenna outside are the wind gusts we get at home. Sometimes they can exceed 60 MPH. I know a dipole would be damaged quickly. Can anyone suggest a good antenna with a wide freq range (at least 30MHz - 1GHz) that would last? I looked though the Antenna forum and found that some people have had good luck with the AntennaCraft ST-2.

EDIT: Yes, I know "suggestion" is misspelled in the subject.

 

[fineshot1]

Lets be realistic - you are not going to find one single antenna that gives you
good performance over that wide a range of the rf spectrum.

 

[mike_s104]

Lets be realistic - you are not going to find one single antenna that gives you
good performance over that wide a range of the rf spectrum.

Thank you for your input, but that did not address my real question. I don't want to install a tower with an antenna that covers each band. I'm not looking for the best performance over the entire range, but an antenna that is designed for a range like that (why I included the link to the one I did) and can withstand 60MHP+ wind gusts.

 

[fineshot1]

OK - then go with the ST4 or similar discone, although I did not find any wind load data on that.

That will give you so so performance over a wide range.

If you are not near any strong rf sources like towers or cell towers and such you may
want to bolster the rx performance of the ST4 with a wide range preamp but you must
be careful with preamps because they can make matters worse if you are near strong rf
signal sources.

 

[mike_s104]

anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[knightrider]

I just looked to make sure which one was the ST-2. Based on some posts in the past, you may be better to avoid the ST-2. There have been reports of some of the elements breaking off in wind and ice. I woud suggest the ST-3 as an inexpensive alternative, but you will not get the reception below 144 mhz you are wanting. It may work for stations close by, but not designed for that. The ST-4 is the best of the antennas shown. I am not sure about the survivability in the winds you are talking about though. I live in Central Texas, and we get wind gusts to 60 mph here, and so far I have not had any trouble, but again, I am a Ham, and use those antennas for the purpose. I also have several antennas I have built for scanning that are at points between 20 and 50 feet on the side of a tower, and they survive but they are band specific. Other than a Discone, it is going to be difficult to find a small profile antenna that will cover the range of frequencies you want effectively.

 

[Nightshade]

Do what I did for local scanning. I put up s 102" whip on a spring that is not supposed to work for a scanner but it does. Been on the pole for 6 yrs now with no damage except that the coax now needs replaced from age. I've see that whip bent over at 90 deg during a bad wind storm but it's straight up in the morning!

 

[zz0468]

anyone else have any suggestions?

www.krecoantennas.com/catalog.htm

Not cheap, but they'll shrug off 60 MPH winds. I've yet to see a single discone that will cover 30-1000 MHz, but they have some choices that should get you something usable.

 

[Thunderknight]

The ability to do it will depend on the antenna construction, but one way to make it more durable is to encase it all in PVC pipe. That works well for ice as well.

Make sure your mount can handle the wind too.

 

[mike_s104]

Thanks. This gives me something to go by.