Best antenna?

[Skywatch1]

It's been years since I got my license and since then had put off ham radio due to the cost of the hobby. Yesterday I bought a Kenwood TMD710 from a friend and I don't have an antenna yet and am looking at options.

The antenna will be installed on the roof with the rest of the stuff which includes antennas to a scanner and a CB antenna as well as my weather stations.

I'm looking at a Workman UVS-200. Does anyone else have experience with this?

Thanks.

 

[mmckenna]

You can read some reviews here: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3378

What is "best" for you really depends what your budget is, where you are located and what your expectations are.

Don't go cheap on an antenna. The amount of work and risk in properly installing it on your roof can be more costly than the antenna. Make sure what you get will last many years so you are not up there doing it again.

It's been a while since I've done much base hamming, but Diamond was pretty good back then. X50 was a good basic/durable dual band antenna. Not a high gain antenna, but they do have higher gain versions.

Remember that you can buy a $450 radio and put a $40 antenna on it and it's going to work like a $40 system. Investing in good antenna with good feed line is going to make a good antenna perform better.

If possible, try to find an antenna that uses N connectors. They have lower loss on the higher frequencies, and are by design, waterproof. You should still properly seal the connection, though. Don't forget lightning protection!

 

[jwt873]

That antenna is a clone of the Diamond X200A: Diamond® Antenna ~ X200A Radiation Pattern

I have a similar clone (Jetstream JTB-2) with all the same published specs as the Workman and the Diamond.

Mine is mounted on top of a 40 foot tower fed with plain RG-8 (which isn't the best feedline for UHF). Despite that, it works well. I live on the flat prairie and there are 4 or 5 repeaters that are all about 20 - 30 miles away on tall buildings. I can easily hit them all using a 5 watt handheld. I can work our UHF D-Star repeater on 1/10 of a Watt.

I use it for scanning too. It's definitely not the best broad frequency scanner antenna, but I manage to get decent results listening to the aircraft band, FRS/GMRS and public utilities. Just last summer, I did some FM broadcast band DXing and managed to snag quite a few stations that were over 100 miles away.

Mine has been up for 5 years and has taken rain, snow, ice and winds up to 55 Mph. It's still ticking

The clones probably aren't as good as the real Diamond. (I've never compared mine).. As mmckenna points out, if you've got the money go for the real thing.

 

[NDRADIONUT]

DIAMOND X-50

 

[Voyager]

Workman is a low end brand. Diamond, by contrast, has a pretty good reputation overall.

 

[NDRADIONUT]

https://www.k1cra.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=WORKUVS200 < 63 HERE

 

[K5MPH]

My workman (uv-200) has been in the air for 24 years and stills performs very well......

 

[Skywatch1]

Great feedback. I can probably stretch the budget even if it means I won't be going on the air for a bit.

As far as access to the roof, I guess I'm one of the few people on earth who goes up there on a regular basis and am not afraid of heights. (Neighbors probably think I'm crazy hehe).

I have a horizontal beam that mounts the antennas. I have a 17' CB antenna, soon I'm going to be adding a Jetstream discone antenna for my scanner and then the ham antenna whichever that will be.

I'm just hoping I don't run into problems between one antenna and the other. One other thing I should point out, the mast and other hardware are using black iron which is ferrous. Will that cause problems?

 

[mmckenna]

I'm just hoping I don't run into problems between one antenna and the other. One other thing I should point out, the mast and other hardware are using black iron which is ferrous. Will that cause problems?

Shouldn't be a problem on it's own, but it's likely going to rust awful quickly. Hot dipped galvanized is a more common material to use.

What I'd be more concerned about is making sure you get enough separation between your antennas. Getting them too close together will allow too much transmitted RF to get into the soft mushy bits of your receivers. Never a good idea.

Ideally you want some vertical separation between them, or -lots- of horizontal separation.

And don't forget grounding....

 

[Skywatch1]

I'll see if I can manage that. The Discone is going on the South arm opposite to the CB antenna.

One thing I can do probably is put another side arm on the east side for the ham antennas. I can hit Home Depot and get supplies for that.

 

[mmckenna]

Sounds like that would work.

A "legal" CB radio running 4 watts shouldn't be a big deal. Even at 4 watts, you'll lose some of that in feed line losses. Not much would couple to the scanner antenna. My main concern, if it was me, would be the amateur antenna being too close, running 50 watts or more too close to the scanner or CB antenna could easily couple enough power into the other radios and will either cause temporary desensitization of the receiver, or if enough power get's in, damage the receiver.

 

[Skywatch1]

Here's what I have so far. I attached a illustration of the setup. Got the discone antenna today. Temporarily hooked up to a Kenwood TMD710a until I get a pl259 to bnc adapter.

Anyways, based on what I understand the antenna should have a bit of clearance from the other antennas. I plan to add a 4' section of angle steel for the east arm that will mount the ham antenna. This Saturday I'm heading to Home Depot to get supplies.

Everything look good in the attached picture?

 

[NDRADIONUT]

Does your camera video get messed up when u transmit ??

 

[Skywatch1]

No problem there.

 

[NDRADIONUT]

Looks like you have some height there.... Looks good !

 

[Skywatch1]

Awesome!

 

[Skywatch1]

Got the side antenna mount installed. Ordered the Workman UVS200. Read reviews and feedback which led me to the purchase.

 

[NDRADIONUT]

Where are u going to mount the next 5 antennas ?

 

[Skywatch1]

Not that kinda radio guy.

 

[NDRADIONUT]

Just wait... Lol