Jpole vs comet

[Andrew033009]

Hi

I run a railroad Feed right on the coast of Lake Erie. I currently monitor with a KB9VBR J-Pole antenna mounted on my roof. I tend to get decent range.
I was looking to see about a possible upgrade, around the same size as my J-pole. I found a comet antenna (CA F22GF) and I had tried to contact the shipper about comparisons between the two but to no avail. Would the comet out perform the J-pole? If not, is there something that would get me better range without completely breaking the bank?
Andrew

 

[Ubbe]

If it's VHF 160Mhz then a Diamond F23 will do better. It ships with a cutting table for the VHF band. If you don't need omni reception, all transmission instead comes from one general direction, then a directive yagi antenna performs better as it also do not receive interferences from other directions. That Comet costs $175 so you have a bigger budget to buy a good antenna. The Diamond F23 are almost twice the height of the Comet and almost twice the signal strength and to a lower cost than the Comet.

F23H - Diamond Antenna

www.diamondantenna.net

Sirio WY 155-6N 155-175 MHz Antenna - Unicom Radio

The base station antenna was conceived by using an innovative feed system studied and applied to have a highly symmetrical radiation pattern in both planes (E and H). It’s completely computer designed to get high performances of gain and front-to-back in the working band.

unicomradio.com

/Ubbe

 

[Andrew033009]

Ok, so the diamond is Omnidirectional, right? It would fair better than a J-Pole is what you’re saying also.

 

[K5MPH]

Just FYI those antennas are not cut for the Railroad band......

 

[farmerjack_09]

I would use what I had, you won't see much difference between your J-Pole and another antenna.

 

[jwt873]

The Comet can be tuned by adjusting internal coils.. It can be made resonant from 136 to 175 MHz.

Both antennas are omnidirectional. The Comet has a bit more gain. (A peek around the net showed 5.5dBi vs 3dBi for the j-pole). As farmerjack_09 points out above, it's probably not enough to see a big difference.

 

[Ubbe]

Ok, so the diamond is Omnidirectional, right? It would fair better than a J-Pole is what you’re saying also.

Yes, j-pole are one 3/4 wave antenna and are a balanced antenna so needs a balun when using coax to not destroy its performance. The F23 have three 5/8 wave elements stacked and the cutting chart says how to cut it exactly to a frequency. It comes delivered as full length for 144Mhz and I cut mine to 155MHz marine band but of course it will still work to receive airband and the whole VHF band, even UHF comes in fairly strong.

/Ubbe

 

[Andrew033009]

Thanks everyone. I might purchase the F23.

 

[prcguy]

If the J-pole is currently tuned for 160MHz and the new F23 is tuned for 160MHz you will notice better reception with the F23. If the J-pole is tuned for amateur then a tuned F23 will be way better.

 

[Andrew033009]

Ok. How would an F23 compare to something shorter such as a X30A? Also, could you provide a link to an F23 Antenna? I’m seeing a bunch of different results and I want to make sure I get the correct reputable one.

 

[prcguy]

Ok. How would an F23 compare to something shorter such as a X30A? Also, could you provide a link to an F23 Antenna? I’m seeing a bunch of different results and I want to make sure I get the correct reputable one.

An F23 is about 15ft tall and the X30A is about 4.5ft tall. It should be obvious which one would work better. Plus most of the Diamond, Comet and similar antennas are amateur band only unless they specifically say it can be tuned to commercial freqs. So a 160MHz tuned F23 will work a lot better than a 160MHz tuned X30A if it could be tuned outside the amateur band. A 160MHz tuned F23 would be waaaay better than an amateur band X30A and that could be in the range of 10dB better.

 

[Andrew033009]

An F23 is about 15ft tall and the X30A is about 4.5ft tall. It should be obvious which one would work better. Plus most of the Diamond, Comet and similar antennas are amateur band only unless they specifically say it can be tuned to commercial freqs. So a 160MHz tuned F23 will work a lot better than a 160MHz tuned X30A if it could be tuned outside the amateur band. A 160MHz tuned F23 would be waaaay better than an amateur band X30A and that could be in the range of 10dB better.

Okay. I purchased the F23, its arriving tomorrow. I'm relatively ignorant when it comes to any sort of cutting or tuning, so forgive me with that. I really have only had a pre tuned J-pole. How would I go about tuning it to the 160MHZ range? I see the cutting chart but I cant make any sense of it. I don't plan on transmitting, not sure if that'll change any answers.