Receive BW of Ringo Ranger ARX-2B

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CSXRiverline

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Hi;
I am about to put up a Ringo Ranger ARX-2B.
Since I am a licensed Amateur, I would like to be able to use this antenna on two meters, as it was designed, but at the same time I want good reception for the railroad band, as I really enjoy listening to trains on CSX River Line from Jersey City NJ to Selkirk NY.

My question then; If I tune the antenna for 146.520Mhz to get the best VSWR, and operation on the ham band, what can I expect for receive up at 160Mhz?

The manufacturer (Laird / Cushcraft) does not provide any receive BW specs, just that BW for VSWR 1.5:1 is >3Mhz.

I guess I really don't have all that much of a choice, because I don't want to transmit at 146Mhz into a badly untuned antenna, but I may have to make a decision as to which operation is more important to me; the 2m ham band, or railroad scanning.

My radio is the Yaesu Vertex VX-150, a 2m only with 200 channels and 5W output on 2m.
It has an excellent receiver, even at 160Mhz.

Thanks

FW
 

n5ims

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Jul 25, 2004
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You should do OK using that ant for receive for the RR band. While a tuned antenna would perform better than one not tuned for that frequency, you shouldn't notice too much difference in actual practice. The Ringo Ranger is (or at least used to be when I used it a long time ago) pretty wide band for receive. I used to use it to receive communications near 157 MHz back when I had one up.

My current antenna is a ham dual bander (146/440) base ant that I regularly pick up signals from 25+ miles away on both the VHF & UHF commercial frequencies.
 

Fast1eddie

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Crafton Pennsylvania
I've got a older 270B and do not notice a difference on either band. If you can minimize your number of RF connectors/adapters, you'll keep line losses low.
 

CSXRiverline

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New Jersey, USA
Thanks for the encouragement guys;
I got very discouraging replies over in another ham forum.

I'm wondering whether maybe I should tune the antenna for 160Mhz anyway, considering that I won't be using it much for 2m ham.
I may have the opportunity to experiment, as I can assemble the antenna on the ground, and stand it up on the 10ft mast then try it out for a while tuned at 146Mhz, then try it at 160 and see if I can hear any difference.
Maybe it won't work all that bad for either band if I tune it for 150Mhz.

FW
 

bs369

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Location
Kent Countly, DE.
Ringo

I had a Ringo Ranger shop tuned for 159.300 at my home which was a secondary base station at the time for the NJ Marine Police. It worked as good as the super station master installed at our home base in Wildwood, NJ. It was an outstanding receive antenna for 2M and VHF Hi-Band. I never used it to transmit on 2M.

Bob S./N4NMK
Harrington, DE.
 

CSXRiverline

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Thanks for the info.
I've got the antenna assembled for 146Mhz, but have not yet tuned it. I am going to experiment with it near the ground on the 10ft mast.
I don't know how I will try to tune it up at 160Mhz though, since I don't own, a radio for, nor am I licensed to transmit in that band. I guess I can just "guesstimate" the setting of the tuning bar on the ring.

OTOH, if the antenna seems to work well enough tuned at 146.520Mhz, I'll just leave it there.
After all, that's the way I always used them in the past.

FW
 

CSXRiverline

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Location
New Jersey, USA
Update:
Today I finally got the Ringo Ranger ARX-2B up in the air.
I ended up tuning it at 146.520Mhz. It didn't make any difference for receive when I re-configured and tuned it at 160Mhz (for 160Mhz signals).
The antenna has an excellent VSWR between 145 and 147Mhz, with the center at 146.520 being nearly 1:1. It never goes above about 1.8:1 at band edge (144Mhz and 148Mhz).
It seems to be performing very well now that its up in the air, but I still have to pull the LMR400 cable down from the attic into my "shack". That's the easiest part of the job<g>

I did notice though that my Ht, a Yaesu/Vertex VX-150 had a little trouble with intermod at 160Mhz.
I may need to build a band pass filter, but I'll see how it sounds for a while before going that route.

Installation of the ARX-2B was not without problems.
First, I had to re-tap one of the 1/4-20 holes in the radial collar after having tried to thread one of the radials into it, and having the threads strip out.
I don't know whether it was caused by my misthreading the radial or that the hole wasn't propertly tapped at the factory. It is very soft aluminum, so it does not take a thread all that well.

Another issue I have is with the ground radials. One of them is located under the overhang at the roof of my house because I ran out of mast on the wall mount brackets, and could not get the radials up past the roof.
I considered just going without them, since the antenna will function without them, but maybe having them under the eaves is better than not having them at all. The SWR didn't suffer at all, so I'm not going to worry about it.
I guess if I really wanted to, I could buy another piece of pipe and add 5ft to get the radials over the roof, but I don't want to go through all that trouble.

My advice, if anyone is considering buying a Ringo Ranger ARX-2B is to watch out. The construction has been lightened up quite a bit since the last one I owned about 30 years ago, although Cushcraft/Laird claims that the antenna has a lighter wind load now.
It is very light. Only 6lbs (if that) but I think someone said his was broken by a large bird. I would not be at all surprised.

Well, it's up and that is what matters to me.
Anyone like to comment on this? I'm listening here, and on 146.520 in northern NJ.
My call is KE2KB.

FW
 
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