I need an antenna for a system that uses mostly Baofeng 888 and UV-82 radios on the 460 range. I know the band we are using is not for commercial use, but can we please put that aside for the moment and help with the following question. We have alot of employees over a large area (over 1,000 acres of private property) in a rural setting with not much else around. We have a couple mobile radios in vehicles, a lot of those Baofengs, and 2 base stations and 1 repeater. Our employees and their duties lend the radio's to frequently getting lost, and we require about 50 radio's, which is why we use the baofengs and not Motorollas. I need to purchase a new antenna for a base station and for our repeater, and was suggested these two options, the FG4500 and the Diamond x200 (Diamond Antenna X200A) (FG4500 : 450-470 MHz, outdoor Omni-directional UHF base Station Antenna with N-Female Connector for GMRS) . We have vast amounts of elevation gain, and the furthest we need to reach is about 1.5-2 miles. They will be mounted about 15-20 meters up. Can someone please let me know what is the best option for an antenna (doesn't have to be one of the 2 choices I have listed) given our situation and equipment we use?
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Antenna Advise
- Thread starter SSG_Nappi
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- antenna advice repeater
The FG series antennas are good commercial antennas. If this is a commercial operation thats what I would use. But being your using all cheap CCR stuff already I'm guessing you will go with a cheap ham antenna as well.
mmckenna
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How much elevation gain are you talking about here?
Sometimes high gain antennas can work against you in those sorts of applications. I've a few particular radio sites where that has come into play. Unfortunately someone chose UHF instead of VHF, so I was stuck with that. Replacing the high gain amateur/hobby grade antennas with some low gain folded dipole antennas fixed a lot of coverage issues.
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mmckenna
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That doesn't look bad. Good antenna height would help, but I don't see any huge challenges with that. I would go with the Laird.
JustinWHT
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Lots of terrain shadows. I doubt a higher gain antenna will help.
JustinWHT
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JustinWHT
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I'll assume those the side-view terrain plots going in three different directions from you base station. So relocating your base antenna would work in one direction but be worse for others.
With the cost of low power GMRS band repeaters, Retevis and Midland, you could add three more repeaters.
If...iF your primary communications needs are a) base station calling any unit in any direction and b) communication between workers within the same direction, and c) not requiring workers in one direction having direct calling to anyone in one of the two other directions.... Then adding more repeaters would work.
You would need four radios at your base station - the existing radio, and three more that could be an HT tuned to three three repeaters.
