Help me pick a 2 meter base antenna

[gdsteele]

I've used the Arrow J Pole for years. It's simple, rugged, and doesn't take up too much space on the tower. I put mine in the attic so I don't have to worry when the weather gets rough.

As far as gain, you will probably doing most of your work using repeaters. At 75 watts, you should be able to hit just about any repeater you would want.

Just my $0.02.

Jerry K8CMI

 

[rob_2012]

I've used the Arrow J Pole for years. It's simple, rugged, and doesn't take up too much space on the tower. I put mine in the attic so I don't have to worry when the weather gets rough.

As far as gain, you will probably doing most of your work using repeaters. At 75 watts, you should be able to hit just about any repeater you would want.

Just my $0.02.

Jerry K8CMI

Hi Jerry,

As you know I am totally new to the Ham world, so I appreciate all the feed back. Lets assume all the repeaters are out, down or for what ever reason not working; In this case we would go radio to radio or simplex right? In this case what is the best antenna to use and how far do you think in miles I could get on my radio? Its an FT2900R I have it in my car and I plan on getting another for my home that will run on a car battery and a solar panel. Am I crazy or what? :>)

Rob

 

[LtDoc]

Rob,
There are just too many variables in that to make a definitive guess. A fairly 'fair' guess would be that you should be able to get about as much range as that to the mid-range repeater near you (whatever that distance is). That's still a huge 'guess', it doesn't take into account the gain of the antennas being used, their height and location, propagation, and what the 'other guy' happens to have in use.
There are no 'perfect' systems/set-ups, all of them have to 'adjust' to the prevailing conditions of the times.
'Tacky' answer huh? Well, unfortunately, it's also accurate.
- 'Doc

 

[rob_2012]

Rob,
There are just too many variables in that to make a definitive guess. A fairly 'fair' guess would be that you should be able to get about as much range as that to the mid-range repeater near you (whatever that distance is). That's still a huge 'guess', it doesn't take into account the gain of the antennas being used, their height and location, propagation, and what the 'other guy' happens to have in use.
There are no 'perfect' systems/set-ups, all of them have to 'adjust' to the prevailing conditions of the times.
'Tacky' answer huh? Well, unfortunately, it's also accurate.
- 'Doc

Hi Doc,

I know and I was just thinking that my antenna budget is only a meager $100 and thought I may have got off track a bit. So, basically I think I have to have a diy back up antenna of a different type and a switch on the coaxial, and in the mean time a think I may buy that GP-3 for $89 bucks!

Rob

 

[popnokick]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

For a reasonably accurate prediction of what the ground coverage distance and signal strength of a given antenna and height will be, use Radio Mobile.
http://www.cplus.org/rmw/download/download.php?S=1
There's also a demo on YouTube. There is no charge for the software; only your time to learn to use it.

 

[DcotorWu]

We really should be steering new people away from buying commercial antennas and helping them build them. If you want to spend some money look on ebay for ARRL antenna books from past years, say the 1980's. What you spend on one of them will save you literally thousands of bucks if you operate on a many bands. Building is the core of this hobby, and new guys may not know how, but the proved they aint dumb by passing the test. Let's all show new hams how to do homebrew. If you have things that would help noobs, post in to the archives.

73 Doc

 

[rob_2012]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

For a reasonably accurate prediction of what the ground coverage distance and signal strength of a given antenna and height will be, use Radio Mobile.
Radio Mobile Download in various languages
There's also a demo on YouTube. There is no charge for the software; only your time to learn to use it.

I get a little concerned downloading [dot]exe files. But I will check out the youtube video.

 

[rob_2012]

I just spent $79 bucks on a X50A antenna and I should have it mounted by this weekend. I do plan on building antennas in the future and at least I will have something (X50A) in my case to compare the home brew against.

I will post a few pics of it once its all done, I built my own mast from scrap square aluminum channel I had saved.

Rob

 

[gewecke]

I just spent $79 bucks on a X50A antenna and I should have it mounted by this weekend. I do plan on building antennas in the future and at least I will have something (X50A) in my case to compare the home brew against.

I will post a few pics of it once its all done, I built my own mast from scrap square aluminum channel I had saved.

Rob

Good choice for a compact dual band antenna! I use one myself at only 38'.
Fyi, it also works very well for a scanner too.

73,
n9zas

 

[rob_2012]

Thanks John! Nice to know its also good with a scanner; Can I hook my 2M radio up at the same time to the scanner and transmit?

Here a pic of how I mounted it.

 

[gewecke]

Thanks John! Nice to know its also good with a scanner; Can I hook my 2M radio up at the same time to the scanner and transmit?

Here a pic of how I mounted it.

NO! Absolutely DO NOT put your scanner in the same feedline with your 2 meter radio! Expensive damage will result to you scanner at the least. If you were to transmit it would be all over.
Now one at a time on your antenna, sure no problem.

73,
n9zas

 

[rob_2012]

Thanks for the info, I was reading about "maybe safe" ways to do it and have found suggestions about relays that cut the feed line say to the scanner once the PTT is keyed. Here is one link that looks simple to build, not sure if its a good idea though. What do you think?

Remote Antenna Switching

 

[gewecke]

Thanks for the info, I was reading about "maybe safe" ways to do it and have found suggestions about relays that cut the feed line say to the scanner once the PTT is keyed. Here is one link that looks simple to build, not sure if its a good idea though. What do you think?

Remote Antenna Switching

Maybe, but I think simple is better. Why risk the scanner to possible damage? The devices used in your scanner will not take direct rf to the antenna input for even a second, or you'll have a deaf scanner!
It's up to you...


73,
n9zas

 

[rob_2012]

Yeah I kinda agree with you on that, if a relay fails then what........no more scanner.