What's the best length to cut a vertical?

[Oldglide]

What's the best length to cut a single element vertical, especially for 850 and 450 mhz, 1/4 wave, 1/2 wave or full wave? I know this can be a complicated question with lots of variables but I'm looking for a starting point. Thanks.

 

[ronhl]

antenna lengths

What's the best length to cut a single element vertical, especially for 850 and 450 mhz, 1/4 wave, 1/2 wave or full wave? I know this can be a complicated question with lots of variables but I'm looking for a starting point. Thanks.

accounting for end effects its basically: 2805/freq(mhz)= 1/4 wave in inches
double this for 1/2 wave
4x for full wave

so 1/4 wave @450mhz it would 2805/450= 6.233"
and 1/2 wave= 12.466", full wave=24.93"

 

[prcguy]

You don't want to use a 1/2 wave for a simple whip fed with 50ohm coax. Without doing a formal antenna analysis I would think making the whip about 7"or 8" long would bring the 800MHz impedance out of the stratosphere and would probably work ok on both bands.
prcguy