800mhz Diversity Antenna Setup ?

[WA6OXN]

I have an application where I have a XTS5000 that is used on a 800 Trunking System.

The XTS will be used inside an airplane, or other enclosed type vehicle. The vehicle has windows on the left and right side.
I have used a tape style antenna inside one of the windows successfully. However, as the vehicle turns, banks, etc... away from the repeater site there is LOS or a very degraded signal.

Has anyone come across a portable antenna kit with maybe a phasing harness? for (2) dipole type antenna's that can be taped up on the left and right windows ?

Notes:
* I can build the phasing harness for the antenna's.
* Radio works fine if I move from side to side in the vehicle to get coverage.
* Does not have to be covert or hidden.
* External antenna is not an option.

Thanks!

[Bill_G]

Well, if you have successfully adaptored one tape antenna into your portable, then you can do it to two through a simple tee. It's from the tee to the radio where you might have to experiment with line length. As long as the tee to the antennas is the same length, you're golden. Between the radio and the tee, start off with something like 11ft long so the cable is effectively not resonant, and give it a whirl. See if you get a decent match, and the kind of rssi you're used to. If not, then you can try shorter lengths until you get under four feet where the cable starts to become critical. Then you get to read up on the math needed to calculate the best length.

[wd9cms]

You can also get a coupler that is specifically made to combine two antennas like the Comtelco CC850 with the following specifications:

http://comtelcoantennas.com/PDF/CC150-CC2400.PDF

I am sure you can make something work but this is designed to keep a 50 ohm match on all ports. It does come with a less than .4 dB loss so you do take a loss in both receive and transmit signal. I am sure that other manufacturers also make combiners.