Looking for a Rugged VHF/UHF Dual Band Folded Dipole

[HumHead]

OK, Google is not being my friend tonight.

I seem to remember that someone made a rugged VHF / UHF folded dipole base antenna that basically had VHF and UHF dipoles on the same mast, with a diplexer in the harness. Does anyone remember what the make and model of that particular antenna was?

I have a site that has one good tower top position where I am looking to add a UHF repeater to the existing VHF machine. The site is on a monopole on top of a mountain, pretty much daring Mother Nature to do her worst. Fiberglass sticks and wimpy ham antennas need not apply.

Thanks!

[mike m]

Andrews DB314 is one that I remember. ~6 dB on the upper UHF and ~3dB on the lower VHF antenna, but as I remember it uses 2 seperate feedlines.


Mike

[Dan562]

Humhead,

And if you choose to purchase the DB314 Dual Band antenna and only want one Heliax feedline, then I would suggest to purchase 2 TX/RX Crossband Couplers. You would need to place one up nearest to the Dual Band antenna and the second one in the radio site adjacent to the individual VHF and UHF Base Stations.

http://www.txrx.com/product/product_vie ... 14D1FFAC64

Dan

[HumHead]

Thank you both!

The good news is that the DB314 was, in fact, the antenna that I was thinking of. The bad news is that it has been discontinued, with no equivalent replacement model available.

The search continues...

[Jason]

That sucks, that was a very unique antenna. I have deployed a few myself. I have not seen or heard of anything even close to that design.

Perhaps Sinclair or Kathrein Scala may be able to provide somthing.

[N4DES]

That's interesting....we have one on our EOC tower and have had it up there for years.
I hope it never goes bad being there is no suitable replacement.

Mark

[psapengineer]

I know the frustration. Several of the VHF antennas that I've really appreciated in the past are no longer made. It's kind of like losing the recipe to make ice cubes.......

Here's a suggestion: You could easliy make what you need using the Telewave ANT150D and ANT450D series of diples (or D3 if you need some gain) with a stick of galvanized pipe. Telewave will make the pigtails that are past the phasing harness to a custom length if you ask them to. These provide a lot of flexibility in terms of gain, pattern, downtilt (if ordered), and mounting. They are also very cost effective.

We've done similar in the past where we've needed 4 feedlines/single dipoles on one mast stick.

[Dan562]

Humhead,

psapengineer suggestion and I'll quote him,

Here's a suggestion: You could easliy make what you need using the Telewave ANT150D and ANT450D series of diples (or D3 if you need some gain) with a stick of galvanized pipe.

Using the "stick of galvanized pipe" is cheap, you should consider that 99% of the commercial antenna manufactures use T6063 Aluminum Pipe 1-3/4" ~ 2" D x 21' L x .125 Wall Thickness and you can find this material most everywhere around the country. The Aluminum provides a better mast pipe solution and has less problems with flexing in the wind rather than kinking and/or bending permantly while mounted up on a tower.

Dan