Base antenna suggestions

Flametamer · Post by **Flametamer** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:52 pm

I need help finding an inexspensive base antenna for high band (154.***) that will work with a 100 watt radio.

Is there anything wrong with mounting it in the center of the roof of a metal building?

Thanks

Dt

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:33 pm

Check out Tessco.com, they should have one in your price range.
It shouldn't matter on a metal roof

proff · Post by **proff** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:21 pm

Nothing wrong with mounting it there.

Flametamer wrote:I need help finding an inexspensive base antenna for high band (154.***) that will work with a 100 watt radio.

Is there anything wrong with mounting it in the center of the roof of a metal building?

Thanks

Dt

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:30 pm

Not at all, if nothing else it gives you a nice ground plane anyway!

Plenty of cheap options out there for a base antenna in that range. I have used a few all aluminum models from antennawarehouse.com for MURS in that range.

Robert HT220 · Post by **Robert HT220** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:14 pm

I bought one of these, should have it on Wednesday. This is a new listing, I bought mine last week.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Base-Scanner-Antenn ... dZViewItem

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:50 pm

That's a good basic antenna and not a bad price either.

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:56 pm

Not sure I'd want to run 100 Watts through it.
I guess we need more information.
Antenna height, terrain, feeder.
And finally What are you trying to achieve.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:19 pm

A good discone will run 100 watts, no problem. I sorta doubt that's a good discone, however...

If it's a metal roof, and flat, you could always install an NMO mount.

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:00 pm

I mean I guess we need to define "inexpensive base antenna"
Are we talking under $1000. The ASP685 by Andrew will come in around
$600-$700. I sort of consider that an inexpensive antenna. and would pass due to the low wind rating.
Most of the stuff I spec like DB616 run at about 1500, Although I lost 3 on one tower during a hurricanne. Snapped clean off!
Now, a $10 coathanger of fleabay, Hmm Nah!

Like I said what's the application, terrain, weather.

proff · Post by **proff** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:36 pm

yeah i like it
here its called a discone
But here the discone arial has more elements and cost 3 times as much

440roadrunner · Post by **440roadrunner** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:52 pm

First of all, that antenna is no discone

Second, I don't know why anyone would promote a discone for single frequency, base station or repeater use. A true discone has less gain than a quarter wave vertical. In other words it has less than unity gain.

The ONLY advantage to a true discone is bandwidth.

proff · Post by **proff** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:23 pm

i know about the poor proformance of the discone arial
I was just saying that it look in some way like one

Robert HT220 · Post by **Robert HT220** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:49 pm

Yeah I knew it wasn't a real discone antenna, it's more like a 5/8 wave, but hey that's not a bad price and it seemed like other people got good performance out of it. I don't know about putting 100 watts through it, 50 might be the top end.

Flametamer · Post by **Flametamer** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:48 pm

We just want to put a radio in the office at our station. We have an old GE Mastr? that is 100 watt I believe or we will use a 40 watt mobile. There is a light pole beside the building but the power line is in the way so, we will probably mount it on the roof.

Flat gentle rolling terrain, building is 14 or 16 ft high. I don't know about the feed...

We just want a radio at the station 1. to act as a scanner, 2. In case we need to talk to our units for whatever reason. Our county is the largest by land size in the state and or simplex radio system just doesn't cut it. We cannot talk from one mobile to another alot of the time. The county spent about $250,000 on a VHF truking system that the:
1. City PD.
2. County SO
3. EOC
4. City FD
5. Ambulance
are on but all they gave the VFD's were 1 HT and 1 Mobile each.
Not that it really matters b/c it's range is worse that the simplex.
We need the simplex anyway for paging and we tried to get it turned into a repeater channel but we were told that we could not get a 2nd license from the FCC for it.

Any sugesstions?

On another note, Can someone check callsign KKV346 and tell me if it is active or not?

Thanks
Dt

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:19 pm

http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls

KKV346 shows to be a simplex license on 154.13 to the city of Yazoo, MS., expiring 5/4/2015.

Be aware, you're pushing the 6.1-meter control station limit. You may want to amend that license to add an additional base at your station when you get your gear set up.

Will · Post by **Will** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:29 pm

So it IS time to quit fooling arround and get a real antenna.

If cost is your problem, save your money, "cause there aint no cheep antennas".

My two pesos, Comtelco BS150XL3-B for less than $175. The have REAL 1' dia. copper elements, not just a peice of 18 ga steel wire inside a plastic tube like Antenex, Maxrad and others....

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:36 am

Because it is generally flat you can take advantage of some gain. Aim for 3dB minimum and go for 6 dB if the money is there.
Whatever you select just remember.
You will get what you pay for.

proff · Post by **proff** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:26 pm

YES
its alot cheaper if you make your own arials
all arials are based on dipoles
300 divided by the frequency in MHZ
thats the wave length of each element.
i made 2 of 3 element yagi's it had 12 DB gain and i was into the USA on S9 signal strength. from sydney ,Australia
the total cost to myself was $75 in Australian currency

Will wrote:So it IS time to quit fooling arround and get a real antenna.

If cost is your problem, save your money, "cause there aint no cheep antennas".

My two pesos, Comtelco BS150XL3-B for less than $175. The have REAL 1' dia. copper elements, not just a peice of 18 ga steel wire inside a plastic tube like Antenex, Maxrad and others....

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:32 pm

A 3-element yagi with 12dB gain talking from Sydney to points unknown in the US?

Umm, right. You could make that path, on HF. Good luck getting 12dB of gain out of a yagi on HF... one of the best HF beams out there, the SteppIR, in 3-el. configuration, is 4.9dBd on 20 meters.

In short, ********.

And, the OP needs to buy a real antenna, since it's a real project. Get familiar with terms like DB222, DB224, and DB264.

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 5:32 pm

Been doing some Toad Licken .
maybe it was the local consul

mr.syntrx · Post by **mr.syntrx** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:46 pm

The toads are a bit further north of him.

The explanation in this case is that he's a westy.

proff · Post by **proff** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:08 pm

AS YOU CAN SEE I DID WRITE 2 YAGI'S
THEY WERE COE PHASED
SORRY I DIDN'T MENTION THAT

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:28 pm

OK, so you stacked two yagis which would've been at least 25 feet long, on a tower, with about 8 feet of vertical separation. Right.

By the way, phasing antennas (if done properly... I doubt it) is good for 3dB. So you're closing on 8dBd, maybe.

I still *seriously* doubt it.

jackhackett · Post by **jackhackett** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:08 am

proff wrote:YES
its alot cheaper if you make your own arials
all arials are based on dipoles
300 divided by the frequency in MHZ
thats the wave length of each element.

300/f is only theoretical, real world is something like 234/f

If you were going to make your own antenna a J-pole is relatively easy, sturdy, and cheap. The biggest problem with it, or any homemade antenna, is making it weather resistant... you don't want to leave the end of your coax exposed where water can get into it.

lieut25 · Post by **lieut25** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:53 am

try

http://krecoantennas.com/

Flametamer · Post by **Flametamer** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:37 am

tvsjr wrote:http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls

KKV346 shows to be a simplex license on 154.13 to the city of Yazoo, MS., expiring 5/4/2015.

Be aware, you're pushing the 6.1-meter control station limit. You may want to amend that license to add an additional base at your station when you get your gear set up.

Okay thanks. Our genius dispachers are doing our pager test and giving the call sign of the new system on 154.130 I new is should have been renewed but I hadn't checked.

~~FYI~~
The antenna and everything I am talking about is just for our station it isn't the dispach.

Dt

kens · Post by **kens** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:55 am

I have had very good results with the Larsen FB 1 136. It is about $135. I have also used the Larsen Base Adapter (BSA-K) with their NMO 150 antenna (about $75).
Good luck!

proff · Post by **proff** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:43 am

i will post a picture of the yagi in the morning cause right now it is freezing outside and the arial is on the roof of my house for work to be done on it.

440roadrunner · Post by **440roadrunner** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 6:16 pm

Do ya think we can get "off" the Ko fazed cb beam arguement?

There is no place on this form for that discussion, unless it is on, say the low band FM band, and I can think of no reason to ever use them there.

jim · Post by **jim** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 6:27 am

Unless you are just experimenting with ham radio, why would one want to build an antenna? Even a "cheap" commercial one costs nothing.

Could you imagine selling a PD a J-Pole built from copper tubing from Home Depot? This is as bad as seeing a Ringo Ranger used for a repeater antenna.

proff · Post by **proff** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 11:54 pm

I make my own arials cause the new ones cost too much.
Thats all
I can get the same proformance from my arials and the bought arials

mr.syntrx · Post by **mr.syntrx** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 11:59 pm

With this being a public safety application, why are you advocating home made antennas?

QUALITY, commercial antennas suitable for the OP's purpose are available for very reasonable prices.

jim · Post by **jim** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 6:43 am

So what you are telling me is that what you build in your garage will work as well as one that was designed by a team of RF engineers using the latest available CAD design software and having an antenna test farm on-site? A Comtelco XL series costs like a 100 bucks plus 15 to ship it. Like I said- if experimenting with ham, it's okay to build an antenna. If for ANYTHING at all non-ham, use a real antenna.

I think I'm gonna go install a gamma-fed piece of 1/2" copper tubing tomorrow on my repeater. It will certainly outperform the Stationmaster.

wa2zdy · Post by **wa2zdy** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 12:31 pm

And I'm gonna set a new record - Florida to Oz on hi band withOUT EME. Uh huh. NOT!

If I didn't know better I'd think the bovine burglar had been reincarnated.

jim · Post by **jim** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:33 pm

Hence, my avatar .gif.

mr.syntrx · Post by **mr.syntrx** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:13 pm

wa2zdy wrote:And I'm gonna set a new record - Florida to Oz on hi band withOUT EME. Uh huh. NOT!

If I didn't know better I'd think the bovine burglar had been reincarnated.

Except even Cowthief knows the earth is round. This one doesn't.

proff · Post by **proff** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 11:17 pm

there is no part of flordia higher than 3 meters above sea level.
You need more hight for DXing

mr.syntrx wrote:
wa2zdy wrote:And I'm gonna set a new record - Florida to Oz on hi band withOUT EME. Uh huh. NOT!

If I didn't know better I'd think the bovine burglar had been reincarnated.
Except even Cowthief knows the earth is round. This one doesn't.

Post by **HumHead** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 11:51 pm

OK- I think the original poster's question has long since been answered. Since we are now well off topic, this thread wins the lock.

Base antenna suggestions

Base antenna suggestions

Re: Base antenna suggestions

arials

discone

CHEAP ARIALS

12db GAIN

Re: CHEAP ARIALS

My home made yagi

making a arial

in FL