VHF BASE ANTENNA

[SLASH40917]

What is the best vhf omnidirectional base station antenna that is out there???? Thankx

[Jim202]

Boy can you ask a loaded open ended question. Not much info given to help anyone even come close to offer a
suggestion. Like what is the land around the area your trying to cover? What distance are you looking to cover?
What type of a support is available for the antenna? How long of a feedline are you going to need? What type of
service is this antenna going to be used in - ham, commercial, public safety? Do you have any restrictions on
height? Will the antenna be on a roof of a building, house or tower?

Jim

What is the best vhf omnidirectional base station antenna that is out there???? Thankx

[SLASH40917]

Sorry jim i'm Not a professional at this just a paramedic thats putting a base station in his house. This is for 155.295 freq the antenna is going on top of my roof with a 10ft mast I live on top a of pretty nice hill. its running a kenwood tk 730 vhf 45 watt output. the topography is very hilly. I have just saw many vhf antenna's over the internet and was wondering what is a good 1 not real concerned with price I need it to work. this is for mostly reception. I'm trying to hear stations 50+ miles away where i used to live. Thankx Sorry for the undetailed post. any help appreciated

[mike m]

Go for a DB-228, it will work great and your neighbors will envy you.

But really it is the best that you can get and you asked what was the best VHF high band base antenna.

Mike

[SLASH40917]

thankx who makes it?

[res6cue]

Uhhh...the Andrew DB-228 is a 40' high, 150 pound, 8-bay dipole that costs nearly $1,500. Hardly practical for mounting on a 10' mast on a residential roof.


I'm not sure why you're asking about an omnidirectional antenna if your main intention seems to be listening to the place you used to live some 50 miles away. You'd probably be better off with a directional antenna for that purpose, such as a Yagi.

Antenex/Laird makes some nice ones which you should be able to find for less than $150 for the VHF models. The gold series is built a little better than the silver series, but both are quality antennas. I've seen the 150-174 MHz 7.1dB gain silver series as cheap as $60 brand new.

http://www.antenex.com/c_search.asp?txt ... VHF+MODELS

http://www.antenex.com/c_search.asp?txt ... VHF+MODELS

[PeterGV]

Google is your friend:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&c ... K7lpEcbdHQ

Peter
K1PGV

[486dx4]

Looking on the web a DB-228 is 40 feet end to end. That sounds not so practical for a 10 foot mast on a roof. If you have a tower in your backyard that is high enough that will work. I do have to say though it has quite a bit of advertised gain - 9db over a dipole. And it is not cheap ($1400 or so). A Celwave Super Stationmaster 220-2N antenna which I am told is used often for repeaters has less gain (5.25 db over a dipole) but is less in price by a bit - $1K. All of this info I found on the web.

I'd say that if this base was the main dispatch and is mission critical then you should go for something like one of those two antennas, high quality hardline, etc. But if this is a home install then you might consider something less expensive for the antenna choice and get the antenna as high as you can on the hill that you live on. Height makes a big difference with any antenna. But you did say money is not a concern here so go for the gusto I guess....

[486dx4]

Another thing to consider is using a directional (beam) antenna or Yagi type and aim the antenna at those stations you want to hear 50 miles away which might do the job well. The stationmater and DB-228 are omnidirectional antennas which receive and transmit equally in all directions. The directional Yagi focuses its pattern for receiving and transmitting signals in one direction so you get great gain in that one direction but the catch is you lose a lot of gain everywhere else. And if you want to hear other stations you can of course rotate the antenna.

[George]

What? The DB-228 isn't acceptable? No sense of humor.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzwake me when I need to go homezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzgeorgezzzzz

[Jim202]

Well you got a bunch of comments on your question. I have spent the last 40 plus years in
the two way world working for a number of consulting companies and cellular carriers. based
on my gut feelings you just might want to spend some time looking over the topography maps.
It would be a worth while effort to see if you even have a chance to pull in a station 50 miles
away in what you call a hilly region.

If you can even hear anything on a good receiver with an outside antenna now from the 50
mile location, you might have a chance. If you can't get anything now, even a large gain
directional antenna probably won't pull the signal in.

I would hedge my gut feeling and do some homework before spending any money. The
summer is the best time to prove a path and antenna system. All the leaves are out.
They play havoc to a radio path. When they get wet, it is even worse. We haven't
mentioned pine trees. They just plain don't like to allow radio signals to pass by them.

To give you an example of winter / summer difference, I have been playing with a 35 mile
path for 800 MHz. It worked fairly well before spring brought out the green stuff. Could
hit the system with a 3 watt portable on the roof. So installed an omni with zero gain.
As soon as the leaves came out, even a 30 watt mobile couldn't hit the system. Had to
install a yagi with 6 DB gain before I could get into the system. Putting it into terms
that most people understand, a 3 watt portable use to work. It took about 100 watts
of RF to make the path work after the leaves were out. That is an increase of about 15 db
of gain over the signal the portable provided to make the system work before the leaves
came out.

Your going to see sort of the same thing, but not as bad at VHF. Like others have said,
get up as high as you can. Plan on having to use a yagi antenna with some decent gain.
Use a good feedline on it to cut down on the cable loss. If you use 1/2 inch heliax type
coax cable, you will get about 1 db loss per 100 feet with the connector loss thrown in.
If you keep in mind that for every 3 db of loss, you loose 1/2 your power. In receiving,
this means that you will loose 1/2 of the signal strength that arrives at the antenna going
through the coax to your radio.

Jim

[Andreas]

Get a Kathrein K552626 (K552627) or K51262.
Very good performance and last very long!

Andreas