RadioBanter - View Single Post

December 21st 04, 04:22 PM

On 2004-12-21, wrote:
I am a newbie wanting to set up a base station at my house on top of my
tv tower. I am interested in building one myself. I have the capability
to weld.

I hope you are referring to welding antenna elements, and not building a
tower by yourself

Do the j poles have gain to them? Are they near the performance of a
several element yagi?

Gain over what? Asking about gain without providing a reference point is
sort of useless. If memory serves me correct (and I do admit that my memory
is somewhat porous right now) a j-pole will have about the same gain as a
dipole over an isotropic radiator or 2.4dbi. A yagi would certainly have
more gain over a dipole or a j-pole. Remember that a yagi is directional,
and the j-pole is not. If you want to hit repeaters in more than one
direction, you will need a way to rotate the yagi.

Can I make a dual band antenna in each of these styles?

Yes, google is your friend here.

Do the copper j poles last many years? I sometimes have high winds and
lots of rain. Plus, I dont like heights and only want to do this once.

I have one that has been up for 3 years now. The only difference between now
and when it first went up is that it is a darker color now due to
weathering. It seems to be just as strong now as t was then.

I would ideally like to reach a repeater about 70 - 80 miles away from
me.

That would depend mostly on how high up you can get the antenna (yagi or
j-pole) VHF/UHF is line of sight.

--
Alex / AB2RC
Linux is user friendly, however it is not idiot friendly