On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:21:10 GMT, "west"
wrote:

Just purchased a (tri-band 2, 1.25, .7 meters) Kenwood TH-F6A HT and was
wondering what I should use for a base antenna that will be over 60ft high
(bet I'll get tons of intermod). One thought is to purchase the best
tri-bander available or, perhaps there is too much compromise with an
all-in-one. Would you use a dual bander and a mono, which band is the dual &
which the mono or 3 monos? Of course with anything other than a tri-bander,
a triplexer will be needed. Oh what trying decisions a ham must make! Any
comments most welcomed.

West,

Some thoughts:

The economics of feedline(s) might tilt the solution in favour of a
single triband antenna with LDF4-50 or better, though you will
probably want a very short flylead to the handheld. (Note that the
loss in 100' of RG213 at load VSWR=1.5 is 5dB at 70cm, whereas LDF4-50
is 1.5dB, and the loss in a 5' tail of RG58C/U under similar
conditions is 0.7dB.) If you only want to work repeaters and your path
is good enough, losses might not be an issue. (Remember though that 5W
handhelds get really hot on full power.) Is LDF4-50 overkill for a
handheld? It might be more appropriate than with a higher powered
transmitter.

If intermods are an issue (as handhelds have less than adequate front
end selectivity), do the repeaters use CTCSS... at least that helps
prevent the transceiver breaking mute all day and night. Does the
radio have a real rx attenuator that can help with intermods, to you
have sufficient rx signal strength to be able to use it?

At least you are not intending using a discone. Handhelds rarely work
well on external broad antennas (for intermod reasons), and even the
multiband antennas can be a challenge for handhelds.

Owen
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