Recomend dual band VHF / UHF antenna for two radios
I am looking for recommendations for a dual band antenna that will serve two separate radios. The reason that I want to use a single antenna is that I have a limited number of mounting points for antennas. At present it will be hard for SWMBO; as in Rumpole's spouse, She Who Must Be Obeyed; to tolerate the use of both our home's gable ends and the chimney being used to support antennas. I am planning to replace my Diamond X-30 with a triband vertical for Six, Two, and .7 Meters. The chimney will then support a rotor aimed Two and .7 Meter beam. The second gable end will support the Two meter / Seventy Centimeter dual band vertical that I am asking for help in selecting.
One radio will be a two meter packet node which will be used as a Winlink Radio Message Server. The other radio will be a UHF D-STAR hotspot. I am willing to pay what is needed to to get the best antenna for this application but I don't want to waste money ineffectively. So the two meter radio will be in the 144 MHz portion of the band and I don't yet actually know were the D-STAR hotspot will be run. I have a DCI filter and diplexer to keep the two radios from actually knowing of each others existence. Since a hotspot is not supposed to be a terribly wide area installation I would imagine that I do not want an extremely high gain antenna but I am perfectly open to be reeducated on that. The difficulty is that I would guess that the Radio Message Server / Packet would benefit from as much horizontal gain as can be achieved. I have a home brewed collinear two meter J-Pole that has been a good performer on two meters and presents a low SWR on 440 MHz. I have yet to master antenna modeling but I would imagine; given all the warnings I have read on line; that it has poor radiation pattern on UHF. Is it likely to be too poor a performer for a hot spot on UHF?
I really am asking because I want to know. I am not looking for encouragement to do something that will be ineffective. Thank you in advance for any help you may be willing to offer.
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Tom Horne W3TDH
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