I have seen a suggestion of using the Hustler 2 meter base antenna as an
antenna for repeaters as they are fairly rugged. The person that was saying
this claimed that eventually the harness on the exposed four bay antennas
will deterioate and even though the SWR would look good the gain would go in
the dumper.

Ritchi & Al-

Gain isn't everything, but having a higher number sells antennas! Some
companys use the higher dBi number. Others use dBd which is 2.1 dB lower.
Although engineers are taught antennas from the isotropic point of view, I
believe it is an industry standard that the dipole be used as a reference for
VHF and UHF two-way radio antennas. The dipole certainly is more practical if
you want to measure gain.

I've used the Hustler G6-144 successfully, but don't consider them especially
rugged. The fiberglass deteriorates in the weather. Mine also got beat-up by
some tree limbs! I had the repeater on for several years and eventually
replaced the antenna with another G6-144.

Another repeater that used the G6-144 at a higher elevation (top of a city
water tower), had a couple ruined by lightning. The phasing coil just
vaporized in each case. After having problems with a Diamond, they switched to
a used commercial DB 4-dipole antenna, and have had excellent results. One
lightning strike took out some of the equipment but didn't seem to phase the
antenna.

If you go for the 4-dipole antenna, be sure to get the one with the phasing
harness INSIDE the mast. Otherwise you will probably have troubles with
deterioration, as Al noted.

73, Fred, K4DII