We need to rebuild the antennas and feed lines at the county's Emergency Op
erations Center. We would like to be able to use 50, 144, 220, and 440 MHz
radios at any position and we would prefer not to have to resort to diplex
ers and separate antennas on the roof if it can be avoided. Does anyone ha
ve a suggestion for a reasonably high quality quad band antenna for base st
ation use. Wind survival rating would need to be one hundred miles per hou
r. We are presently looking at six hard lines to the roof some seventy fee
t up in order to feed the following antennas:

Horizontal Loop HF antenna with remote antenna coupler powered by Bias-T.

ATV receiving antenna with rotor unless testing shows a directional antenna
to be unnecessary

Six meter Yagi-Uda, vertically polarized, for inter county traffic.

Three Multi Band antennas or equivalent.

Any on point suggestions about the multi band antennas would be helpful.


--
Tom Horne W3TDH

Tom Horne wrote:

Three Multi Band antennas or equivalent.

Any on point suggestions about the multi band antennas would be helpful.

For VHF/UHF omnidirectional use a discone would be a practical solution.
50-500 MHz is easily possible but I would rather go for 140-500 and put
50 MHz on a separate vertical to reduce wind loading.

On 12/30/2013 11:33 AM, wrote:
For VHF/UHF omnidirectional use a discone would be a practical
solution.
I use those at my shop. Makes not having to remember what band
antenna I'm using.
50-500 MHz is easily possible but I would rather go for 140-500
and put 50 MHz on a separate vertical to reduce wind loading.
Most discones, as sold, are basically 100-1300 MHz.
The extended lower frequency is usually a whip mounted on top for
either 52 MHz or 27 MHz depending on who you buy them from.

Jeff-1.0
wa6fwi

On Sun, 29 Dec 2013 20:56:46 EST, Tom Horne wrote:

Does anyone have a suggestion for a reasonably high quality quad band antenna for base station use.

At the hospital we are using twin Comet 3-band omnidirectional
antennas - 144/222/450 bands - each with a triplexer and a bank of
single band filters. We are very close to the TV/FM/2-way antenna
towers - a high intermod zone. Even though we have the filters we
get some garbage from time to time. That converts our dual-band
transceivers into single-band transceivers but that's the price we
have to pay.

We don't have capability on HF or 6-meters but I have a B&W All-Band
Folded Dipole/Resistor available if we ever get HF capability.

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon

In article ,
Tom Horne wrote:

We would like to be able to use 50, 144, 220, and 440 MHz
radios at any position and we would prefer not to have to resort to diplex
ers and separate antennas on the roof if it can be avoided.

Tom-

Phil and CRN have good suggestions that directly address your needs.

Another approach for common local frequencies, is to have a single base
station for each frequency, with a remote control at each position.
This allows the base station to be located (in a separate equipment
room?) closer to the antenna to minimize feed line loss. All it takes
is telephone wires to connect between the base stations and remotes.
Each remote could have a switch to select base stations.

Fred
K4DII

On Mon, 30 Dec 2013 20:59:38 EST, Fred McKenzie wrote:

Another approach for common local frequencies, is to have a single base
station for each frequency, with a remote control at each position.
This allows the base station to be located (in a separate equipment
room?) closer to the antenna to minimize feed line loss. All it takes
is telephone wires to connect between the base stations and remotes.
Each remote could have a switch to select base stations.

At one time one of our clients' RACES installations contemplated
putting an ICOM ham transceiver up near the antennas in the equipment
room (attic) and using the detachable head in the EOC. The head was
designed to be "remotely" located in a vehicle via a CAT5-type cable.
ICOM said that they had tested it for 50 feet. We were going to test
it on the bench for 250 feet using a spool of CAT5 (no need to unroll
the whole length) but the client ran out of money for that project and
we never got to do it.

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon

On Tuesday, December 31, 2013 12:23:44 PM UTC-5, Phil Kane wrote:
On Mon, 30 Dec 2013 20:59:38 EST, Fred McKenzie wrote:



Another approach for common local frequencies, is to have a single base

station for each frequency, with a remote control at each position.

This allows the base station to be located (in a separate equipment
room?) closer to the antenna to minimize feed line loss. All it takes

is telephone wires to connect between the base stations and remotes.

Each remote could have a switch to select base stations.



At one time one of our clients' RACES installations contemplated putting
an ICOM ham transceiver up near the antennas in the equipment room (attic)
and using the detachable head in the EOC. The head was designed to be "rem
otely" located in a vehicle via a CAT5-type cable.

ICOM said that they had tested it for 50 feet. We were going to test it
on the bench for 250 feet using a spool of CAT5 (no need to unroll the whol
e length) but the client ran out of money for that project and we never got
to do it.

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane



From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest

Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon

Phil

We are now looking at the equipment available that allows one to control co
mpatible radios over any Ethernet cable. Since an Ethernet Cable can be up
to One Hundred Meters long without needing amplifiers that would allow us
to have any of the compatible separate control head radios up to 328 wire f
eet end to end. That is more than enough length to allow the radios to be l
ocated at the roof line of the facilities we have to operate in and still h
ave the operating positions located at an appropriate location that is conv
eniently accessible to served agency staff.

--
Tom Horne W3TDH

On Monday, December 30, 2013 8:59:38 PM UTC-5, Fred McKenzie wrote:
In article ,

Tom Horne wrote:



We would like to be able to use 50, 144, 220, and 440 MHz radios at any
position and we would prefer not to have to resort to diplexers and separat
e antennas on the roof if it can be avoided.

Tom-



Phil and CRN have good suggestions that directly address your needs.

Another approach for common local frequencies, is to have a single base s
tation for each frequency, with a remote control at each position.

This allows the base station to be located (in a separate equipment room?
) closer to the antenna to minimize feed line loss. All it takes is teleph
one wires to connect between the base stations and remotes. Each remote co
uld have a switch to select base stations.

Fred K4DII

Fred

I take it that would involve using only identical radios so as to be able t
o use any control head with any radio.

--
Tom Horne W3TDH

In article ,
Tom Horne wrote:

On Monday, December 30, 2013 8:59:38 PM UTC-5, Fred McKenzie wrote:
In article ,

Tom Horne wrote:



We would like to be able to use 50, 144, 220, and 440 MHz radios at any
position and we would prefer not to have to resort to diplexers and separat
e antennas on the roof if it can be avoided.

Tom-



Phil and CRN have good suggestions that directly address your needs.

Another approach for common local frequencies, is to have a single base s
tation for each frequency, with a remote control at each position.

This allows the base station to be located (in a separate equipment room?
) closer to the antenna to minimize feed line loss. All it takes is teleph
one wires to connect between the base stations and remotes. Each remote co
uld have a switch to select base stations.

Fred K4DII

Fred

I take it that would involve using only identical radios so as to be able t
o use any control head with any radio.

Tom-

That may also work with same-family radios on different bands. But
someone with more experience than I, might design a universal remote
that could be adapted to several different model radios.

One approach would be to develop a standard interface consisting of
transmit and receive audio pairs operating at line level, plus a keying
pair. To reduce the number of wire pairs, you could use split-winding
transformers to accomplish DC keying on the transmit audio pair.

Fred

For single frequency use without all the bells and whistles,
I use CPI tone remote units.
http://www.cpicomm.com/
Reasonably priced on eBay.


--
Jeff-1.0
wa6fwi
http://www.foxsmercantile.com