How to get reliable 60 miles direct. 2 or 10

[NeoHam]

So a 2 meter high gain 50 watt omni will do better than 10 meters?

 

[ahamoperator]

Basicly, yes. but a yagi or two will far outshine that..

More than just your home station is important here too..

About the best you can hope for on your mobile setup for 10 meters is
a quarter wave antenna. A very poor antenna for ground wave (which is
the type of prop you will be using up to 60 miles) It naturally has a high angle of radiation.

High gain 2 meter antennas have the radiation kind of compressed from the top if you can picture that forcing the radiation to be "lower-angle" thats what makes gain on a vertical antenna.

Look at some of Diamonds high gain mobile antenna for 2 meters or dual-band usage just to get an idea of how much gain you can come up with using some of these "co-linear" type of antennas.

I have what they used to call the SG2000 2 meter antenna, used to run it in the center of my Honda Civic roof and that would talk for miles.They call it a 7/8 wave antenna.Hears like crazy too.

On my wifes car we run the SG7900 I think it's called. 7/8 wave on 2m and
5/8wave times 3 (co-linear) on the 440 band. Also an awesome antenna performance wize. Not really as happy with the way it's built though duribility wize..
If I remember right these 2 antennas will run nearly 150 watts. (don't quote me on that one)

We live on one of the highest hills in this part of the state so we get really good range from our system even though what I'm using now is just an old
Cushcraft ARX-2B not too high off the ground. Cant wait to get a big system up and working again..

We are a 3 ham family here, so that is why we needed both vertical and
horizontal polarity. For the mobiles, and love to work some weak-signal
on SSB and CW..

Get your home station antenna as high as possable, and use the best feedline
you can find as loss can be a big problem at VHF frequencies. Keep the feedline run as short as possable also.

There, probably way more than you wanted to know...hi
73, Keith

p.s. Not trying to say that 75 watts is'nt a good power level. 1.8db is an improvement. Just wanted to show you that
the improvement is not quite what an amp can do. Also as your station grows most amps out there do not offer inputs
that high..(watts)

 

[NeoHam]

Confused

I just spoke with a ham who said 10 is better than 2. He said it's hard to get over 30-40 miles. I plan on getting a 2 meter base antenna with 8.3db gain and I already have the LMR400. If I go with 10 meter I've been reading a lot of good things about this new base antenna by sirio-H&Y Electronics . I don't want the expense of amps and rotors.

 

[WA8ZYT]

A Cushcraft Ringo Ranger would probably be a better buy than that Gainmaster.

 

[binrat]

I have an old Ringo Ranger that simply rocks. I can use very low power and hit repeaters 35 miles away with the antenna about 6' off of the ground.

 

[NeoHam]

What band is that Binrat? Would more power get you further?

 

[binrat]

What band is that Binrat? Would more power get you further?

Cushcraft ARX-2
I live east of you in Ontario just south of Georgian Bay. We have some real rolling terrian here and I'm happy with the antenna.

 

[ahamoperator]

I understand completely NeoHam.. But I have to tell you you won't make your goal of 60 miles to the mobile without them, not even close..

Like I said, I live on a big hill and have done it with a single Yagi, and some power. No yagi up now, and I'm lucky if I can reliably get out to 35 miles simplex..Of coarse the antenna is only @ 30 ft to the tip.

Another nice feature with 2m fm usage is the use of CTCSS (tones) encode and decode.. In experementing with them seems like they decode reliably
down to a 3-4db signal. Lower than you will set a standard squelch going down the hiway.

I always program the simplex channel without tones just one notch below
the encode/decoded channel so one calling can check to see if the freq is
in use.

One good thing about using ten meters is, if the band opens up you will have
someone to talk to. Not much 2 meter activity in this part of the country
lately...Can always call the wife on the cell-phone...hi...

73

 

[Turbo T]

I am looking for good direct communications. I know 10 meters has been good with the solar cycle but what is it like without it in the day? How much power would I need during a poor day? How far can I get with 50 to 75 watts on 2 meters with high gain antenna base to mobile direct?

10 M is usually only active in the day, and no so active at night. There are times though when it is active at night.

I see the 2800 is 65 watts and the 2900 is 75 watts. I was really leaning toward 10 meters when I get my license next month. I am assuming there will be no repeaters when SHTF. There's only one or two around here anyway. I know nothing is 'reliable' like foolproof I was just wondering if I should put my money into 10 or 2 meters since there really isn't a basic rig that does both. Guess I'll have to reevaluate. Thanks N0zna

My 2 cents...you'll probably have better luck on 2 M if you stick to repeater use. I have a 2800M and I run a full 65W. thru a Cushcraft Ringo ranger II base station antenna that the tip of the antenna is about 25 ft off the ground, I can hit repeaters 50 miles from me. However as posted, it's all about how high you can get your antenna, how high off the ground the repeater antennas are, and what kind of obstacles are in the way that suck up signals.

 

[doctor]

distance

2 METERS 50 watts and my dual vertical on the roof 50-miles to 60/jetstream.
Forget 10 you will not make it, condx down and if they are up you would probably skip over the qth from a mobile.
Get the best coax not rg8/rg58, get the hardline it is the best..r and l electronics...
DOCTOR/795