Carl, I don't think you'll get too much Hustler-bashing in this group. Those are decent antennas, and it might outlast the Stationmaster if the antenna must be top-mounted on a tower. A Stationmaster lives longest if side-mounted with a support arm for the top of the radome. Without it, they whip themselves to death in the wind in a disappointly short time.
There should not be significant downtilt or gain loss produced by running the antenna at 440 MHz. You might wind up with very small lobes above and below the horizon, but the focus of maximum gain will styill be very close to 90 degrees elevation, operating 10 MHz below design frequency. If the antenna is to be side-mounted on a tower, that wonderful SWR may not hold up, however. 73, Paul, AE4KR ----- Original Message ----- From: ka9gpx To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 5:52 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Stationmaster Ant...to use or not??? Hello to all in the group. I would like to ask all the antenna Guru's in the group for their input regarding replacing a Hustler G6-440 Ant. with a "Stationmaster" Ant. on a friends repeater. No,It's not that simple a question. Here's where it gets "involved". A friend of mine recently put up a repeater operating near 444.0 Mhz. using a Hustler G6-440 ant.(It was all that was "quickly" available before the temperatures and the snow started falling here in the Midwest)While the Hustler seems to be performing O.K., He would really like to get a better antenna for the system. A gentlemen has offered to sell him a "Stationmaster" at a reasonable price for his repeater,BUT,the Stationmaster is from a Commercial repeater operating on 454.XXX Mhz. There was no label on the antenna to ascertain the true frequency it was "cut" for. From what I've been able to "piece" together (based on comments from the seller, and old Phelps-Dodge & Celwave catalogs) The antenna is a PD-400 7.5dBd Stationmaster in the 450-460 range. I did try the antenna in the 444-445Mhz region, in an "RF Clear" space, and it does present a good load to another transmitter. 50W FWD / abt. 250-300mw REF.(on Bird & Telewave wattmeters) My concern is that with the antenna operating almost 10Megs. away from what I assume to have been its "center" freq. in the Commercial range (455Mhz.) that the "Pattern" will be so distorted or skewed, any gain advantage the Stationmaster may have had over the G6 will almost be lost...Being that far away from "Center" I'm almost certain will result in way more than a 2-3 degree downtilt.Maybe??? So I guess the real question to all the Gurus is, Does he consider replacing the Hustler with "this" PD-400, or "Keep Looking"... Why???...Please no Hustler "bashing"...I completely realize that the Stationmaster would NORMALLY outlast, outperform, and in general be the "Choice of Pros", IF the Stationmaster was cut for the Amateur range which is is not in this case. ANY constructive input regarding this decision would be greatly appreciated, Thanks in advance... Carl KA9GPX
