Excellent advice, and thank you. We are experimenting with unity gain, 3dB, 6dB, and 9dB. The results have been quite interesting. Using three separate radios at the same location and "manual voting" we can hear that at one moment unity gain is better, while at another one of the other antennas is better. We'll go for the best all around solution or maybe even two receivers, two antennas and voting. But there is a reason that the Forest Service uses unity gain -- it gets down into the canyons.
Thanks again for the exellent guidance. --- In [email protected], "Joe Burkleo" <joeburk...@...> wrote: > > Bob, > I think I have to agree with Kevin on this one. > > Do yourself a big favor and invest in a piece of heliax, before you > spend money on a preamp. It is a much better investment. > > I use heliax, even if the run to the antenna is only 20'. > > I also use 1/4" superflex for cabling between the duplexer and radios. > Get rid of any adapters used in the antenna leads, they often times > can be a source of loss. > > As sensitive as those radios are, a high gain preamp may not be your > best friend, as they may very well put the front end of the radio into > saturation with a weak signal. I think about a 10 db overall gain is > about as much as you want to shoot for. If you go with a ARR or angle > linear preamp, a 6 - 10 db pad on the output of the preamp may be your > best friend. > > Chip at Angle Linear offers a very good price to amateurs, only about > $20 more than a ARR and well worth every penny. > > I think you have a pretty good combo going for what you are wanting to > accomplish. If your coverage area is pretty close to the repeater, > then a antenna with a lower angle of radiation may work better for > you. In that situation, don't be surprised if the lower gain antenna > provides better coverage for your close in users than a high gain > antenna. > > Good Luck, > Joe - WA7JAW > --- In [email protected], "Bob Ricci" <bob@> wrote: > > > > An Angle Linear is on the list, but out of the budget at the moment. > > >
