[TowerTalk] Help

[Ron W8RJL]

Arnie,

A J-Pole antenna is a 1/2 wave antenna. A mobile mag mount could be 1/4 (not 
usually) , or a 1/2 wave or a 5/8 wave (probably). A 5/8 wave vertical 
antenna has more gain in the horizontal than does a half wave. I'm not 
saying that is the difference you are experiencing but it could be. Also, 
you did not say how far away the repeaters are located at you son's area or 
how high the repeater receive antenna is. Are you quite a ways from the 
repeaters, was the antenna at your son's house in a dead spot (where a 
direct wave and a reflected wave cancel each other out)? Did you use the 
same length and type coax at both locations? How long and what type coax are 
you using at your son's house? One final and important question, did you 
check the SWR at or near the antenna or did you check it at the transceiver 
end of the coax? I know that is a lot of questions but we need more info 
because it sounds like your antenna.  73, Ron W8RJL




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arnie Pfingst" <arnie123 at hotmail.com>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2016 6:41 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Help


> I'm helping my son in law on the air. He has his gen ticket, he just 
> bought a Yaesu ft 8800 (Vhf/Uhf). Because dollars are tight we decided to 
> build a j pole antenna until he can afford a better antenna. We built it 
> using 1/2 inch copper. Here at my house about 4 feet off the ground, using 
> a bird 4410 meter, and his radio, swr shows about 1.2:1 on vhf and about 
> 1.5:1 on 70cm. We can get into repeaters from all over. Great huh? When I 
> took it to his house we couldn't access any repeater. I checked the swr 
> again and nothing changed. I tried different coax, different location, 
> higher up (up to 12 feet). Elevation made a little difference but nothing 
> to write home about. A Comet mobil antenna performed better then the j 
> pole.Any ideas?Thanks
>
>
> Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S®6 active, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
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