[VHFcontesting] 2m FM LNAs?

[nosigma at aol.com]

ARR no longer sells mast mounted LNAs.  I called them last week and I was told they dropped the product line due to high cost and low sales. 

 I had a SSB 432 mast mounted pre amp that I stupidly shorted out, destroyed and can't get fixed without sending it to Germany.  I cant find anything of similar quality to ARR or SSB to replace it with.  There is a gentleman selling a 2M ICOM (Quality) used pre amp at a ridiculously low price but it pulls power from the center conductor (bias T required) and needs a sequencer  to switch off power before transmit unless you have the right ICOM radio (910H I think) to do that automatically.  

I run LMR-400 with under a dB loss and 1.1 to 1.3 VSWR.  My 991A benefitted greatly from the SSB 432 pre amp but the  SSB 2M pre amp did nothing for me.  I have a 432 reciever sensitivity problem, 144 performance is awesome.  I suggest you look at 2M cable loss and connector loss before getting a $400 pre amp.  After you minimize losses if you still have problems maybe you do need a pre amp


What radio are you using, what cable are you using, what connectors are you using and how long are your feed lines?

If you want I will sell you my SSB SP 200 100W pass through RF sensing 2m pre amp at $300 to help offset my cost of buying a new SP70.  It's been used for just 3hrs last January, though I suggest you minimize all losses first, that is a lot cheaper.

73
John
KM4KMU 
On Thursday, December 12, 2019 Al Wells <kb3sig at gmail.com> wrote:
A lot of the FM & repeater guys use Ar² LNA's.

http://www.advancedreceiver.com/

Al KB3SIG

On 12/11/2019 9:58 PM, Gregory Winters wrote:
> I'd like to enhance 2m simplex abilities and pull in weaker SOTA activators. Often times they hear me but I do not hear them. Increasing my antenna capability would help (of course). But I can't run a beam mobile.
>
> I'm looking for a reasonable LNA to pull out these weaker ones on 146.52, etc. But many of the LNAs I see are for the SSB side of things.
>
> Is there a LNA that I could use for FM?
>
> Ideally I'd be able to use it mobile too. I run 65w on a 5/8s whip, seemingly everyone hears me, but I struggle to hear some of them. The Kenwood 2m mobile has an awful NF I guess, so I am hoping a LNA can help that.
>
> Ideas?
>
> Greg, K3RW
> CN85ro
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