[VHFcontesting] 2m FM LNAs?

[Mark Spencer]

I'd be curious in hearing from others about their experiences with LNA's for 2M.  I use a 144 MHz SSB mast mounted pre amp at my home station and it makes a modest difference for weak signal work.  

   I rarely bother with pre amps when roving on 144 MHz.   On the other hand over the decades I have gotten a lot of use out of preamps on 432 and 1296 MHz (for weak signal, roving, FM, AMSAT and repeater station applications.)  The few times I have roved on 432 MHz without a preamp I have missed having it.

Other than the pre amp built into one of my 222 MHz power amplifiers I have no experience with pre amps on that band.

73

Mark S
VE7AFZ

mark at alignedsolutions.com
604 762 4099

> On Dec 12, 2019, at 4:06 PM, John Young via VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 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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