Print

[KN4OKX]

I need a decent antenna to put outside our home to pick up a repeater across town (probably 10 miles), what would you recommend please? Cheaper is better and cannot be ugly so the wife doesn’t complain!

[K6SDW]

"Ugly" is in the eye of the beholder, just ask my XYL... I assume you're talking about VHF or UHF bands, then I would look at the J-Pole design, lots of different models to choose from including a home-made antenna using a pie tin...can't get much cheaper than that. Or, really cheap is the infamous coat hanger ground plane using a SO239 connector - over the years I've made them, and they do work, but definitely ugly.

Not cheaper, but a small Yagi (vertically polarized) would work better if you're having trouble hitting the repeater 10 miles away.

GL/73

[K1KIM]

I hit the local repeater 12 miles away with an HT on my desk with a 19" antenna and 1.5 watts.
Full quieting.

Stick whatever antenna you want in your attic if possible (within space constraints etc) unless you have a metal roof.

Then it can be as ugly as you want.

[G4AON]

I am on my second Diamond X50N, they are general purpose dual band (2m/70cm), white fibreglass, lightweight and around 5 foot long. Not too “flashy”, but big enough to be useful.

My first one lasted many years and was only replaced due to the fibreglass fading, when cut open it was perfect, no corrosion. There was nothing wrong with the old one.

73 Dave

[WA3SKN]

12 miles? FM repeater.
Vertical dipole.  19 inches on a side and fed direct with coax.  Should be about 1.5:1 VSWR without adjustment, angling one leg about 40-50 degrees should get about 1:1. Think "rabbit ears".
Higher is better.

-Mike.

[WB6BYU]

You will need to do your own assessment of what your wife
will complain about, but just about any simple antenna
mounted at the height of your eaves should do the job.

Sometimes it is easier to mount it on a mast / pole against
the side of the house than actually attaching the antenna
to the roof.  If you have a tall enough ladder, you can mount
it under the eaves, where it will be much less visible if that
is an issue.

One of the simplest antennas that works well is a ground plane.
Commonly they are built on a chassis-mount coax fitting with
4 sloping radials, but two will work if you need to keep it flat.
I used a 2-radial ground plane for 440 hanging on my office
window for several years, and could cover much of the county
with it.  (That will depend on your elevation and the size and
terrain of your county, of course.)  They are cheap enough that
I keep several on hand and consider them expendable.

The traditional copper-pipe J-pole is a bit more obtrusive, but
you can use smaller materials (like #14 house wire) and stick
it inside a piece of PVC pipe, which at least hides the more
irregular features.

Mobile antennas can also be mounted on the roof, and may be
a reasonable solution if bulding antennas isn't a good option for
you.  Again, they can be mounted upside down under the eaves
(using horizontal wire radials as needed in place of the car body).

I've had good luck in the past with 1/2 wave verticals for 2m made
from a 36" mag-mount CB whip, if you can find one cheap at a
garage sale.  Takes a bit more adjustment to get the right matching
circuit in place of the loading coil, but gives you a single thin element
rather than a fatter pipe or fiberglass tube.


I'd also recommend considering the attic if it is accessible.  My current
antenna is a vertical dipole in an inaccessible part of the attic, that I
installed by drilling a hole in the ceiling of a closet, right inside the
door, and sticking it up through the insulation.  It is totally invisible
unless I walk into the closet, turn around, and look up.  Hanging
a conventional ground plane in the attic usually is pretty simple.
I have a big commercial one with one radial broken off, so I mounted
it flat against the attic wall.  One thing to watch for is trying to
pass a signal through a stucco wall - stucco contains a layer of wire
mess like chicken wire.  A quick check would be to take your HT
into the attic and check coverage to the desired repeater.

[KN4OKX]

I do have a Comet SBB5 antenna with a magnetic mount for a car… I have used it on a cookie sheet with success but then we lost a closer repeater and I can only receive from the repeater not transmit to it.  It is sitting in my office currently and maybe I should put it outside the window and try it there.  There is a literal mountain between me and the repeater - we live near the top of the mountain but it’s probably 30 ft to clear it (guessing)… My radio is a Yaesu FTM-400XDR I bought intending to put in my car and never did so I bought a power supply and hooked it up in my office at the front of the house (closest to the top of the mountain). 

[AE0Q]

Build a ground plane antenna and put it in the attic :-)

https://www.hamuniverse.com/2metergp.html

I used one for years with a 25w radio to connect with space orbiting satellites and worked the MIR space station many times.  Local repeaters, no problem.

[N5CM]

The ground plane is a good choice.  I built mine with an SO-239 and AWG #12 solid copper wire.

I used needle-nose pliers to put a small loop at the top of the vertical radiator so that I can run a non-conductive support line through the loop and hang the antenna from a nail or a limb or whatever.

These antennas work well.

[K5LXP]

Before you get all wound up installing an antenna somewhere, it would pay to try it in the proposed location to see if you can make the trip with the repeater.  If geography precludes the path, then you'd be setting it up for nothing (or at least that goal would be a bust).  Doesn't take a lot to take a given antenna into an attic, up on a roof or on a painter pole out in the yard hooked to an HT to try the path.  If it's marginal then something with gain can be considered.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM

[W3SLK]

I built a 'J-pole' out of 1/4" stainless steel tubing that was the bees knees on 2M. Unfortunately it got destroyed during one of my moves.

[WB6BYU]

Before you get all wound up installing an antenna somewhere, it would pay to try it in the proposed location to see if you can make the trip with the repeater...

This is particularly important when you don't have a direct
path to the repeater.  You may find that the strongest signal
is actually a reflection from a different direction than you
thought.  Or you may have signals reaching you via multiple
paths, in which case small changes in the antenna position
can have a big impact on signal strength.  And, because
that effect varies with frequency, it may be different for
the transmit and receive paths, so you may have to experiment
to find a compromise that works for both.

In that case, I generally start with a cheap, simple antenna,
or possibly a beam made by sticking wires through a piece
of wood or PVC pipe:  cheap and simple.  I use that to
experiment to find a good location and see if the antenna is
adequate, or if I need more gain, then I can choose a more
permanent antenna for the final installation.

[W1MOW]

I have had good luck with the Ed Fong J-Pole antenna's. (https://edsantennas.weebly.com/) I currently have 2 in use, and have purchased 4 more for EOC use. You can also paint them with Krylon plastic paint. Painting them may make them more acceptable to the XYL..

Gary W1MOW

[VE7RF]

The ground plane is a good choice.  I built mine with an SO-239 and AWG #12 solid copper wire.

I used needle-nose pliers to put a small loop at the top of the vertical radiator so that I can run a non-conductive support line through the loop and hang the antenna from a nail or a limb or whatever.

These antennas work well.

Very slick idea !  Never even thought of the loop at the top concept.  That would be a 'simple' way to get the HB  GP way up high, via some rope, etc, over a tree branch.

[K5LXP]

The 450 ohm twinlead Jpole I take camping has a hole in the end I can use with paracord to haul it up trees and hang from convenient supports.  No groundplane wires to snag on anything going up or down.  Being able to get 75 feet or more up into a ponderosa pine gives me great line of sight in remote areas.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM