home made 2m ground plane, is it worth it to build a 5/8 wave instead of 1/4 wave?

[mr_fx]

home made 2m ground plane, is it worth it to build a 5/8 wave instead of 1/4 wave?

I mean is the gain really going to be that awesome? I plane to out this thing pretty high in the air, thinking 80-90ft in the air in my huge Oak tree in the back yard...

but is the extra headache and design challenges worth it? I mean in my mobile I use a 1/4 wave mag mount and a 5 watt HT, it gets me out a solid 40 miles into the repeater and I can receiver the repeater (but not key it) almost 60 miles out...

I have enough scrap laying around to build a 1/4 wave, but I would need a lot of extra stuff be build a 5/8 wave... just trying to justify it

unless some one have a simple way to match a 5/8 wave that I can do with stuff out of the scrap parts bins

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Don't bother, it;s not worth the effort unless you think less than half an S-unit is worth it. Besides since you will be working FM you will NEVER see the difference. The lower angle of radiation will not hardly be noticed when working repeaters and in fact it is detrimental when working close in repeaters that are quite high.

BTW if you are mounting it 80-90 feet high be careful what you use for coaxial cable. Losses on 2m run quite high and height gains can be offset by transmission line losses unless a GOOD high quality cable is used. this is not the place for Radio Shack cable or anything less than RG-213 or LMR-400 and preferably LMR-600 if going over 125 foot run.

 

[WA8ZYT]

Agree with the Captain on this one.

When I worked at a Motorola shop about 10 years ago, we had done some experiments with 1/4 wave versus 5/8 wave. Found no difference at all. No S-Meters on commercial two way equipment, just your ears. And the ears heard no difference.

 

[Shockwave]

While I respect the knowledge of those who replied here, I have had a different experience comparing the 1/4 wave to a 5/8 wave on hi band. I also worked for a Motorola authorized service center that regularly used 1/4 wave whips for VHF hi band. They were fine if you managed to talk the customer into renting repeater space but in this area with rugged terrain, they sucked for point to point communication. Especially between two vehicles.

While the comparison between a 1/4 wave and the 1/2 wave is very close, the difference is often noticeable between 1/4 and 5/8 wave. When working mobiles, the 5/8 wave also cuts back on a significant amount of picket fencing interference while contacting a moving station. Switching out all the antennas to 5/8 waves made a good improvement in the vehicles being able to communicate with each other.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

While I respect the knowledge of those who replied here, I have had a different experience comparing the 1/4 wave to a 5/8 wave on hi band. I also worked for a Motorola authorized service center that regularly used 1/4 wave whips for VHF hi band. They were fine if you managed to talk the customer into renting repeater space but in this area with rugged terrain, they sucked for point to point communication. Especially between two vehicles.

While the comparison between a 1/4 wave and the 1/2 wave is very close, the difference is often noticeable between 1/4 and 5/8 wave. When working mobiles, the 5/8 wave also cuts back on a significant amount of picket fencing interference while contacting a moving station. Switching out all the antennas to 5/8 waves made a good improvement in the vehicles being able to communicate with each other.

I agree with a mobile scenario regarding the picket fencing however the OP was asking about a fixed base installation for working repeaters hence my answer was geared towards his specific question.