Just erected my Ringo ranger, have a few questions

[Turbo T]

I finally put my Ringo Ranger up today, after receiving it in this post: http://www.worldwidedx.com/amateur-...ked-up-what-i-told-ringo-ranger-2-meters.html

I have a few questions...

1. How high should I have this antenna mounted?

As of right now, the feed point is roughly 17 feet up from the ground. I current have this antenna mounted on an old satellite dish pole.

As it stands now, all of the antenna is up above the roof of my garage, except for the radial. I was able to get into a repeater that was 50 miles away on 10 watts of power.

2. What type of coax should I use with it?

As of now all I have is an 18 ft. piece of Barjan RG8X coax, the stuff you buy at truck stops. I know this probably isn't the best stuff. It's said to be 95% efficient at keeping signal loss down.

I'll post some pics of it later. Thanks in advance.

 

[Robb]

If you can hit a repeater 50 mi away; then I would say that height is working for you.

Coax for 2m is another matter. The longer the need for the coax is; the greater the quality and expense it will require. Coax that is inferior to the needs of 2m will see great loss on TX and RX as it gets longer. LMR-400 for runs up to 60 ft should be acceptable.

 

[office888]

If you can hit a repeater 50 mi away; then I would say that height is working for you.

Coax for 2m is another matter. The longer the need for the coax is; the greater the quality and expense it will require. Coax that is inferior to the needs of 2m will see great loss on TX and RX as it gets longer. LMR-400 for runs up to 60 ft should be acceptable.

I'd run LMR-400 out to 150 ft. The losses don't matter as much to me, because I don't run big amps on 2m.

 

[Robb]

Input Data:

Line Type: LMR-400
Line Length: 150 Feet
Frequency: 146 MHz
Load SWR: 1.2:1
Power In: 100W


Results:

Matched Loss: 2.245dB
SWR Loss: 0.023dB
Total Loss: 2.268dB
Power Out: 59.314W


You are losing almost 1 watt for every 2 watts you are putting in transmit, regardless if you use an amp or not with 150 ft of LMR-400.
Losing about 1/2 of an S-unit on receive - not too bad.
Using 100 ft would have 2/3 of these losses.
Using 50 ft will have 1/3 of these losses.

Check it out here if you want.
Just plug in the values:

Coax Calculator

Using coax with poorer specs/quality than the LMR-400 will have far greater losses @ 150 ft lengths.

 

[office888]

Losing about 1/2 of an S-unit on receive - not too bad.

That's exactly it.

I don't view losing 1/2 s-unit as such a big thing with 2m VHF-FM, because you're either in range, or you're not. You're not competing with atmospherics either.

LMR600 or Heliax just isn't worth the extra hassle and cost of both materials and tooling, while even then, you still have about a 1.5 dB loss.

Doubling expenses for 1/3 s-unit difference just isn't worth it to me. That's money for better antennas and new equipment right there.

 

[binrat]

213 would be good for short runs as well. What I have found for 2 metres is the more joints, connectors, adaptors the great the loss. That really tallies line loss fast.

 

[Turbo T]

LMR-400 is not flexible coax right?

Is there any coax that is as flexible as say RG8X but is low loss like LMR400?

What about LMR400UF?

 

[JoeDirt]

LMR-400 is not flexible coax right?

Is there any coax that is as flexible as say RG8X but is low loss like LMR400?

What about LMR400UF?

Its pretty stiff, LMR400UF is good stuff!

 

[Turbo T]

Which is better? 400 or 400UF?

 

[binrat]

Which is better? 400 or 400UF?

Pretty much the same.

 

[milkman21218]

LMR-400 is not flexible coax right?

Is there any coax that is as flexible as say RG8X but is low loss like LMR400?

What about LMR400UF?

There is also Davis Bury Flex. Remember you need the lower loss coax for VHF/UHF. And the Ringo Ranger 2's do work quite well. Your 2 meter antenna will work even better at 36 ft.

 

[Turbo T]

Thanks for the info. I definitely want to get my antenna up another 10-15 ft. As long as someone doesn't complain (I live in govt. housing on a military installation) I should be fine.

I just made a special trip to the ham radio shop and picked up 50 ft of LMR-400UF.

Also I happen to have one of these Skythumper lightning arrestors sitting in my tool box from my CB days.....

Lightning Arrestor - SparkysCBShack.com

I have considered using it since I happen to already have it. Unless there a better one on the market.

It has two places to mount a ground wire to on the side. I figure use some good copper wire and drive a ground state into the earth. What do you think?

Thanks in advance.

 

[milkman21218]

Thanks for the info. I definitely want to get my antenna up another 10-15 ft. As long as someone doesn't complain (I live in govt. housing on a military installation) I should be fine.

I just made a special trip to the ham radio shop and picked up 50 ft of LMR-400UF.

Also I happen to have one of these Skythumper lightning arrestors sitting in my tool box from my CB days.....

Lightning Arrestor - SparkysCBShack.com

I have considered using it since I happen to already have it. Unless there a better one on the market.

It has two places to mount a ground wire to on the side. I figure use some good copper wire and drive a ground state into the earth. What do you think?

Thanks in advance.

The coax is Excellent! There are much better Lightning Arresters. Such as Poly Phasers. And the Copper stake is GREAT to use. If you can pour some ROCK SALT under the soil before driving the ground stake. Good Luck!

 

[Turbo T]

Do you think the Skythumper will get me by? or chuck it?

 

[milkman21218]

Do you think the Skythumper will get me by? or chuck it?

I can't really say. As for me I'd just run the grounded copper stake. It's just like the ground on your truck. Everyone is going to say what they think.