Home antenna recommendations

[WRYD530]

I’m looking to put up a home antenna. House is about 20ft plus I’d like to add 10 more to that plus antenna height. What’s a good antenna? Plus do I need to run a ground inside the pole and into the earth? Also probably looking at less than 30ft of cable since it won’t run all the way down pole to ground. I’m going to run it into upstairs bedroom to radio setup. What’s a good cable for that? 

[OffRoaderX]

I use the Tram 1486 because it is not very expensive, it's relatively high-gain, and it does not look like an alien spaceship on the roof. It was also easy to trim/tune - I got 1.01:1 SWR on the first try.

You should use good/decent coax, but do not listen to "some people" that will try to convince you that you MUST USE hardline or Heliax, or some other $45/ft coax. I am using LMR400, which is plenty "good enough".

You should ground both the mast and the coax (using a lighting suppressor type inline ground block), but i wont get into the details about how/what to ground them to as no doubt "some people" will be starting ongoing arguments over proper grounding techniques any minute now.

 

[WRYW415]

1 hour ago, OffRoaderX said:

I use the Tram 1486 because it is not very expensive, it's relatively high-gain, and it does not look like an alien spaceship on the roof. It was also easy to trim/tune - I got 1.01:1 SWR on the first try.

You should use good/decent coax, but do not listen to "some people" that will try to convince you that you MUST USE hardline or Heliax, or some other $45/ft coax. I am using LMR400, which is plenty "good enough".

You should ground both the mast and the coax (using a lighting suppressor type inline ground block), but i wont get into the details about how/what to ground them to as no doubt "some people" will be starting ongoing arguments over proper grounding techniques any minute now.

 

Yup. LMR400 is literally the best stuff you can buy for our frequencies aside from the hardline and high dollar stuff as far as loss.

[Borage257]

10 minutes ago, WRYW415 said:

Yup. LMR400 is literally the best stuff you can buy for our frequencies aside from the hardline and high dollar stuff as far as loss.

Kmr400 isn’t too bad either 

[WRYW415]

27 minutes ago, Borage257 said:

Kmr400 isn’t too bad either 

I know there is / was a 400 going around on Amazon that was terrible.

[WRUE951]

I'm using about 75' LMR 400 and very happy with it..  Although it does remind me of my younger years..   Stiff as Hell.  

[AdmiralCochrane]

I found some almost free LMR 600.  All I had to do was buy a crimper and ends.  About 75' of length will let me push my antenna another 10 ft higher than it is now. 

[SpeedSpeak2Me]

LMR400 is good, you can also get LMR400UF (Ultra Flex).  The 400UF is a little easier to work with since the center conductor is stranded, and has pretty much the same properties as regular LMR400 (see chart below), with only a slightly bit more attenuation, (which I doubt anyone will notice in the real world).

For antennas, most will know that I'm a big fan of the Browning base antennas.  I started with a Tram 6140 (a.ka. Browning 6140), and moved up to the BR-6155.  Just mount it and go, no tuning required.  During the day, over flat terrain I'm regularly hitting repeaters at 40+ miles with only 15w.  At night that extends out to 60-70 miles.  Antenna is only about 30-35' AGL, and is fed by 50' of ABR Industries LMR400UF.

The Laird base antennas (450-470 MHz) are also very good, though more expensive than what is effectively the same performance you get with the Browning.  Something to point out, check the connector on the antenna side.  Some UHF antennas with have a Type N (female) connector on it, not (UHF) SO-239. So you will need an adapter at one end or the other.