2M Antenna Recommendations?
- Thread starter Dave Bennett
- Start date
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
What limitations are you thinking? The FTM-350 has some design noggin scratchers (still, I've been very happy with mine since replacing a FT-1500+Tinytrak and a FT-8800 with it) but the TM-D710 is a mature radio and TNC.
4RunAmok
Explorer
What limitations? In order for the radio to support APRS you have to dedicate one of your tuners to the APRS frequency. This would mean that I can't listen and talk on my trail channel at the same time I listen to the forest service or BLM or Cal Fire on the other tuner. It will be busy with the APRS send/receive.
Whereas this unit here: http://www.byonics.com/mt-rtg will take care of your APRS position without you having to give up a tuner.
Whereas this unit here: http://www.byonics.com/mt-rtg will take care of your APRS position without you having to give up a tuner.
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
I had the dedicated APRS beacon and a dual RX mobile, just a lot of wires and clutter for what I did not find super useful. I went to a FTM-350 which in beaconing mode is like having a FT-7900, the RTG and a NOAA WX alert radio in one box, one antenna. A lot less clutter. When I find I want or need to monitor USFS or public service, I can bring a scanner and use the extra NMO on the roof. This has an advantage of being able to follow talk groups and demodulate APCO and P25. Some are able to cover very wide ranges from 11m CB up to 1300MHz public service, just can't talk on CB with it but for monitoring trail chatter it's fine.
1911
Expedition Leader
I really like my Kenwood DM-710A for the same reasons. One side dedicated to APRS and the other side for trail commo, repeaters, Wx, or whatever. It's easy enough to switch back and forth between those by just pushing a single button. Personally, I never monitor USFS, fire, or other public service frequencies unless I happen to know there is some actual emergency in progress.
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
One side of the radio set up for general use and the other side is an APRS radio. It sends a position periodically from the internal GPS. It's essentially a RTG with a couple of differences - listens for other stations before transmitting, gives a station list of heard stations, does APRS messaging, feeds APRS data as GPS waypoints to the serial port, etc.
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
It's not a disagreement, it's different uses. I have a dual band, dual tuner radio so that I can have one side be an APRS radio and the other side a voice radio. The FT-8800 could listen on APRS but I could not simultaneously talk and do APRS TX. Your requirements are for one side to be a ham two-way and the other a general use receiver. We each end up with a second physical radio to fulfill the 3rd, lower priority, need.
I've used my truck to chase balloon launches which requires many stations to report and know other's locations. So having the Nuvi 350 with topo maps and letting the radio deal with voice & data diplexing is handy. My old set-up with a second radio was clumsy and a mess in my cramped cab, plus I was having front end interference with two radios transmitting so close in frequency. With the APRS radio set to anything higher than low power, the beacon would wipe out my voice radio RX, so long term that was going to blow out one or both radios' receivers. A lot of times the balloon drift way out on the plains, so the APRS beacons often need to be at high power for coverage.
I needed some sort of isolation and by far the easiest way to achieve this was using a FTM-350, TM-D710 as they are designed specifically to handle this by internally blanking the voice side during an APRS transmit. Otherwise I would have had to add a notch filter to one radio and a bandpass on the other, a difficult task to achieve when the separation frequency was 1MHz and the attentuation has to be 40dB or more. I would have had to essentially build a repeater cavity duplexer in my truck, which is not simple.
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1911
Expedition Leader
+1
You don't have to use one side of an FTM-350 or TM-D710 for APRS, but you have the option of it since they both have a TNC built-in the radio. Everyone gets to use their own dual-band radio for whatever two things they want; choice is good and more choices are better.
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Good point Lee. Your b-side when it's not used for APRS works the same as a FT-8800 or anything else. If you use Dual Watch it might even do all three things at once, although I haven't tried anything like this.
+1 on that as well - I am a new HAM running a FTM350AR - running APRS on one side when I feel like it... it's kind of cool...
works lickity split! Great rig - CRAPPY manuals!
works lickity split! Great rig - CRAPPY manuals!
A good 2M stick is a J Pole, for you homebrew types. Mount it on a heavy spring base, you won't bash it off. The instructions are online and can be cut for different freqs. I have used mine for the station on a tower and for mobile use with my Icom 706. Cheap, very efficient over 40db, I also like the 5/8 wave GP.
The J Pole is odd looking and if you make a nice one, people will still wonder "what the heck is that?????"
I was going to put a model airplane propeller on the top so it would spin and tell people it was my Ion Generator....:Wow1:
The J Pole is odd looking and if you make a nice one, people will still wonder "what the heck is that?????"
I was going to put a model airplane propeller on the top so it would spin and tell people it was my Ion Generator....:Wow1:
Tennmogger
Explorer
Ozarker, you might want to verify that 40 db gain figure LOL. Typo, no doubt.
Bob WB4ETT
Bob WB4ETT