Hello all,
I am just starting to get myself into Ham Radio. I am finding
studying Morse very hard, but I really want the general license, so
I'm sticking to it.

My questions to you guys today regard antennas. I would like to have
some antennas mounted on my house roof. I live in North Vancouver,
BC, Canada, if that helps any in giving suggestions. I am curious
about what antenna is used for which frequency. I would like to be
able to transmit on the HF and VHF bands. Apparently there is
something about a 10-meter band, a 15-meter band, etc. Why are they
called meter bands? Is that like an electric "meter" or something, or
is that like the "metre" unit of distance measurement? If it is the
metre of distance, do the numbers represent how high the antenna has
to be, or how long, or what? There is no way I can have a 60 metre
antenna on my roof! Perhaps they could be coiled up or something?
Can one antenna transmit on a broad range of frequencies? How much
should I expect to pay?

Second question, with hand held 2-way radios, in North Vancouver, the
range is limited because of the hilliness. I literally live on a
mountain, and there are forests and valleys everywhere. My house is
on a bit of a hill, and standing on my balcony I can receive and
transmit very well over a good range (2-3 miles). On ground level in
the same home I can get 1 mile at most. In the basement I can get 0.5
miles. What I want to do is to stick my antenna (from the BPR-40, Mag
One by Motorola) up high on my house, and then transfer the signal,
via wire, down to my room or even the basement. The threading seems
pretty standard on the radio, but is doing this possible? Would it
screw up the "meter" of the antenna? How could I transfer the signal
without messing up the "meter"? I would like to transfer the signal a
minimum of 50 feet.

Thanks,

fogus

"fogus" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello all,
I am just starting to get myself into Ham Radio. I am finding
studying Morse very hard, but I really want the general license, so
I'm sticking to it.

My questions to you guys today regard antennas. I would like to have
some antennas mounted on my house roof. I live in North Vancouver,
BC, Canada, if that helps any in giving suggestions. I am curious
about what antenna is used for which frequency. I would like to be
able to transmit on the HF and VHF bands. Apparently there is
something about a 10-meter band, a 15-meter band, etc. Why are they
called meter bands? Is that like an electric "meter" or something, or
is that like the "metre" unit of distance measurement? If it is the
metre of distance, do the numbers represent how high the antenna has
to be, or how long, or what? There is no way I can have a 60 metre
antenna on my roof! Perhaps they could be coiled up or something?
Can one antenna transmit on a broad range of frequencies? How much
should I expect to pay?

Second question, with hand held 2-way radios, in North Vancouver, the
range is limited because of the hilliness. I literally live on a
mountain, and there are forests and valleys everywhere. My house is
on a bit of a hill, and standing on my balcony I can receive and
transmit very well over a good range (2-3 miles). On ground level in
the same home I can get 1 mile at most. In the basement I can get 0.5
miles. What I want to do is to stick my antenna (from the BPR-40, Mag
One by Motorola) up high on my house, and then transfer the signal,
via wire, down to my room or even the basement. The threading seems
pretty standard on the radio, but is doing this possible? Would it
screw up the "meter" of the antenna? How could I transfer the signal
without messing up the "meter"? I would like to transfer the signal a
minimum of 50 feet.

Thanks,

fogus


METERS
The term "wavelength" is left over from the early days of radio. Back then,
frequencies were measured in terms of the distance between the peaks of two
consecutive cycles of a radio wave instead of the number of cycles per
second. Even though radio waves are invisible, there is a measurable
distance between the cycles of electromagnetic fields making up a radio
wave. The distance between the peaks of two consecutive cycles is measured
in meters. The relationship between a radio signal's frequency and its
wavelength in meters can be found by the following formula:

wavelength = 300 / frequency in MHz

Certain segments of the shortwave bands are referred to in terms of "meter
bands" as a convenient form of shorthand. For example, the term "10-meter
band" is used to refer to the ham radio band that extends from 28000 to
29700 kHz.



Muliband antennas are common. For example, the Cushcraft R8 overs
6,10,12,15,17,20,30,40 meters

The GAP Titan DX antenna covers 10m 12m 15m 17m 20m 30m 40m and 100 KHz on
80m Using a tuner and a long wire -- just about all the bands can be
covered.

SGC makes a tuner that will cover 1.0 to 60 MHz with antenna lengths of
Minimum lengths: 8 feet(3.3 to 60 MHz)
23 feet(1.0 to 60 MHz)

For your VHF antenna use low loss coax (50 Ohm) rated low loss at the
frequency you are operating at.

P.S. A long transmission line "does not mess up the meter" as you wrote.



I have run 100 feet of coax in an installation without a problem

Hope this helps

Good Luck

Lamont

Hey, thanks Lamont! That helps a lot. Wavelength being the meters,
the number 300 coming from the speed of light in thousands of
kilometers (right?).

Just one question though: When I look at my walki-talki's antenna,
when I unscrew it, there is just a single threaded piece of metal, not
two cables. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't attaching a cable
to this threaded piece of metal change its receiving and transmitting
characteristics? What is behind this antenna plastic in my hand
held? A spring like structure? Doesn't the antenna need to push and
pull the electrons? How can it do that if there is only an entrance?
I'm kind of confused about this antenna design stuff. Is there a
paper online where I can read about it?

Are you saying that if I bought a spare antenna for my radio, put it
above my house, and ran a single wire (within the coax shieldings, of
course, but essentially a single conductor) to my radio, that it would
work, perhaps even better than inside my basement? That would be
great.

Wouldent there be a major hurdle in setting up a repeater station, if
there were only one between two radios? I thought a repeater had to
receive on a different frequancy than it transmitted on.

Thanks for those model numbers, BTW, that helps emensly. Would those
work attached to a hand held, or would I need an appropriately powered
transmitter? I will look those up soon.

Sorry, that was actually a lot of questions.
thanks again
fogus

"fogus" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey, thanks Lamont! That helps a lot. Wavelength being the meters,
the number 300 coming from the speed of light in thousands of
kilometers (right?).
Yep

Just one question though: When I look at my walki-talki's antenna,
when I unscrew it, there is just a single threaded piece of metal, not
two cables. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't attaching a cable
to this threaded piece of metal change its receiving and transmitting
characteristics? What is behind this antenna plastic in my hand
held? A spring like structure? Doesn't the antenna need to push and
pull the electrons? How can it do that if there is only an entrance?
I'm kind of confused about this antenna design stuff. Is there a
paper online where I can read about it?

Without knowing what Handie Talkie you are using, but in general you need an
adapter from the HT that mates with 50 -ohm coax. Your local Ham dealer
should have the adapter. My guess it would be an SMA to SO-239 adapter.

See URL:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SMA-Male-to-UHF-...QQcmdZViewItem


Are you saying that if I bought a spare antenna for my radio, put it
above my house, and ran a single wire (within the coax shieldings, of
course, but essentially a single conductor) to my radio, that it would
work, perhaps even better than inside my basement? That would be
great.

No you need both the center conductor of the coax and the shield to connect
to the radio.

Wouldent there be a major hurdle in setting up a repeater station, if
there were only one between two radios? I thought a repeater had to
receive on a different frequancy than it transmitted on.

A repeater does operate on two different frequencies, but the key to a
repeater is a duplexer operating into a single antenna -- see repeater block
diagram at URL:
http://www.hamuniverse.com/repeater.html

Not a simple matter however, a repeater needs a controller, timer, IDer and
quite a bit more. And they are expensive to buy or build.



Thanks for those model numbers, BTW, that helps emensly. Would those
work attached to a hand held, or would I need an appropriately powered
transmitter? I will look those up soon.

Well most handhelds are VHF/UHF only. When you are talking about 160M thru
10M, a different radio is needed -- maybe like the Yaesu FT-817ND
URL:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamhf/1817.html

Sorry, that was actually a lot of questions.
thanks again
fogus


Do you have a Ham Store nearby - take in your HT and see what they
recommend.

Lamont