Hello Gentlemen - I used a pair of Ringo ranger II's some years ago and can possibly help with your decision - The Ringo has a very limited life at heights much greater than say maybe 50 feet - I have seen them on roof mounts and push up poles that were up for maybe 20 years and always worked fine according to their owners - however, at heights approaching 100 feet and greater they are beat to pieces in a few short years by Mother Nature - I am sure there will be exceptions due to environments but for the greater part they will come down either in pieces or to be replaced by a more commercial type antenna - Actually the same will hold true for the fibersticks - there is enough flex and movement in the amateur products that they also will generate noise from loose or stretched wires internally that they at best will only hold up at great heights for just a few years - the higher and harder it is to get to your antenna for maintenance the more chance it is going to need it sooner - Put up the best one the clubs finances can possible be stretched to and you will end up spending the least in the in the long term. And you will have the least repeater problems to aggravate your blood pressure. I might also draw more return fire by saying anything less than a DB-224 is going to cause you loss of sleep in years to come - just an old man's opinion. YMMV 73 and Gud Luk de NØATH, Dave
----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 11:30 PM Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Reasonably low wind load antenna At 6/23/2008 19:28, you wrote: >Folks > >We're moving a VHF amateur repeater to a 96' Trylon self supporting >tower. The overwhelming opinion is that our current 210C4 four bay folded >dipole would be too much of a weight and wind load for that tower. > >One comment has been the Ringo Ranger. In a word, yuk! > The wind load of the Cushcraft Ringo Ranger II ARX2B > http://cushcraft.com/comm/support/pdf/RINGOS%20AR2%206%2010%20ARX450%20220B%202B.pdf > > is 0.5 square feet. The windload of the Sinclar SD214 > http://www.sinclairtechnologies.com/catalog/resources/pdf/SD214-HF2P3LDF(D00S-LSABK)-DI.pdf > > (newer model to 210C4) is 5.57 square feet. Although the ice area is > 17.04 sq ft. The SD214 has a dbd gain of 7.2, dbi of 9.3. The Ringo > Ranger has dbi gain of 7.0. Inflated gain figure: the antenna isn't long enough to make that much gain. If you want low wind loading, you probably can't beat the Comet or Diamond antennas. Only problem is the high gain versions (GP9/X500HNA) are going to bend a lot in high winds. Haven't noticed a problem out here, but then again we don't often get winds > 50 MPH. Bob NO6B -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 8.0.100 / Virus Database: 270.4.1/1514 - Release Date: 6/23/2008 7:17 AM
