Passed my Technician exam last week

[madlabs]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

That might actually work better. How far are you able to reach on simplex?

Well, there is a repeater almost 90-100 miles from me that I can hit with 15 watts quite nicely. But it is at 7200 feet. If you have line of sight the high gain antenna doesn't matter as much because your signal wants to make it there and has only atmospheric attenuation to deal with.

Where I find the high gain antenna shines is when you don't have a direct line of sight and are relying on scatter. Then the gain and radiation pattern seem to really help. If you are really bored, look up Albion, Fort Bragg and Willits in CA. My QTH is in Albion. A quick glance at google earth shows that I have no line of sight with either of those towns. The GP-9 gets me into those towns when the J-POLE wouldn't. I'm sure the Tram would too. Mind you, the stations I can hit are also good stations with good gear or in good locations. It's not like I can talk to anyone on a HT in those areas, but still.

So the measure of a good 2M antenna isn't really about how far away you can hit a line of sight repeater but how good your overall penetration power is, IMHO. I get great coverage of my area.

As to weatherproofing I am a belt and suspenders kinda guy. While the GP-9 needs no weather proofing I do anyway. Most folks don't and they don't run into any problems. I just can't help myself.

As to your jpole it probably just needs to be re-tuned or has a short in the coax or something. They pretty much have to work if correctly connected and tuned. Always good to have back up antennas so don't throw it out.