I just ordered a 70 cm and 2 meter turnstile antenna set from Vinnant. I plan on setting up an omnidirectional station. I keep reading that the antennas should be 2 wavelengths above ground. That would be about 4 1/2 feet and 13 1/2 feet. I live in an established residential neighborhood with houses and trees all around. So ground mounting the 70cm antenna at 4 1/2 feet is not going to be a good location.
I currently have an omnidirectional vertical triband antenna that I use for a APRS SatGate where the bottom of the 11 ft antenna is at about 14 ft and that does pretty good.
So if I mount the antennas to the side of the house (1 story and so are all the other houses) so the antennas are above the roof line what would be a good height for the antennas ?
As Jan said, height above ground is mostly used to optimize the takeoff angle on HF (1-30MHz), for VHF and UHF it’s clear line of sight that makes most sense.
Having the antennas sticking up above the roof level is a good idea, I use it on my RX antennas, unfortunately they’re lower than the main building but that roof is already housing beams for transmitting.
It’s also about keeping a good distance to noise and there’s a lot of that in out modern houses, keeping the antennas far away from these is a very good idea.
Perhaps a bit hard to see, but these are the RX antennas I currently have up and running:
Vinnant VHF, own QFH UHF, Diamond X-50N, survey GPS
