Hey all,

my name is danny,  from westchester NY.

I recently sold my townhouse where there was obviously strict regulations about antennas so I would use a slim jim roll up and an HT.

Im buying a house and would like to set up an actual base station.  Ive done some research and so far I think im going to go with a

Yaesu dual band mobile transceiver,
Powerwerx 30amp switching power supply.
Comet GP-9 antenna.

Now the two main questions I have for you guys.    Im having a hard time deciphering the diff types of coax for my antenna feed line.... any suggestions?

Secondly,  of course the darling wife does not want the antenna on the roof.  I dont necessarily disagree with her since the GP-9 is rather tall.....  I considered going to the GP-6 for its smaller height but all the reviews I have red say the GP-9 really out performs the GP-6.  

So that leaves me with looking at putting the antenna in a near by tree.     Are certain types of trees better than others to mount them in?   Also how do you mount them to the tree?  Im sure you need to maintain some sort of air gap between the antenna and the tree?

Thanks in advance
Danny

Your better off with the antenna by the house.
And for feeding the UHF/VHF antenna, LMR400. Buy once and cry once.

Show her a picture of a crank up tower with stacked arrays, then tell her about the beverage you want to string out in the back yard.
When she freaks, you can just say ok, how about this little one on the roof then.  

Have a dual band icom  with a gp-9 and have it fed with some rg8x.  Good coax is free Coax.  I mounted the gp9 on the chimney of the house, added a feedthru box on the chimney to run the coax thru the attic.  The higher the better..  I dont think you will have any probs with the coax as long as it is 50 ohm coax.   Uhf/Vhf will be seamless..   Have fun and give us a update..

Welcome!!  I grew up in Ulster County! I live in central VA now.

How long is the run going to be?  Less than 100' you should be fine with RG8x but LMR400 will be better.  I use this calculator a lot.  Don't get too hung up on loss yet.  It all depends on what you're trying to do.  If you just want to hit repeaters in the area, RG8x will probably do the job.  It just won't be as efficient. 

Also, I might consider editing your post to remove your callsign.  OPSEC and all that.  Assuming you made it here, you're probably as paranoid as the rest of us



edited for clarity

100' of RG-8x in the 440 range is going to have 8 dB of loss.  So your 50 watt radio is basically a 7 watt radio.  Now a high gain antenna can help, but why no just spend a couple more dollars on something such as an LMR400 (flex) type cable is about 3.2 dB of loss giving you 25 watts into the antenna.  Now if you can make the run shorter, even better.  At 50'  the LMR400 you have 1.6 dB of loss so resulting in 35 watts into the antenna.  The GP6 has 6.85 dBd of gain so you wind up with 167 watts effective radiated power (ERP).  100' of RG8x with the GP6 is 36 watts ERP.  50' is 94 watts ERP.   Now this is all based on 50 watts out.  Many dual band radios are 50 watts on 2m and 40-45 watts on 440.

The coax also impacts your ability to hear as it will also attenuate incoming RF just as much as it does the outgoing.

Bottom line, get the best coax you can for the job and use the shortest run you can.

Got a GP-9 here too. It's been up on the house for about 8 years. No problems. I did not even have to seal the coax connector because it's protected from rain at the antenna's feedpoint. It's fed with an equivalent of LMR400 coax, about 100 ft long.
Like others mentioned, don't save money on the coax. It's no big deal on HF but VHF/UHF requires quality, low loss coax to minimize losses.
I strongly suggest to install a static/lightning protector on the coax at the stop where it enters the house. Make sure to install at least one grounding rod as close to the protector as possible. I use Polyphase brand. They are about $60 a piece.

My personal rule of thumb is to use LMR-400 for VHF and UHF, and RG-8X for HF.

I would look at mounting your antenna on the house or on a mast near the house.   Trees are great to use for dipole supports, but VHF/UHF antennas require more work.  And, don't forget about proper grounding.

20 years ago, I had a nice shack but marriage, three moves and two kids have left it in pieces in boxes.  Now that my son is a ham, we're rebuilding the shack.  I put up a temporary 40M/20M/10M fan dipole I built last Saturday to work a special event station this week. My wife took one look at it, and was pretty cool about it, but understands its coming down in a couple of days.  My daughter cried, since she said it blocks her view.  Ah, the life of a ham

The art of the deal. 

My wife was cool when I told her that I wanted to spend $5,000 on a 70 ft. tower. She even said I need to install it next to the house but I insisted to move the shack and antennas to the back of the property to minimize RF noise.
She also bought me a new FTDX3000 for Christmas, several years ago.
I fail to comprehend how a nice Yagi can be ugly. What's wrong with people?

You really do want the best antenna you can get, those long winter months where you can't replace an antenna that isn't getting it done kinda suck...

Something to consider is that your expectations are going to change with the new things you can do with a base station, even on HF. You will end up trying to reach nets at farther and farther distances, try to catch regular rag chew guys that lunch commute just at the edge of your coverage area etc. The worst is meeting a regular ragchew buddy on the air that is juuuuust a bit too far away and you know your antenna could be better!

I've been using Tram fiberglass base antennas.  Seem to work well.  First one was the 17' 3-section model, and the flexing in the high wind one year caused a capacitor in the base to break a leg.  Put a smaller 2-section one up in the meantime.  This year I'll be putting the bigger one back up, and moving the smaller one to the other side of the house.

Another vote for LMR-400 type coax.  Doesn't have to be Times Microwave brand, as long as it's good quality.  I opted for the 400 Flex, so it's easier to work with.  Stranded center conductor instead of solid.

I have several Yaesu rigs, FT-7800, FT-7900, FT-2800, FT-2900, FT-1900, FT-2600, FT-8800, FT-60, FT-212RH, FT-727, VX-170, FT-897, FT-847.  Damn addictive hobbies.  Kinda like ARs, I suppose.  Figure out if you want to have a rig capable of cross band repeat and two VFO's before you decide on one.  That'll dictate the cost of it.