Which way to go? 403-470 or 450-520 antenna?

[Wicho]

Let's say I'm using 460 as my TX/RX frequency. Am I better off using a 403-470 one or a 450-520 one? Or...will both work the same even though one will be working on its high end and the other on its low end?

[Rayjk110]

It shouldn't matter a great deal. If you're a ham on here (like most members are) the 403-470 would be a bit more beneficial if you decide to load up the radio with 440 stuff....

If not, (and if you have both at hand) check the SWR and see which one gives better performance.

[Cowboy]

Let's say I'm using 460 as my TX/RX frequency. Am I better off using a 403-470 one or a 450-520 one? Or...will both work the same even though one will be working on its high end and the other on its low end?

Do you intend to use anything below 460, i.e. 430-450 ham band or anything north of 470, i.e. T-Band?

Also depends on the antenna specs - for instance, your collinears may not be spec'd for 1.5:1 for more than a few MHz, however, your broadband quarterwave might be flat for 10-30 MHz...

[Wicho]

Nope, nothing south of 460 or north of 470 on this radio.

Thanks for the info on collinears and broadbands.

[Cowboy]

Nope, nothing south of 460 or north of 470 on this radio.

Thanks for the info on collinears and broadbands.

In that case, I would lean more towards the 450-512 antenna... Depending upon design, it will likely tune better on the middle of this split rather than the high end of a 403-470 antenna...

Typically the 450-512 antenna will be more commonly available (assuming you're in the US); the 403-470 antenna is more attractive to the amateur radio market but demand usually isn't high enough to get the pricing in the same range as commercial LMR.

[jehiatt]

Which ever one uses the longer rod at your freq will be slightly better than one with a shorter rod as long as you can get the swr to zero on tx.

[AEC]

As a rule of thumb, you get a wider band width from a longer antenna than a shorter one, and usually a better match across the band as well.

Remember this also; as the bandwidth widens, gain decreases, so anybody touting 30+ Mhz of bandwidth AND 3, 5 or more dB of gain on top of it are full of crap.

There is no free lunch here, you can't get 'gain' AND bandwidth, something MUST suffer for the other as a trade-off.