I hope the following information will help everybody who is planning to have a home base set up,
plus some tricks how to prevent your antenna from getting damaged
for information about 1/2 1/4 5/8 waves then please check out the following link as i found it a easy way to explain the difference between the antenna waves
http://webpages.charter.net/dundergroun ... echAnt.htm
tips & tricks:
when the hi-gain 1/2 & the 5/8 was out they was very popular you also had a choice which type of antenna you would like & with these antennas been flimsy & are able to bend & snap in wind i would suggest adding a cane from a garden centre & adding it inside of one of these antennas it should make it more stable in wind if a cane is unsuitable then maybe trying non conductive guy wires (eg fishing line),
for the antron 99 & the i-max 2000 i would suggest adding some clips around the joints as these types of antenna perform very well but they are also very poor for wind as these types of antennas unscrew on windy days
& with the tall sigma antenna these also performed well but with them been 28ft tall & was easy to snap in wind the only thing i can recommend is that you use non conductive guy wires (eg fishing line) all the way up the antenna to support it.
even the best mobile antennas can work as good as a home base antenna specially when the antenna is in the loft or on a pole on the side of the house & the most important part is making sure that your SWR is below 1.5
