Test Ed Fong Roll-up J-Pole
One of the few things I actually took home from Pacificon 2018 in San Ramon was an Ed Fong “DBJ-2” Dual-band Roll-up J-Pole for 2m/440. A vendor was asking me if I needed a cool base-station 2m antenna (DBJ-1), and I said I already had one set up. I recognized the seller’s nametag and said, “But I do know your name… Do you happen to have any of your famous Roll-up J-pole antennas?” He had only a couple more. I knew about this antenna from SOTA YouTubers KG6HQD Jerry and W6RIP Kevin, and wanted to try one since seeing Jerry throw one over a tree and blanket the whole Los Angeles basin with his VHF reach. In this video below, I demo hitting a repeater 45 miles away on 0.05w (50 milliwatts). No one gave me a signal report on that attempt, but I was able to get someone to confirm readability on another repeater 20 miles away on 0.05w, and “much clearer” on 1w. https://youtu.be/sW40nKJk1qo So when you hear people with stock antennas on Baofengs complaining they cannot hit repeaters with their “HP” 8 watts, think about the antenna and its location, not on getting an amp or higher power mobile rig.