I am trying to engineer my first antenna to get on the air. I need to hit a repeater 50 miles away at a lower elevation than me so that I can use its IRLP nodes. Would this mean I am looking for low angle radiation?
25 feet up with an HT in the clear and a rubber duck antenna and I can hear just the faintest crackle. I believe that a rhombic would be a cheap, interesting, and clear way of getting my signal to the repeater.
Will it need to be vertically polarized, considering everyone else will be? I started working on the design, here are some preliminary radiation maps before optimization. I just wanted to confirm that I had the correct polarization for the job. ANY tips regarding rhombics would be appreciated as I am new to the hobby and will probably learn a few things the hard way on this project :D
* Note that the scale on the perimeter of the chart is shifted 90 degrees for some reason, I didn't see this at first. *