As K4FMH I have one of Ed Fongs J-Poles..... it works like a charm. I used Schedule 200 PVC recommended and using it primarily for Club/RACES nets here in So. Orange County CA. With hills and canyons I can get into all the VHF/UHF repeaters /simplex frequencies being used for emergency ham comm in our area.
I,have owned 2- of these copper J-Pole antennas dual band 144/450,MHZ, they work great, My first one was on a tower ,back in,Ohio I,painted it white,with a, non- lead paint,I,bought my ,J-Pole from ,KB9VBR,he makes these ,and other antennas also which are made from copper, which is great you put it up on a mast pipe and forget it,.I,had A ,1.1 swr reading on ,2 -Meter at the time I had a,I- com 2200,H 2-Meter, radio eventually I went to R&L Electronics and bought a Mirage amplifier,with 50-in 160 out for transmit,I was able to make a decent contact on the ,east side of Columbus Ohio with no problem,. these J-ploles are worth the money but the ,DB Gain is another thing,they have a, DB Gain of 3 which isn't a lot for this antenna,everything aside ,being constructed from copper ,it will out last a fiber glass antenna ,and probably a, aluminum antenna,.here is the www.site-- www.jpole-antenna.com,and on youtube.com/user/Kb9VBR.73,from KD8HMH
I've never had one of Fong's J-poles, but have made one that I have to say at least gave it a run for it's money. Later changed to a multi-stacked-array type antenna and haven't looked back. If a j-pole ofany type suits you needs it's certainly good enough. ... but then, you'll always have that niggling little doubt and think about something 'better'. Right?
That is most probably due to the radiation pattern of a J-pole, which is almost "flat" when mounted high enough, whereas a car mounted antenna has the centre of the radiation lobe pointing 30 to 40 degrees upwards, so most of your radiated power shoots skyward. This has nothing to do with an antenna being tuned to 1:1 instead of 1:1.5, for example.
