2m SSB

[idial1911]

There are some people locally here who are starting to do 2m SSB pretty heavy. Does anyone else have any experience doing any 2m SSB? I've been wanting to play but the guys here are doing it at commute time and I only have FM in the car.

[spacecase0]

I do 2M ssb all the time,
also 432.1 SSB
it goes lots further than FM
the biggest issue is trying to set up horizontal polarization in the car.

[bryanthegoon]

I do 2M ssb all the time,
also 432.1 SSB
it goes lots further than FM
the biggest issue is trying to set up horizontal polarization in the car.

So saw this and trying to learn something new here, why would antenna polarization matter for FM vs SSB on 2 meters ?

[bryanthegoon]

Stumbled across part of the answer to my question, so figured I would post it here.

For VHF/UHF weak-signal (CW/SSB) operation,
remember that the antenna polarization
standard for these modes is horizontal,
not vertical, so you must use a loop or otherwise
horizontally-polarized antenna so as to
avoid cross-polarization loss of signal
strength (which can be 20 dB or more!). On
HF, signals propagated via the ionosphere
develop mixed polarizations, so antenna selection
may be made strictly on mechanical
considerations;

So the short answer is that everyone that is doing SSB on VHF is for the most part doing it with a horizontally polarized antenna, so if you use a vertically polarized you will have significant loss because there is no atmospheric reflection going on (which would randomize the polarization).

[spacecase0]

I missed you asking the question, sorry about that,
but you found the answer anyway,

the person I talk to on 2M SSB changes to vertical polarization for me,
but sometimes he forgets to change antennas and I can almost not here him.
and this is 10 miles away with buildings everywhere around me to bounce the signal off
polarity needs to match who you are talking with

[bryanthegoon]

no problems...

So one remaining question, is there a technical reason for the "common practice" to be horizontal polarization for SSB on 2M?  other than someone at some point just decided that that should be the common practice. 


And as another note from what I have read the solution if you want to do both FM and SSB is to use an antenna with circular polarization (a loop or something similar), you will still have some loss compared to working on the same polarization as the other party, but it will be limited.

[spacecase0]

you will get better performance form horizontal polarization, so if you are bothering to use SSB you likely want the most from it you can get

horizontal is hard to make omni directional
so when people use FM they usually don't want directional...

you could run circular but I don't know of a right or left circular omnidirectional antenna
it really is best to have a vertical and a horizontal beam or loop and an antenna switch to change the one you are using.