Michael, I work 2X FT-817's with no preamps, an Arrow and 2 x 9ft LMR240UF cables in an Amazon camera bag. I tried pre-amps in the past and it really did not do much, especially in an urban environment where 2M band is already very noisy. I did when I first got into satellite but now portable I don't bother.  I worry more about desense on FO-29 and finally have that tackled, through a Lowpass filter and cleaning the dirty BNC connectors! I would experiment first before spending $$ on the ARR pre-amps which I do own. I think you will find you can do just fine without them when portable. 73, Adrian AA5UK.

On Friday, December 7, 2018, 6:25:59 AM CST, Michael J Talkington n8fwd@hotmail.com wrote:

I was wondering if the downlink was on 2 meters do I really need a preamp like on uhf? And is the rf switched preamp from Advanced Receiver Research will be ok or just a mirage/mfj ? I am going to use this portable with my Yaesu FT 817ND and an Arrow Antenna. Thanks Big Mike N8FWD

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