102" for Metal Shop?

[HKUSP]

Ok, I have searched and searched. I see that many people say the 102" whip will work fine on top of a metal building, but I cant find a specific answer.

I have a 60x40 metal building. It is at 440' elevation from sea level, and it is pretty much the highest thing around for miles. If I mounted a 102" whip on top of the shop, would it perform as well as a A99? Would I need to ground it to anything?

[231]

Would it work as well as an A99? Not likely, simply because the whip is 1/4 wave and the A99 is 1/2 wave. That difference is quite noticeable. However, it would work quite well on the center of your metal roof with the ground plane being the roof.

Hope that helps some and welcome to the forum.

['Doc]

That metal roof would be like the metal body of a car/truck, and should work at least as well as a 102" whip on a mobile. '231's answer about comparing it to an 'A99' is true. The two really aren't comparable since they aren't the same electrical 'size'. I think that 102" whip on a metal building would be about the cheapest thing you could do, and a 1/4 wave antenna isn't a 'bad' antenna by any means.
And if you really want to get 'fancy', put four of those whips up there, phase them correctly and you'd have something called a '4-Square' array antenna. Change/switch the phasing and it's directional. An imagination is a terrible thing, ain't it??
- 'Doc

[HKUSP]

I had an A99 on the shop, and it did work well. I dont want to go down in performance. However, the 102" whip would be easier to mount and it would be less noticeable. The A99 was not exactly nice looking on the roof.