M2 Antennas 2M9SSB (now 2M9SSB/FM -> 2M9X)
$$$$ยท
| Frequency | 144-146 MHz, optimized without bandwidth compromises (maker's framing); successor 2M9SSB/FM stretches to 144-149 |
| Bands | 2m (SSB/CW segment) |
| Gain | 14.1 dBi (12.0 dBd) dBi |
| TX power | 2500 W (2.5 kW on the 2M9SSB/FM table (the current 2M9X successor is rated 1.5 kW)) |
| Modes | FM, SSB, CW, digital |
| Connector | N female; T-match feed |
| feedpoint | T-match; N female |
Estimated (unverified): original pure-2M9SSB production specifics (the lineage is now documented through its /FM and X successors)
The right first weak-signal beam and arguably the smartest: M2's optimization-without-bandwidth-padding philosophy gives away nothing on the SSB segment, the hardware is the same EME-grade machining as the flagships, and the upgrade path is literally printed in the catalog - buy a second one and stack to flagship gain. Light enough for TV rotators, rated for legal limit anyway.
SSB-segment optimization means FM duty is off-label (the maker sells the /FM variant for exactly that reason), and nine elements horizontal is still a 14-foot boom on the roof. The pure-SSB original drifts in and out of catalog favor against its /FM and X-series siblings, so check which variant is actually shipping.
The smart money's 2 m weak-signal entry, now bought under the 2M9X name: flagship construction at starter size, with the stack-to-flagship upgrade path as the catalog's own closing argument - and the arithmetic, unusually, checks.
The 2M9SSB is M2's case that a starter antenna can be a serious instrument: nine elements on a fourteen-and-a-half-foot boom, optimized - the maker's catalog is explicit about this philosophy - for the 144-146 MHz weak-signal segment with no bandwidth bought that the modes don't need. The factory table reads 14.1 dBi (11.96 dBd, the manual subtracting for you), 20 dB front-to-back, fourteen and a half feet of boom on an eight-foot turning radius, five pounds - honest gain in a package that ordinary rotators swing and ordinary rooflines host, built in the same Fresno shop, to the same machined-fitting standards, as the EME arrays the company is famous for.
Its best-known specification is actually an argument: M2's own literature notes that two of these, vertically stacked, deliver 14.8 dBd - the company's own 33-foot flagship makes 14.70 - at well under half the turning radius. The arithmetic checks to the decimal: 11.96 dBd plus the theoretical 2.84 dB of optimal stacking gain equals 14.80 exactly. Few manufacturers print the math that undercuts their top model; M2 does, because the stacking path is the real product - buy one beam now, learn the weak-signal trade, add the second and a power divider when ambition arrives. The 1.5 kW rating means the amplifier never forces an antenna upgrade.
The family tree has since resolved itself: the pure SSB original left the catalog for the 2M9SSB/FM (144-146 SSB / 145-148 FM, rated a muscular 2.5 kW), whose page now wears a 'replaced by the 2M9X' notice in turn - the 2M9X being electrically identical (14.1 dBi, same boom, same radius) with thicker boom walls and sections short enough to dodge oversize shipping, at $403.99. The design brief, either way, is unchanged since Mike Staal (the 'M' of KLM before founding M2), set the company's course: weak-signal antennas engineered like instruments, sized for stations that intend to grow. For the FM-first operator, the vertical FM beams remain the right aisle.