Amatuer Band Antennas - need help choosing

[Fastlane]

Hey All.

Just wondering what people are using for antennas on their Handheld radios?

Looking for a replacement antenna for my VX7R.. so many to choose from. I guess the only thing I'm avoiding are telescopic antennas as they are way too easy to break. Prefer a dual-band antenna (2m/70cm).

Seems to be alot of brands to choose from.. Diamond, Comet, Nagoya.. anyone have any successes or horror stories?

[Bonez]

I can't be too much help since I've just always used the one supplied with my HT's... I think any of the better known brands would be alright, just look for minimum 3dBi gain if you can, a lot of the stock standard ones are unity gain.

[robbage]

Check here:
http://www.radiogearpro.com/main/index. ... 96bba3d868

Most items are free shipping. Make sure you select $AUD for correct prices. I've bought from them a couple of times with no problems.
I bought this one for my VX-3R (SMA) which survived a car door http://www.radiogearpro.com/main/produc ... cts_id=325
Obviously no good for 6m TX

[vk6hgr]

My car rig (Yaesu FT-8900) is capable of running on 10 metres FM. I've never really had a good antenna to use for it though.

I spoke to Mobile One and they modified a 27MHz antenna (DX136FW) for 29MHz. It works very well on 10m!

[fire&rescuetraining]

Hey All.

Just wondering what people are using for antennas on their Handheld radios?

Looking for a replacement antenna for my VX7R.. so many to choose from. I guess the only thing I'm avoiding are telescopic antennas as they are way too easy to break. Prefer a dual-band antenna (2m/70cm).

Seems to be alot of brands to choose from.. Diamond, Comet, Nagoya.. anyone have any successes or horror stories?

I've been using a Nagoya NA-666 dual band 144/430MHz on my VX-6R's for a long time now and over the last couple of years have been subjected to a lot of punishment. They are short enough to not bother you when radio is clipped on the belt and very flexible, so don't break the belt clip if the antenna gets caught on something! Mine have been subjected to crawling through rubble, water, heat of internal structure fire and hazardous chemicals (Sulfuric acid 7 weeks ago) and survived. Note the VS case CSC-91 suffered from the acid!

[robbage]

DSE have been selling a 1.5m long 27MHz 1/4wave with 5/16" ferrule for $22. I bought two a while back. Trimmed one for 10m and rewound the other for 6m. I believe it's D4074 and is the DX160CD by M1. The DX136 is physically shorter if you expect to be smacking your HF antenna into something (I'm not using mine mobile)
BTW does the 10m repeater work? I can't get any response.

[vk6hgr]

DSE have been selling a 1.5m long 27MHz 1/4wave with 5/16" ferrule for $22. I bought two a while back. Trimmed one for 10m and rewound the other for 6m. I believe it's D4074 and is the DX160CD by M1. The DX136 is physically shorter if you expect to be smacking your HF antenna into something (I'm not using mine mobile)
BTW does the 10m repeater work? I can't get any response.

How do you rewind helical antennas? How do you determine their frequency? (That has always bugged me!)

The 10M repeater is working okay. I worked 'YAG through it yesterday arvo.

[robbage]

How do you rewind helical antennas? How do you determine their frequency? (That has always bugged me!)

Well I didn't need to. The antenna is 1.5m long and a 1/4w on 6 metres is around 1.4m. I just put a couple of twists to hold it against the fibre before heatshrinking. Also the resonant frequency is different before and after applying heatshrink (electrically longer by about 2% with the heatshrink I used)

The 10M repeater is working okay. I worked 'YAG through it yesterday arvo.

I probably need to recheck offset and tone. I seem to remember that one is a different tone to the VHF/UHF repeaters.

[robbage]

I probably need to recheck offset and tone.

Somehow the tone ended up on 88.5 instead of 179.9