SteveShannon

I have done handheld antenna testing and it's not that easy. I wouldn't recommend an SWR meter, either. You can't replicate the ground plane of the chassis and the effects of having the radio in your hand, which makes taking the measurements difficult. 
 
The closest I have come without literally building a sampling circuit onto the radio was by making small metal table into a ground plane, mounting an SMA connector on it with proper length cable between the base of the antenna and the VNA. Depending on the cable type, you will want the cable to be almost 7 feet (6.9) to be sure you are outside of the near field while testing. 
 
 

I mean, not really a surprise at that size, but I appreciate that they rate it honestly.

I was answering his question, not baiting you. 

Isn’t that radio inhibited from transmitting above channel 54? Or am I thinking about a different radio?

First, don’t mistake SWR for antenna quality. If it were that simple we’d all use dummy loads. They typically provide a very low SWR but have no ability to radiate RF. 
Second, the SWR meter is not a sufficient ground plane for a VHF antenna. Typically you’d need either a planar surface of metal or an array of radials of at least a quarter wave radius or length to provide a decent ground plane. For VHF that’s much larger than the body of the SWR meter you’re using. 
The fact is that measuring SWR for handheld antennas is frequently futile and unnecessary. Instead hook up the antennas and see what kind of performance you get. 

I would be very surprised if the final output transistor in your radio would let its smoke out even if full power were reflected.  
 

I would be very surprised if the final output transistor in your radio would let its smoke out even if full power were reflected.  
 

As mentioned, testing of an HT antenna is nearly impossible to get completely accurate results. It should also be noted that sometimes a "better" antenna will cause the radio to perform worse due to RF saturation. That being said, for the APX, the Motorola antenna will work the best for that radio.

There are counterfeits of almost everything that is good.  It is possible that you bought fakes.   There are websites that show how to tell the difference between the legit Nagoyas and Diamonds. 
 
Directly speaking of the fake Diamond antennas, they are obvious if you have had a real one in your hand and know what the real ones look like. 
 
Going back to your testing.  You did not mention testing across the frequencies/bands for each antenna.  Most usually favor one side of the band more than the other.  Ideally they would be tuned for center, but that is less than optimal if you end up using it primarily on one end of the band or the other

First, don’t mistake SWR for antenna quality. If it were that simple we’d all use dummy loads. They typically provide a very low SWR but have no ability to radiate RF. 
Second, the SWR meter is not a sufficient ground plane for a VHF antenna. Typically you’d need either a planar surface of metal or an array of radials of at least a quarter wave radius or length to provide a decent ground plane. For VHF that’s much larger than the body of the SWR meter you’re using. 
The fact is that measuring SWR for handheld antennas is frequently futile and unnecessary. Instead hook up the antennas and see what kind of performance you get. 

I agree, but it’s a different situation.
HK went from being a British colony to being basically given to the PRC by the British. 
Taiwan has considered itself the rightful government of China (Republic of China) since 1947, and thus part of China. The PRC considers Taiwan as being part of China also, but obviously disagrees about whether they’re the rightful government. 
The United States has implicitly (and occasionally explicitly) stated that they would protect Taiwan from PRC aggression. 
Nobody except Taiwan is in a position to negotiate away Taiwan’s independence, but a change in philosophy by an incoming U.S. president could signal less commitment to protecting them which would result in a takeover by the PRC. 
I worked in Taiwan and grew to love the people there. I would hate to see them betrayed by our government. 

You bet. You certainly can set the RX tone also but if it doesn’t match the repeater output tone you never will hear the repeater. Often the repeater has two different tones. If you leave the RX tone empty then you hear everything on the channel. 

So it’s transmitting?  The next thing to look at is the tone. If you’re picking tones by number instead of frequency you’ll soon discover that the numbers don’t match with all manufacturers. Double check the tone (or DCS) you need to transmit to the repeater and then look in the 575 manual to see how to program it. But only program it into transmit on the 575. Leave the receive tone blank. See if you can hit the repeater that way. 

And using cables with the Prolific chip can be problematic to get running on Mac's. It's easier to deal with Prolific drivers on Windoze computers than to get them to work on Mac's.
I haven't even bothered trying to run any version of Windows in VMWare on my M4 Mac. I kept my Intel based 2108 Mac around for that.

First, don’t mistake SWR for antenna quality. If it were that simple we’d all use dummy loads. They typically provide a very low SWR but have no ability to radiate RF. 
Second, the SWR meter is not a sufficient ground plane for a VHF antenna. Typically you’d need either a planar surface of metal or an array of radials of at least a quarter wave radius or length to provide a decent ground plane. For VHF that’s much larger than the body of the SWR meter you’re using. 
The fact is that measuring SWR for handheld antennas is frequently futile and unnecessary. Instead hook up the antennas and see what kind of performance you get. 

In that case your calculations would be 4.30 db too low. 

An isotropic antenna is theoretical, a single infinitely small source with a gain of 0, meaning multiply the input times 1 to get the output when working with linear values.
Having a dBd gain value for an antenna is convenient but for a calculator like this you always want to take the antenna gain back to dBi so you’re not inadvertently throwing the output value off. 
Maybe a better way to explain it is that the dBd value is only useful for comparing an antenna to a dipole.  For purposes of calculating total gain you always need to start at 0 which is the dBi number. 

Again with the racist and stereotypical dismissiveness.  A knockoff is an unauthorized copy of a “legitimate” product.  This radio and the handheld 878 have unique features all of their own that were groundbreaking when first released, such as having the memory needed to store every contact in the RadioID database. 

It is the same as the Anytone, with slightly different features which are probably simply enabled in firmware. This Alinco, just like the Anytone, is a high powered mobile radio with terrific features such as cross band repeat, even digital to analog (cross-mode) repeat. It’s wrong to compare this to a $15 radio. It’s ignorant to call it “just a cheap Chinese throwaway radio.”
 
 

Definitely neat gear for people that don't want to drill a hole in the roof. Just go through the pain of drilling the 3/4" hole in the roof and install a shiny new NMO mount and be done with it. And for added strengthening add a thin fender washer behind the mount to distribute the force if you hit low hanging branches or go into parking garages.

Adding a fender washer to a NMO mount is a smart thing to do especially if your cab is aluminum.
I looked at the third brake light mounts when I had my 2020 Ranger but decided not to get one, mostly due to the price. Plus I would have had to run an even shorter antenna on the Ranger than what I run on the Escape.

The antenna wax will be right next to the cans of squelch. In other words there is no such thing as antenna wax.
As others have said, there is no easy way to test the SWR of hand held antennas. And your body actually acts as part of the ground plane when you use a hand held.
As far as aftermarket hand held antennas, it really depends on the radio it self if the antenna will make an improvement or not. I have some radios where the longer Nagoya antennas helps and some radios where the stock antenna works better.

Well, unless your using this product, your antenna won't be top notch  

First, don’t mistake SWR for antenna quality. If it were that simple we’d all use dummy loads. They typically provide a very low SWR but have no ability to radiate RF. 
Second, the SWR meter is not a sufficient ground plane for a VHF antenna. Typically you’d need either a planar surface of metal or an array of radials of at least a quarter wave radius or length to provide a decent ground plane. For VHF that’s much larger than the body of the SWR meter you’re using. 
The fact is that measuring SWR for handheld antennas is frequently futile and unnecessary. Instead hook up the antennas and see what kind of performance you get. 

Yeah, spoofing DMR ID's isn't that common, true. I miss programmed one of my NX-1300's setup for DMR. I got called out on that error when making a contact while out of town last summer. Oops.
I guess if that's what you find important then the feature is of value to you. Me, not so much. Just a difference of opinion. 🙃

I got close. I paid $35 for the original version of the radio with antenna, battery pack and charger base in like new condition last spring at a Ham swap.