Best HT Antenna?

[WSAA635]

I have a few different antennas from small stubbies(Diamond SRH805s) to a 3.14" longer stubby(Abbree AR-806+,my go to for my work radio) to the mid-length(8")whips and the longer 15.3" Arbbree AR-771. I'd guess that the 771's would give me the best range on par with other 771's like the Nagoya, et al. Question is are there any other antennas that might give me a bit more gain and still be portable enough or is something like a 771 type antenna about as good as it gets?

I'll not only be using it on GMRS and MURS but also on 2M, 1.25M and 70cm now that I have my Technician License. Thanks.

[SteveShannon]

6 hours ago, WSAA635 said:

I have a few different antennas from small stubbies(Diamond SRH805s) to a 3.14" longer stubby(Abbree AR-806+,my go to for my work radio) to the mid-length(8")whips and the longer 15.3" Arbbree AR-771. I'd guess that the 771's would give me the best range on par with other 771's like the Nagoya, et al. Question is are there any other antennas that might give me a bit more gain and still be portable enough or is something like a 771 type antenna about as good as it gets?

I'll not only be using it on GMRS and MURS but also on 2M, 1.25M and 70cm now that I have my Technician License. Thanks.

 

[WSAA635]

I watched 3 or 4 of his videos along with a few from some other folks. Just wonder what folks here were using that they found that worked well for them.

[WRUU653]

Each frequency is its own tuning so if you are looking for the best you can do it will depend on what you are doing. I generally use the stock antenna on my HT radios.  If you are trying for more, something like a signal stick is going to help and mono band if you want the best out of one band. I just use dual band mostly as for me good is good enough and I prefer to use more bands over more distance. I have a tri band Nagoya NA-320A that works pretty good for 1.25m, 2m, 70cm, in fact it is better on 1.25 than the dual band stock antenna tuned at 1.25 and 2m. 
In the end you will have more antennas than radios. 
Josh’s video that @SteveShannon posted is a good one. 

[WRTC928]

1 minute ago, WRUU653 said:

I have a tri band Nagoya NA-320A that works pretty good for 1.25m, 2m, 70cm, in fact it is better on 1.25 than the dual band stock antenna tuned at 1.25 and 2m. 

That's my go-to for my tri-band radios. As far as I know, there's no tri-band antenna that isn't 15-18 inches long. I think it was on Amazon that I saw a tri-band radio that was sold with a 771-style antenna and a 2m/1.25m antenna that was about 8" long, but I haven't been able to find the antenna by itself. I'd like to have a couple of those on hand.

[WRUU653]

2 minutes ago, WRTC928 said:

That's my go-to for my tri-band radios. As far as I know, there's no tri-band antenna that isn't 15-18 inches long. I think it was on Amazon that I saw a tri-band radio that was sold with a 771-style antenna and a 2m/1.25m antenna that was about 8" long, but I haven't been able to find the antenna by itself. I'd like to have a couple of those on hand.

Yeah that's my go to antenna for tri-band also, I just added a link to my post. I haven't seen any tri-bands at 8 inches, I would be skeptical, though I do like shorter if it works.

[WSAA635]

8" sounds more like a 701. I have an Airband antenna rated for 100MHz-300MHz which should be good for not only Airbands but also 2M, 1.25M and MURS. 

I'll check out the 320A, thanks.

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, WSAA635 said:

I watched 3 or 4 of his videos along with a few from some other folks. Just wonder what folks here were using that they found that worked well for them.

I have a Diamond RH77CA with a BNC connector on my FT5DR.  It works when shorter antennas just don’t, but I don’t have access to a large number of antennas like the HRCC video tested.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dmn-rh77ca
 

I wouldn’t mind picking up a different Tri-band antenna for my VX-6 and I’d really like to get a decent four band 6 m, 2 m, 1.25 m and 70 cm antenna for my VX-7.