Best HT Antenna?

[TNFrank]

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.

 

[TNFrank]

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.

[TNFrank]

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.

[WRUU653]

1 minute ago, SteveShannon said:

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.

Steve let me know if you find one you like or even one you’re thinking of. I’d like to get one as well for my KG-Q10H. I always have room for more antennas, maybe not as many as Josh.

[WRTC928]

33 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:

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.

It wasn't a tri-band. It was 2 meters/1.25 meters. I doubt a good tri-band could be made that short. Sometimes I'd like to be able to use 1.25 meters without that 18" antenna flopping around.

[SteveShannon]

11 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:

Steve let me know if you find one you like or even one you’re thinking of. I’d like to get one as well for my KG-Q10H. I always have room for more antennas, maybe not as many as Josh.

Will do, Gil.  Of course everything multi-band is a compromise.  I wouldn’t mind testing it with some single band whips.

[TNFrank]

Here's an interesting video I found.

 

[hxpx]

I use a Signal Stick which is only 2m/70cm but it glows in the dark (though they say it will "probably work" on GMRS/MURS). I bought it because the Signal Stick guys run hamstudy.org and I wanted to support them.

Also it glows in the dark, which amuses me.

[WRYZ926]

I've tested a few Nagoya and Abbree antennas. I found that it really depends on the brand of radio. I've tried dual band and GMRS antennas.

Here are my result with my limited testing of the Nagoya/Abbree 771 dual band or GMRS

Baofeng GT-5R and UV-5r GMRS - 771 did better than the stock antennas.

Icom IC-T10 - no difference between the 771 and stock antennas

Explorer QRZ-1 (TYT UV-88) - 771 just slightly better than stock

Several Wouxun radios - stock antennas di better than any of the 771 antennas.

I made sure to use the GMRS only 771G with the GMRS radios and the dual band 771 with my dual band radios.

I know this is a small sample. As you can see it really depends on the individual radio. You can chase this rabbit all over and spend lots of money and you may or may not see much of an improvement. 

 

[WRUU653]

1 hour ago, WRTC928 said:

It wasn't a tri-band. It was 2 meters/1.25 meters. I doubt a good tri-band could be made that short. Sometimes I'd like to be able to use 1.25 meters without that 18" antenna flopping around.

I gotcha, I misunderstood. I think this is the antenna that Buytwowayradios was sending out with the KG-935H before they started shipping it with one tri-band instead of two antennas and yeah it's about 8". I have one and the 320A works better and is enough to help me get to a couple 1.25 repeaters from where I sit but it may work for your needs and I do like that it's shorter and will occasionally use it. 

Edited 7 hours ago by WRUU653
had to fix that link

[WRYZ926]

My Wouxun KG-935H came with the single tri band antenna and it is 14 inches long.

[WRUU653]

12 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

I found that it really depends on the brand of radio

That's a really good point.

 

13 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

You can chase this rabbit all over and spend lots of money and you may or may not see much of an improvement. 

And that's even a better one... it can be fun though chasing that rabbit. 

[WRUU653]

2 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

My Wouxun KG-935H came with the single tri band antenna and it is 14 inches long.

I ended up getting two with mine, would have liked the tri band that you got. Yours looks like the Nagoya though the Nagoya sits at 17 inches.

[WRYZ926]

20 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:

I ended up getting two with mine, would have liked the tri band that you got. Yours looks like the Nagoya though the Nagoya sits at 17 inches.

My Wouxun KG-Q10H came with two antennas. I hardly ever use the 1.25m/6m bands as I am lazy and don't want to swap antennas constantly.

[LeoG]

8 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.

Nagoya 771G is a fixture on my two Tidradio H3s.  I have the Smiley Rubber Duck and if I want a shorter antenna that's what I use.

[TNFrank]

I tried a 5/8 Smiley Rubber Duck and it wasn't as good as the 771 I had. I think I'm going to stick with what I've got for now(see my Power Test video in the Amateur Radio section)and maybe try a 320A later.

[LeoG]

The Smiley is shorter than the 701G and works almost as well as the 771G.  Definitely works better than the OEM for the H3, just not as well as the 771G

At least for my setup

[WRTC928]

6 hours ago, WRUU653 said:

I gotcha, I misunderstood. I think this is the antenna that Buytwowayradios was sending out with the KG-935H before they started shipping it with one tri-band instead of two antennas and yeah it's about 8". I have one and the 320A works better and is enough to help me get to a couple 1.25 repeaters from where I sit but it may work for your needs and I do like that it's shorter and will occasionally use it. 

What kind of connector does it have? The ad doesn't specify. From the picture, it looks like a BNC or SMA male.

Edit: Never mind. I clicked on another tab and it says it's SMA female.