Blackmar401 Posted February 3, 2021 Report Share Posted February 3, 2021 Just installed in my house and im pretty disappointed. My btech v1 handheld attached to a midland ghost antenna on my roof was getting 7 miles out yesterday and im having trouble with like 3 now. Im actually running the handheld with its normal antenna now and picking up stuff the base/browning isn't. Any ideas? There is only 50' of line between base and antenna and its powered by a pyramid 70w 5/7a power supply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbrun Posted February 3, 2021 Report Share Posted February 3, 2021 What have you changed (or are doing different) between when you had 7 miles and now 3? Everything is suspect. Exact location of radios, antennas, plus cables, adapters, weather conditions are just some of the variables. I must admit that 7 sounds like a fluke, 3 sounds more realistic, but I do not know anything about your surroundings, environment and test conditions. Consider elaborating. Perhaps some ideas will come to mind. MichaelWRHS965KE8PLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmar401 Posted February 4, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2021 Pretty flat area. I'm in rhodeisland and I can get 4 miles from my handheld btech to car base in my driveway. This was done base to base. Car has a 6db midland magmount 3' and browning is above my rooftop at like 25-30'. Im starting to get chatter now but my concern is my hanheld btech is picking up stuff this base isn't and im inside. The wire wraps around the antenna base twice then runs like 1/3 of the way up then drops back down the inside of the mast, so there is a bunch of cable around the antenna, I dont know if that would matter or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbrun Posted February 4, 2021 Report Share Posted February 4, 2021 Do you have an SWR meter, an antenna analyzer, or a NanoVNA? The antenna system is the first thing to check in my view. The antenna system includes everything from the connector that connects the feed-line to the radio all the way to the tip of the antenna. You need to know that that is working correctly. Checking the SWR is the simplest thing to check. Case in point. Over the last 6 weeks I have been doing quite a bit of testing. One day I was talking 50 miles with nice clear, clean signal. The next day I could barely reach 5. What changed? I was using the same antenna, adapters, radio, location, power, etc. Something had to change. Yep, one of the connector-to-coax connections had failed. Yes, the connectors were still on the cable and looked fine, but when I hooked up the antenna analyzer in place of the radio it told a different story. There it was plain as day, a super high (off the chart) SWR. Fiddled around, took a gamble on which connector I thought it might have been, replaced it, checked cable again and all is good with the world. And the cable was a high-priced pre-manufactured one. For all my subsequent tests I started the day by hooking up my analyzer first. If you do not have at least an SWR meter, I recommend obtaining one. More times that not, it is the simple things. MichaelWRHS965KE8PLM SUPERG900 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gortex2 Posted February 4, 2021 Report Share Posted February 4, 2021 What are you using as a Power Supply on the mobile radio ? Blackmar401 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmar401 Posted February 6, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2021 A pyramid ps9kx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmar401 Posted February 6, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2021 Pyramid ps9kx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gortex2 Posted February 6, 2021 Report Share Posted February 6, 2021 IF you have a digital volt meter test your power while you key up the radio and make sure your not overloading the power supply. You may not have enough power with the power supply. Also a true watt meter test would help. Blackmar401 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackmar401 Posted February 7, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2021 I am getting like 8 miles now. I was just hitting some dead spots when I made this post. I raised my antenna another 5 feet today so its a couple feet higher than the peak of my roof and I have lmr400 coming tomorrow. Hopefully that gets me out a little further. I just can't get past 4 miles through one city with highrises and stuff, every other direction I'm good though. Hopefully the added height and cable bump up my numbes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbrun Posted February 7, 2021 Report Share Posted February 7, 2021 The following website will help you determine if there are an hills (elevation changes) that could contribute to coverage differences between one direction and another. It is worth experimenting with. https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ Recently, after raising my antenna to 56’, I discovered that I still could not reach one particular repeater in town. I used the above tool to get a sense of why. It became immediately obvious. The tool showed there are two consequential hills between my home and the repeater. I now know that the repeater is not one I will ever be able to work reliably unless I am mobile and in a different part of town BTW, I do not know if the tool takes into account earth curvature. If not, the blockage is even worse. MichaelWRHS965KE8PLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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