Arrow beam antenna test

[OldRadioGuy]

I have an Arrow portable "take down" beam antenna intended for 440MHx/70cm ham radio.

I bought this antenna for my ham radios, before I had GMRS.

Mine is the dual band version with a second set of elements for 2M but otherwise identical to the link below.

 

http://www.arrowantennas.com/arrowii/440-7ii.html

 

I finally got around to checking the SWR with my Wouxun 805G.

It was very good - like darned near a perfect 1:1.

My output power was actually a bit higher than with other antennas I've tested so somehow this antenna seems to "tickle" the 805G just right.

Maybe the 805G is not a perfect 50 ohm output but this antenna is a near reciprocal match????  I'm just reporting the data.

 

I did not talk to anyone on it but triggered the repeater 15 miles away.

So I know it was transmitting.  That repeater is hard to hit on a simple 1/4 wave antenna with 5W.

 

My meter is an MFJ-842 set on the 10W range.

I had about 6' of RG-58 coax in the path.

Hams use RG-58 awith BNC connectors for short runs all the time on 440Mhz.

 

Vince

[Lscott]

I looked at the web site to see if there are any gain figures published, didn't see any for that Yagi.

 

Have you considered a "corner reflector" type antenna? They look like the old style UHF TV antennas, the ones with a "Vee" shaped reflector. 

 

I've done some simulations using EZNEC+ software. If you're into modeling, building or just plain curious about antennas this is a good software package to use. Not too expensive. There is a free demo version.

 

https://www.eznec.com/

 

A few of the UHF corner reflector models I built show a real gain of 11+ db over a dipole if optimized a bit. The bandwidth seemed wider than the 11 Yagi I modeled from M Squared antennas. The horizontal side lobes seems small and the vertical side lobes were reasonably small.

 

Arrow also sells corner reflectors too.

 

http://www.arrowantennas.com/solid/cr4501.html

 

With a corner reflector you don't have to worry about the metal mast buggering up the match or ruining the gain of the antenna since the mast is always behind the reflector.

[OldRadioGuy]

I would not consider a corner reflector because this is not a base antenna for me.

It's a portable "take down" antenna that fits in a small bag.

 

As I remember, the gain of the 7 element Arrow is 13dB which is 20X.

So makes a 5W radio look like about 100W.  Not bad.

 

Vince