BTECH GMRS V1 antenna

[Guest WRKQ944]

Newbie here with a informative/question.

 

I recently purchased a NA-771 HT antenna on close out thru Wally World for 7.79 shipped and when I tested the SWR it was 6.4. 
 

I didn’t like that so figured for the 7.79 I had into it I would start trimming it down to see if I could improve the SWR. 
I cut it in 1/4 inch increments until the Swr was below 2.5 and then cut it in 1/8 increments until I stopped at an SWR of 1.4 on Channel 15. It is now at a 6.5 inch overall length which is a 1/4 in. Longer than the stock antenna! 
Haven’t had a chance to do range tests or comparison with stock yet!

 

Question for all you experienced guys is did I do the right thing or did I ruin it and wasted my 7.79?
 

Just as an FYI - I do believe the antenna is a true Nagoya and not a knock off as it was in a orange sleeve and has a Blue name/number on antenna base.

 

Thanks to all!

[WRCZ387]

The NA-771 is tuned to the amateur frequencies, not GMRS, that's why the SWR was so high

440-450 MHz compared to 462-467 MHz, that's a 20+ MHz difference

 

The stock antennas are usually very broad-banded & inefficient

 

I just looked at mine & it's labeled 136-174/400-520

That's probably the antenna from the UV-82 radios

 

The least expensive quarter-wave for GMRS [that I know of] is a Nagoya NA-701C,

which is tuned to the VHF/UHF commercial frequencies [so it would also cover MURS on VHF]

and is way closer to GMRS

 

It's sold in the mygmrs.com store for $14.99

https://shop.mygmrs.com/collections/antennas/products/nagoya-na-701c-antenna 

 

You spent $7.79 & some time to get an antenna that will perform on the GMRS frequencies

I'd say that you broke even

[laneends]

NA-771G is GMRS specific.