Exterior vehicle antenna on a HT?

[Marius1195]

I am using a KG-805g with a Nagoya 771G inside a Jeep Patriot. I mainly communicate with a relative with us using a 150' 50w repeater. I can receive him clearly from close to 45 miles away, but lose the ability to hit it from ~12 miles. I am wanting to know if mounting an external antenna and still using my HT would improve my ability to hit the repeater (this is all pretty open farm terrain with only slight elevation variances outside earth curvature.) and is this even possible? Even a small improvement would be acceptable. I will be getting a KG-1000g at some point, but that point is probably 9-12 months off. All advice is welcome! Thanks.

[rover]

Yes. 
 

I added an nmo mount with a laird phantom antenna and consistently hit repeaters 20-25 miles away. 
 

I am hating a HT 935g. 

[mbrun]

I am using a KG-805g with a Nagoya 771G inside a Jeep Patriot. I mainly communicate with a relative with us using a 150' 50w repeater. I can receive him clearly from close to 45 miles away, but lose the ability to hit it from ~12 miles. I am wanting to know if mounting an external antenna and still using my HT would improve my ability to hit the repeater (this is all pretty open farm terrain with only slight elevation variances outside earth curvature.) and is this even possible? Even a small improvement would be acceptable. I will be getting a KG-1000g at some point, but that point is probably 9-12 months off. All advice is welcome! Thanks.

An external mobile mounted antenna with your HT will be a huge improvement over the use of an HT with its rubber duck (or even the 771G) antenna. I ran that way for over a year, and was very pleased with the outcome. The good news is that you can use that same antenna when you decide to put a KG-1000G or other mobile radio in your vehicle.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[Marius1195]

Thanks for the quick replies. I was hoping this would be a nice short term solution. Just bought a Nagoya UT-72G. I'll post swr and real world results once I get it up and running. Thanks again!

[marcspaz]

An external antenna will always be an improvement.  For a time, I put a mag mount on the roof of my truck and with 5 watts, I was able to hit repeater 30+ miles away with good input.  Some picket fencing when driving, but it worked well.

[OldRadioGuy]

As the others have said it makes a huge difference. 

The biggest problem can be the strain on the connector from the heavier cable.  It's often good to put a right angle connector (or two) at the radio.   Ham Radio Outlet sells "pigtail" adapters with a short length of thin, flexible coax.  Another idea is to use a speaker mic so you are not trying to drag that antenna cable around.  Powerwerx has a good speaker mic for cheap that works on KG805's.

 

Pasternack sells custom cables if you want to make your own custom flexible adapter cable.  RG316 or RG174 are nice thin coax cables for a short length.

Vince

[Marius1195]

On 1/18/2022 at 10:59 AM, OldRadioGuy said:

As the others have said it makes a huge difference. 

The biggest problem can be the strain on the connector from the heavier cable.  It's often good to put a right angle connector (or two) at the radio.   Ham Radio Outlet sells "pigtail" adapters with a short length of thin, flexible coax.  Another idea is to use a speaker mic so you are not trying to drag that antenna cable around.  Powerwerx has a good speaker mic for cheap that works on KG805's.

 

Pasternack sells custom cables if you want to make your own custom flexible adapter cable.  RG316 or RG174 are nice thin coax cables for a short length.

Vince

I am using a speaker mic and have a bracket for the radio and mic to install when I get the antenna tomorrow. I have 2 805s so this one will not be moved out of the Jeep often. I also have the battery adapter that will be powering it making it semi-static. Ofc, if needed I will take it out. For the right angle connector is there a specific wire I should look for or are they universal? Thanks for the tip.

[AdmiralCochrane]

On 1/18/2022 at 11:59 AM, OldRadioGuy said:

As the others have said it makes a huge difference. 

The biggest problem can be the strain on the connector from the heavier cable.  It's often good to put a right angle connector (or two) at the radio.   Ham Radio Outlet sells "pigtail" adapters with a short length of thin, flexible coax.  Another idea is to use a speaker mic so you are not trying to drag that antenna cable around.  Powerwerx has a good speaker mic for cheap that works on KG805's.

 

Pasternack sells custom cables if you want to make your own custom flexible adapter cable.  RG316 or RG174 are nice thin coax cables for a short length.

Vince

I wore the cables out over and over so I gave up and bought a regular mobile rig.  Was still a great way to start, made lots of contacts and friends