Better Antenna for my UV9G

[WRPL668]

Since I live in a Very quiet area I’m looking to try a better antenna for my radio. I’ve heard that the receptacle on the radio is “ tight” I’m looking for your suggestions please.  Most antennas on the Radioddity site is out of stock.  Any help will be appreciated. 
thanks,

 bob - WRPL668

[MichaelLAX]

Bob: I initially used my HT to connect to a Delta 1-2-3-4 antenna switch up to my Comet 333 tribander vertical on the roof, but the antenna was installed by a semi-pro Ham installer for me.

The difference in range, was of course, dramatic here in Southern California.

[WRPL668]

Thanks Max, but my radio is a handheld u v9g an I just a better antenna to use on the handhold radio. I don’t have a base station. But thanks for your suggestion. 
bob

[WRPE755]

I know you are not looking for a base station, but I have a $19 Midland mag mount antenna that I use with my UV9G. At home I have it going out through a window onto a metal plate. In the car I just stick it on top of my car. A simple $2 adapter makes for an easy connection. The antenna makes quite a difference when it comes to range: repeaters that my regular antenna can not touch are easy with the mag  mount. A cheap radio plus a cheap antenna = a base station, a mobile station, and a still usable HT. That’s a lot of utility for just a little bit of cash.

i haven’t had any fitment troubles with the three antennas I have tried out, but I have heard that there can be issues. There are a couple of YouTube videos out there and the “sandpaper around a pencil” approach looks like a winner.

[SteveShannon]

20 hours ago, WRPL668 said:

Since I live in a Very quiet area I’m looking to try a better antenna for my radio. I’ve heard that the receptacle on the radio is “ tight” I’m looking for your suggestions please.  Most antennas on the Radioddity site is out of stock.  Any help will be appreciated. 
thanks,

 bob - WRPL668

Hi Bob,

i bought a Faux Nagoya (Tidradio) 771 which is a 17 or so inch handheld antenna that fits right on four of my handhelds with the Baofeng style antenna connection (SMA male center pin on the radio).  Although the bandwidth marked on it brackets the necessary frequencies, I believe Nagoya makes a model specifically for GMRS.

Using this antenna with a 70 cm DMR repeater that’s 16 miles away and viewing the last heard information received signal strength indicator information, my signal went from 5.6 up to 5.8, when I switched from the stock rubber duck antenna to the 771, with me sitting at my dining room table.  That’s a significant difference for a handheld.

WRPE755 is right that a mobile antenna would almost certainly do even better, but I sense you’re really asking about a handheld antenna, rather than having to deal with coax and a separate mount. If you just want to incrementally improve your handheld antenna, I can recommend the 771 style.  There are numerous brands, including some pretty reputable manufacturers, such as Comet, that make this style of antenna.  The shopping area on this site actually appears to have a genuine Nagoya in inventory: https://shop.mygmrs.com/collections/antennas/products/nagoya-na-701g-gmrs-antenna

Best wishes,

[WRPL668]

Hello Montana, an yes your correct. I want an antenna for my handhold radio. Ok I’ll go after the 771. Has to be a female to fit the uv9g. I’m on three repeaters but can’t make the trip. There between 4to 10 miles an I think with a better antenna I should hit at least two of them. It’s worth the try an expense. Thanks for the address. 
bob - new jersey

WRPL668

[WRPL668]

Hi Shannon, the NA701G antenna doses not seem that much bigger/higher then the rubber ducky that came with the radio. It’s not the money, $15.99, it just seems a tad small. Will it do the job for me?

bob

[SteveShannon]

5 minutes ago, WRPL668 said:

Hi Shannon, the NA701G antenna doses not seem that much bigger/higher then the rubber ducky that came with the radio. It’s not the money, $15.99, it just seems a tad small. Will it do the job for me?

bob

I apologize; you’re correct.  Try this one instead: https://www.buytwowayradios.com/nagoya-na-771g.html

Be sure to order the one with the correct connector.

[WRPL668]

Just ordered a 771 female. Should be here in under a week. Shannon thanks for the heads up. Now will it work for me. 
Fingers crossed. 
bob

[bobthetj03]

I have that antenna Bob. It did make a noticeable improvement. I also have a UV9G, along with a few others now. I have also used my mobile antenna on a mag mount and put it on a cookie sheet. Huge improvement! 

One suggestion, if you plan to get more radios in the future, consider putting  BNC adapters on your HT. It makes swapping antennas and attaching coax cables way easier.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CVQK466?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

 

[WRPL668]

Thanks for the suggestion.  My problem is I live in a very quiet area. I’m getting the 771 in hopes of getting some comms. 
so far one radio has been enough. I really hope this works.  All I have is the rubber ducky that came with the radio. 
bob

[lazarus1024]

I’ve tried a few and the real Nagoya 771g works the best on my UV9g. Yes the port is tight. What you can do is rip off a small piece of sand paper, turn it grit side out and wrap it around the base of the stock antenna and then thread it in and out several times to remove a small amount of material (the plastic!) around the port. Took me Maybe 5 minutes. Use something in the 120 range for sandpaper grit. 
 

I also have an 18” HYS “tactical” flexible antenna (Abbree also makes them) and that works fairly well. Also a super stick GMRS 5/8 wave antenna collapsible antenna. That works well when extended. Not very well when collapsed (but it does work). That has a narrow base so it’ll work without modifying your HT antenna port. However it is very narrow so it leaves the port kind of exposed. For performance I’d rate the Nagoya #1, super stick a get close #2 when extended, HYS/Abbree 18” tactical antenna a fairly close #3 when extended. That tactical antenna a close #4 collapsed. Then the super stick a distant #5 retracted and the stock antenna about the same as the super stick collapsed. 
 

I didn’t try this with the super stick mind you. 
 

but there is a repeater about 70 miles from where my son has CAP that does a repeater net check in a 9pm the night he has CAP. Both locations are fairly elevated with lower land between. I want to say my location is around 800ASL and the tower for the repeater is located at about 1100 and one change ASL. On my UV9g and stock Antenna I can barely make out anything (I found the repeater using the Ut-72 antenna on my car,  on my Midland MTX105, though couldn’t talkback, because no repeater transmit channels). Like not enough to break squelch. 
 

with the tactical antenna folded, it’ll intermittently break squelch. With it extended it’ll come through okay, but I can’t hit it transmitting. With the Nogoya I not only hit it, but I managed to carry on a conversation with someone through the repeater using my Uv-9g. It was coming through okay, with a bit of fade and lost me a time or two where I had to repeat myself (I was a little excited and waking around in the field. 
 

now with my DB-25g and Ut-72 on my car I get through much more easily to the repeater. But that’s another dBi or so of gain and 4x the radio Tx power (a me better SWR). 
 

this is a long way of saying, the 771g in my limited experience so far is the best HT mobile antenna I’ve tried. But it isn’t going to be some miracle. If you are in a quiet area with no one taking it isn’t going to suck in intelligible radio traffic from 10x further away (at best you might have the same receive signal strength 40-80% further, assuming line of sight. Beyond line of sight it might only help a tiny amount). 
 

altitude is the best way to really increase your range. A good cheap setup if you don’t want to do a base station radio (which aren’t necessarily very expensive) is that UT-72 Nogoya antenna and plop it on a cookie sheet and stick it in an upper story window. It comes with a female SMA to SO259 adapter so you can use it on your UV9g. That will get you more gain and much better SWR (I see 1.01 with it on top of my car. About 1.03 sitting on a cookie sheet) than anything you can realistically attach to your HT and walk around with it. In case you didn’t know, the Ut-72 and similar vehicle/mobile antennas are monopoles without a ground plane. So if you don’t stick a big piece of metal under them then their SWR goes up a lot and the receiver and transmit is much less efficient (think of a ground plane sort of like a metal reflector to bounce the signals in to the antenna or reflect them out from the antenna rather than in to the ground. For an HT antenna the antenna body and your body acts as not very good ground planes)

[WRPL668]

Wow 1024 you’ve given me a ton of information. Ok let me try an clear something please. I’m extremely new to this radio thing. Yes I live in a very quiet area. Bought the Ocean 905G but sent it back. At $120.00 an sitting on my shelf didn’t work for me. I am an 80 year ole retired veteran an I have to watch my bucks. Bought this UV9G for $40.00 an thought I could add things if necessary an still spend less then the 905G. 
Now I’ve the 771 coming at $18.99 an have my fingers crossed. By the way, my home is one floor. A small ranch type house. 
With only this setup, after the antenna coming in, don’t work I’ll have to revaluate my position. 
I have a piece of sandpaper so I can’t lightly sand the base of the new 771 until it fits thanks.  If I think that I’d need a base station I’ll have to ask me if I’ll go the expense. If you can let know what kinda cost that would be please.  
I also gave going the “ham” route but with my age, an the expense of those radios being higher I went the GMRS route. Was I wrong?  I’m logged on three local repeaters but can’t reach them with this rubber ducky, so the 771 may help. 
Thanks again for your nice response. 
bob - WRPL668

[lazarus1024]

I’ll try to get you a fuller reply when I sit down at my computer. Make sure it’s the 771g. The 771 is for dual band HAM and the 771g is specifically turns for GMRS. The 771 will almost certainly work better than the rubber ducky, but the 771g will work even better. 
 

I went cheap. Or at least what I’d consider cheap for a base station setup. I just got it setup today. Radioddity DB-25g, 35 feet of KMR400 coax run up to my attic and an HYS 350-500mhz antenna tuned for GMRS (set to the 470mhz marks has me at perfect SWR for 462 and 467MHz). you’d need a power supply for it. The radio pulls about 4.5amps or a bit more at high power. So you’d probably want a 7amp/13.8v power supply. I actually used a 88whr battery pack I found on Amazon that has 12v cigarette lighter outlet and built a 12-13.8v converter to get the right voltage for the radio. It will run on 12v, but you’ll see about 20% less transmit power. Probably all told I have $300-310 on to the setup. $105 (on sale from $120) for the radio, $45 for the coax, I think $50 for the antenna, $55 for the power pack, $35 for the voltage converter and $15 for a USB-C PD power adapter for the battery pack. 
 

 

[lazarus1024]

To add, you’d save about $50-70 on my power supply “solution” by just getting a 5/7amp 13.8v power supply. I wanted something I could be mobile with if I wanted (backpacking or bike packing for instance. Or just camping).

here is the setup (currently not cleaned off the top of the cubby)

 

i can’t speak to HAM. I am planning to get my technicians license this summer when my kids are out of school and I have some more time to study for it (rather than helping my middle schoolers with “their” homework and projects). You would have a lot longer range with 10 and 6 meter and even on 2, you potentially have longer range, though probably not much more than GMRS. A town over that’s at a bit higher altitude I can hit a repeater in southern PA that is 70 or so miles away from my car and UT-72 antenna and the same DB-25g radio. 
 

VHF/2 meter has the advantage that (non-metallic) objects like trees and buildings don’t attenuate the signal much at all. UHF is attenuated a fair amount by trees and buildings. It can still penetrate, but at much shorter range. Off the top of my head in thick woods if an antenna is maybe 10 feet off the ground for UHF at 5w power you might be able to pickup the signal a couple miles away. VHF would likely travel 4-5 miles through the same. That’s ballpark. Of course. My UV9g can hit that repeater 70 miles away with the Nogoya 771g antenna on it. Barely, but enough I chatted with someone on the repeater last week for a couple minutes on my UV9g. The DB25g and UT72 works a lot better though. 
 

my house is on the backside of a ridge a mile and a half away and 100ft higher. That greatly limits what I can hit from my house. I finally found a sweet spot where I can hit a repeater about 15 miles or so from my house over the ridge (not kind of sight). That repeater (because it’s on a high spot for that side of my county and on a tower on top on that) covers like 4000sq-miles. By comparison I’d guess from my attic antenna I just installed and the ~20w of transmit power my radio gives me I’d bet I probably don’t cover more  than 100-200sq-miles due to terrain, vegetation (I am bordering on some dense, though not thick woods) and altitude as my antenna is only about 14-15’ high. If I put it on a mast on top of my roof and got in 20 feet higher up I’d probably cover a bit more, but probably not a lot because of that terrain. I’d probably need a 50-80ft tower to make a lot of difference. And I am certainly not doing that. Maybe in retirement if the property is right (I am not retiring where I live now). VHF might work a bit better for me, but I am not expecting miracles. I probably need HF 10/6 meter. 

[WRPL668]

Wow what a great setup you have. I don’t know why where I live is so quiet. I have no comparison to before I had my radio. I sincerely hope the 771G helps me get out an do some talking. I also hope I don’t regret sending back the 905G. But without any local help I’m on my own. So it’s trial an error so far. 
im not much with electricity stuff an if I have go the “base” route I’m on own.  The nice people here have been a huge help an my crutch to give me tips or direction like yourself. I’m jealous of your knowledge but at my age doing what you have is a NO go. I really hope the new antenna works for me. I’ll let you all know what it gets here this week. Making it fit is the first priority. 
That repeater you hit at 70 miles is it with a handhold radio an the 771G?  If so I should do the three I have permission on here. 
I could also put a antenna on my chimney an run the coaxing into the house an hook it up to my UV9G. But we’ll see. 
thanks for help,

bob

p.s. Where are you from, an what’s yer name?
 

[WRPL668]

Well the 771G arrived an I’m going to check it out. It went into the uv9g without any problems. So far so good. 
Typical fingers crossed. 
bob

[lazarus1024]

The name is Matt. I am in central Maryland. On GMRS it is relatively quiet here. Maybe 95% quiet airwaves over the course of a week. The local repeater has a net check-in and most of the traffic I hear in my area is using that repeater. Or I'll hear inter-vehicle coms on the interstate that passes a couple of miles away every once in awhile. Or that is what it sounds like it is. As for my knowledge, hard earned over a lifetime. My Dad taught me a bit on how to work on cars and home renovation, but not a ton. I met my wife soon after college, got married pretty fast and welcomed kids not much past our first anniversary and she had to stop working because we couldn't afford child care. So any kind of fixing up of houses ended up being us having to work on them because there was no way we could afford contractors to do the work. It turned in to something I enjoyed a lot. So almost 20 years on, I've done manager renovations to several houses, built an addition on my last house and I've done just about everything other than gas fitting and foundation work (structure, insulation, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, siding, roofing, masonry). Welding and now radios are my new hobbies  So far radios have proven less dangerous.

I've found if I sit my UV-9g next to me while I work (I work from home) and leave it scanning I'll usually pick-up some chatter on a channel every once in awhile. A lot of times it is just maybe a couple or a few minutes that are probably guys talking to each other between vehicles on the interstate before they are out of range. There are a few guys in my area that seem to have regular, scheduled conversations at about the same time on the same days over the course of a week.

 

Right now I am trying to get GMRS communications to work between my house and my Brother-in-law's house. We only live about 4 miles apart, but we've got a low ridge between us. So far, no luck with the equipment I have, but I am seeing if getting an antenna up higher at his house and maybe a directional (yagi) antenna on his end or both our ends might be enough to get clear communications. We can use the repeater though.

For the repeater 70 miles away, that is using my UV-9g and Nagoya 771g on it. Full quieting on the repeater. Its weak, but intelligible. From my car and UT-72 on the roof of the car, with a DB-25g reception is stronger at the repeater end. For the repeater near my house and attic 6dBi HYS 350-500MHz antenna that the radio (DB-25g) you see in the picture I posted hooked up to, I can hit the repeater from my UV-9g connected up to the antenna. I'd imagine the received signal is stronger from the DB-25g. With just the 771g on my UV-9g I cannot hit the local repeater unless I get up on my roof in just the right spot and its weak reception at best. It was hit and miss getting my attic, higher gain, antenna located in a sweet spot with okay reception.

[WRVR429]

Wont the adapters for quick change throw the swr off?

[WRUT935]

No, the BNC will not/should not throw off SWR. I use 771 G on all my HRs and makes it easy to remove.  Makes it easy to switch to my mag mount when in the car.

[WRPL700]

I just replaced my standard rubber duck on my Baofeng GMRS-9R (same radio as the UV9G) with the Nagoya NA-771G.  I have not yet tested it in the real world, but the SWRs are great compared to the rubber duck that came with it.

 

[wrci350]

You cannot accurately measure the SWR of an HT antenna with that setup.

When you hold an HT in your hand and push the PTT button, the radio and your body are providing the ground plane for the antenna.  Laying the HT on a table and inserting a power meter between it and the antenna removes the ground plane.  You can measure *power* in that configuration, but the SWR readings aren't accurate.

More reading here:  

 

[WRPL700]

1 hour ago, wrci350 said:

You cannot accurately measure the SWR of an HT antenna with that setup.

When you hold an HT in your hand and push the PTT button, the radio and your body are providing the ground plane for the antenna.  Laying the HT on a table and inserting a power meter between it and the radio removes the ground plane.  You can measure *power* in that configuration, but the SWR readings aren't accurate.

More reading here:  

 

I wonder if that is why Surecom provides a metal plate to put on top of the meter (between the meter and the antenna)?  You don't see the metal plate in the pictures.  You sure can see a distinct difference between the two antennas on the meter. 

Also, I have seen where others have stated you cannot get an accurate power reading on an antenna, but must use a dummy load to test the radio for power out.  

[wrci350]

2 minutes ago, WRPL700 said:

Also, I have seen where others have stated you cannot get an accurate power reading on an antenna, but must use a dummy load to test the radio for power out.  

Yes, that's true.