Improved reception on a new Wouxun KG-905g?

[WROQ359]

Bought a new 905g, loaded it up with some local repeaters and have been trying to figure out why it will be picking up a particular conversation between two other users and then all the sudden the signal will drop and nothing is heard. I know antenna and location play a big part in reception, so I have been testing the reception in different areas and still seem to have the same results. So here is more of my question, is the stock antenna not worth using and need to upgrade to something better? Are there settings on the radio itself that need to be changed for better reception? I programmed it with the Wouxun PC-Write software that is available to download on the buytwowayradios website, everything looked rather straight forward but now thinking I may have missed something given my situation.

Looking forward to your insight

 

[OffRoaderX]

I have several 905Gs and the antennas on all of them work fine. Its possible you have a dud, or some other issue, but using a better antenna like a Nagoya 771G might help.. 

The only setting in the radio that might make any difference would be the squelch - make sure its not up too high or it could blank-out weak signals.. try setting it at 1 or 2 and see if that helps.

[WROQ359]

I have the squelch at 1 and it doesn't seem to help. I'll look into a different antenna maybe and see if that improves anything. Thx

[OffRoaderX]

If that doesnt help contact support at BuyTwoWayRadios and they will either set you straight or send you a new radio.

[mitzvah]

To; OffRoaderX:

The stock antenna is 4.8245" (my 905G paperweight). And the Nagoya 771G is 15.3000". So is it build quality or length?

[OffRoaderX]

Yes.

[KAF6045]

By which the prior responder means... BOTH quality and length.

Increased length is always good (for reception, at least) as it allows more surface to capture incoming signals. However, for transmitting, length has to be matched to some multiple of the wavelength (SWR). As you reach things longer than 1/4 wave* (common whips) and 1/2 wave (dipoles) you start to add "gain" -- more of the signal is focused outward (perpendicular) to the antenna, and less spread up/down from perpendicular.

Quality... Meh... The factory antenna on my BTech MURS-V1 is spec'd for the VHF band -- all of it, per the label under the socket. And it does have an excellent SWR for a rubber duck (measured using an antenna analyzer). Problem: that SWR (around 1.3) happens to be at the bottom of the 2m Amateur band. it ran closer to SWR 3.0 just 10MHz higher, in the MURS band. I'd bought the Nagoya 701C (dual-band supposedly tuned for "commercial" range) for a GMRS-V2#. Antenna analyzer showed it around SWR 2 in MURS band, but over 3 in GMRS band. I've stuck that one onto the MURS radio. The GMRS-only 771G showed SWRs around 2.5 -- better than the factory whip, but not that much.

 

 

* 1/4 wave antennas are essentially half of a dipole, and really need a "ground plane" (like a metal car roof) to act as a "mirror" to create the other half of a dipole. On many handheld radios, the body of the radio is some metal and ideally couples to your hand. Even at that, one trick often seen in Amateur discussions is to put a counterpoise wire on the handheld: a 1/4 wave wire (take into account velocity factor) carefully wrapped to the outer/shield side of the antenna connection before screwing on the antenna itself. That gives something closer to a real dipole antenna.

# Billed as 5W/0.5W -- but an MFJ-847 power/SWR meter with suitable coax jumper and SMA adapters showed it as 2.4W/0.6W -- and SWR 99.9 with the 701C. My GMRS-V1, a 2W/0.5W radio, actually showed up at 2.6W/0.8W! Note that antenna analyzer did not show >9.9 SWR with the 701C, so some problem in connectors? I put the 771G antenna onto the V2 (I'd bought that one for the V1 so its gain could compensate for the "lower power output"), the V1 is now running factory whip.