Antenna question sending vs receiving

[WRYS366]

Hi there,

I'm new to the hobby and experimenting with a small mobile antenna in my vehicle.

I'm using

• 2x Baofeng UV-5R GMRS radios
• 1 with the stock antenna
• 1 connected to this antenna.

I have some landmarks I'm using for range and trying to plot an area that I can transmit and receive in just to get an idea of what the radios can do.

The terrain is a mix of

• farmland
• forest
• orchards
• small hills

I've added the vehicle antenna after just using the stock antennas thinking that the radio with the larger antenna should be able to transmit further, and the 2nd radio should be able to hear it, but not respond.

This isn't what's happening though.  Adding the larger antenna to one radio doesn't seem to have affected anything.

I was planning on buying a 2nd antenna but I'm taking things one step at a time and experimenting.

Do I need to have larger antennas on both radios before I notice a change?

Thanks for the responses!      

 

 

 

 

[OffRoaderX]

Adding a larger, correctly tuned and well-placed external antenna will almost always certainly perform better than the stock antenna, but depending on your terrain, and 3million other variables, you may or may not notice. With good line of sight, you might get 20 miles of farz on the radios using the stock antennas, but if you have a mountain at 21 miles, then no big antenna is going to get you 22 miles of farz.

Dont overthink it.. If you are getting the farz that you need with the stock rubber ducky antennas, then use them. If you need more farz, then connect to a correctly tuned and well-placed external antenna.

Queue the overly complicated, 10 paragraph responses that don't really address or answer the question:

[kidphc]

I think you have covered the 10 paragraphs already

Foe the op..
How far are you trying to go? If the terrain has a lot of obstacles, try getting to the highest points you can.

Baofengs uv5rs can actually do worse with higher gain antennas. They get overloaded fairly easy (they go at that point).

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[WRYS366]

Thanks for the response @OffRoaderX and thanks for all the great information videos too!

I believe I have really learned a lot by watching your videos and they've helped drive my interest in radios.

I'm not getting the area I'd like and trying to extend it actually.

Adding the larger antenna had no results for me so far, I haven't completely finished testing though yet.

I'm sure it's mostly the terrain around me, but my range is somewhat of a lopsided oval.

One part of the oval only giving about a mile the other 3 to 4 miles from the same point.

Adding the antenna vs using the stock antenna on the roaming radio had no change from the same point, which isn't what I expected.

I think I need to do some reading about tuning, that might be what I'm missing. 

 

 

[SpeedSpeak2Me]

58 minutes ago, WRYS366 said:

Hi there,

I'm new to the hobby and experimenting with a small mobile antenna in my vehicle.

I'm using

• 2x Baofeng UV-5R GMRS radios
• 1 with the stock antenna
• 1 connected to this antenna.

I have some landmarks I'm using for range and trying to plot an area that I can transmit and receive in just to get an idea of what the radios can do.

The terrain is a mix of

• farmland
• forest
• orchards
• small hills

I've added the vehicle antenna after just using the stock antennas thinking that the radio with the larger antenna should be able to transmit further, and the 2nd radio should be able to hear it, but not respond.

This isn't what's happening though.  Adding the larger antenna to one radio doesn't seem to have affected anything.

I was planning on buying a 2nd antenna but I'm taking things one step at a time and experimenting.

Do I need to have larger antennas on both radios before I notice a change?

Thanks for the responses!      

 

Would be good to know where on the vehicle the Nagoya is placed (i.e. roof, trunk, etc.). You want to have at least 6.3" of clear surface in all directions around the antenna (figure 12.5" diameter).  You also don't want it right up against the body or cab of the vehicle, as that will block both TX and RX signals.

Also, the Nagoya UT-72G antenna can be hit/miss.  I know four people that all got them from Amazon, and two have "workable" SWR's on the GMRS band, and two are basically paper weights because they are so bad.  The one that I got is at 1.8:1 on GMRS Simplex (462MHz), and almost 2.1:1 on GMRS Repeater inputs (467 MHz).  Both SWR values are "acceptable", but not exactly great in comparison to other mobile antennas.

[WRYS366]

Sorry, forgot to add the antenna was on the top of the vehicle with no obstructions.

I don't have any equipment (yet) for testing an antenna other than the radios.

I did expect though to gain at least some range using just 1 larger antenna on one radio, which didn't happen.

It is possible though like you say that I got a bad antenna or it's just not a very good antenna to start with.

From what I could tell, the stationary radio was only able to hear the roaming radio once it was in range for that stationary radio to actually transmit.

But my understanding was, which could be wrong, the larger antenna should be able to transmit farther and the radio with the shorter antenna would pick that up father and just not be able to respond, but that might not be correct.

 

 

 

 

[SpeedSpeak2Me]

36 minutes ago, WRYS366 said:

Sorry, forgot to add the antenna was on the top of the vehicle with no obstructions.

I don't have any equipment (yet) for testing an antenna other than the radios.

I did expect though to gain at least some range using just 1 larger antenna on one radio, which didn't happen.

It is possible though like you say that I got a bad antenna or it's just not a very good antenna to start with.

From what I could tell, the stationary radio was only able to hear the roaming radio once it was in range for that stationary radio to actually transmit.

But my understanding was, which could be wrong, the larger antenna should be able to transmit farther and the radio with the shorter antenna would pick that up father and just not be able to respond, but that might not be correct.

 

Typically you would, but the terrain and elevation differences between the two points comes into play. GMRS is all LoS (Line of Sight), so you have to work within its limitations.