Wouxun KG-Q10G Antenna

[WSAB905]

I got my first GMRS radio today, a Wouxun KG-Q10G, and i was able to hit our local repeater however, Everyone told me my transmission was so statically they could barely hear me or not at all. Would replacing the antenna be an option to make that better? Or anything else I can do make that better? Thanks for the help!!

[OffRoaderX]

a better antenna might help, a little, assuming it is properly tuned for 467Mhz.  But going outside/getting higher/clear of any obstacles between you and the repeater would help more.

[p0pgh0st]

I think I heard that Radio might come with a glued antenna because it transmits data (gps) over gmrs. I’m pretty sure you can still take it off but it might void the warranty. Don’t quote me on this but look further into it, if you feel the need. 

[WRYZ926]

How far away is the repeater and were you standing outside, inside a vehicle, or inside a structure?

Being inside a vehicle or structure makes a difference, especially the farther away from the repeater you are. I can talk on my local repeater with good signal reports on my KG935G as long as I am standing outside. The repeater is 21.5 miles away. I can make it into the repeater from inside the house but my transmitions are full of static and hard to understand. Same goes if I try to use the KG935G inside my vehicle with the stock antenna.

Terrain, structures and trees will also effect things.

I have tried my Abbree 17" GMRS antenna on my KG935G but it didn't make any difference when compared to the stock antenna.

[WSAB905]

16 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

a better antenna might help, a little, assuming it is properly tuned for 467Mhz.  But going outside/getting higher/clear of any obstacles between you and the repeater would help more.

Whoa, love your YouTube channel man. It is actually what got me interested in this in the first place.

From everyones responses I gather that I maybe in a poor location to use a HT. I am about 16-18 miles from the repeater with plenty of obstructions from ground level outside. I purchased an Ed Fong GMRS antenna and will build a base station as fast as my budget allows. Hopefully that will get me a clearer signal from my roof.

Thanks everyone for your responses, Im excited to learn more from everyone here.

[WRUW493]

Hi all, this is one of my first posts on this forum.

Please keep in mind that a longer antenna, such as advertised 5/8 wavelength, is of no added value on a handheld. The reason is that ANY antenna longer than 1/4 wavelength requires a ground plane of 2-3 wavelengths (yea, like feet) for the true advertised "gain" to be realized. The standard method of measuring mobile antenna gain in a real antenna chamber is to mount it on a 1 meter diameter metal plate. The GMRS handheld is no where near that.

You are better off, usually by quite a bit, by going with a good 1/4 wave antenna. Fortunately at 462MHz that's about 6 inches, which by chance happens to be the length of many handhelds. So this combination makes for a 1/2 wave dipole type mode. This is as good as you can get in the real world on a handheld. Oh, this is the reason that I choose the larger, ie 6 inch tall, handhelds and stay away from the really small ones. In those cases the radio is just too short to resonate properly at 462MHz.

I replaced the OEM dual band antenna on my GM-30 with a simple 6 inch long (single band) whip I took a chance on Amazon. It works phenomenally well, better than the OEM antenna noticeably. Not that the OEM antenna is a bad design, but it is dual band so there are compromises needed to make it work outside of GMRS. I only want the best GMRS performance I can get. Here's the link if anyone is interested:  1/4 wave GMRS antenna

I know there are a lot of opinions on this topic, and some people make claims to the contrary. All I can tell you to about this is that I worked for a US cell phone manufacturer for 30 years as an antenna design engineer. We used the above philosophy utilizing the radio/phone as the bottom half of the dipole numerous times, it works, really.

Enjoy.