HT mobile set-up expectations

[WSAN206]

What should one expect using a HT with magnetic antenna?   Better or worse than just using an HT standing outside of vehicle? 

I called my brother (simplex) and he said I sounded better when I exited car and put on my Nagoya 771G vs in my car hooked up to a 72g antenna and about 13’ of coax.   
 

I also had a mic when inside the car vs no mic outside.   Is this what one would expect?   

Am I negatively impacting reception with my antenna mounted like this?

 

Thanks!

[OffRoaderX]

Usually, in most cases, generally speaking, most of the time, for most people, on average, and assuming there are no issues with your cabling or connectors, you will get better send and receive performance using an external antenna vs using the HT antenna INSIDE the car.  I would expect the external antenna to work a little better than the stock antenna outside the car, but not hugely.

Dont forget that you are losing some power through the coax, connectors and patch-cord, so that could negatively impact the performance.

[SteveShannon]

9 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

Usually, in most cases, generally speaking, most of the time, for most people, on average, and assuming there are no issues with your cabling or connectors,

Glad to see that “Advertising Law School“ is making a difference.

[OffRoaderX]

18 minutes ago, Sshannon said:

Glad to see that “Advertising Law School“ is making a difference.

I'm just being careful to not answer like "some people" that come in and decree something as if it is set in stone and has no variables and could never be anything different from what they once experienced or read in a book.. Those guys make themselves look like R-tards, and they're all over this forum.  I crave to be different!

[SvenMarbles]

Significantly better. The antenna on your vehicle not only has a proper ground plane, but it's likely a gain antenna, at least 3db. Your effective radiated power from a gain antenna increases by an order of magnitude every 3db. So a 5 watt HT from a mobile 3db gain antenna is roughly 10 watts ERP. Get a 6db gain antenna and then it's 20. The cool thing about car installs is that it IS that simple, because there's no coax loss to take into account.

HT antennas, even good ones are compromise antennas. No gain and they have a problem with counterpoise. The ERP on those is actually lower than the rated radio power.

What antenna do you have out of curiosity..

 

[OffRoaderX]

Jeezus...

[WRWE456]

54 minutes ago, WSAN206 said:

he said I sounded better when I exited car and put on my Nagoya 771G vs in my car hooked up to a 72g antenna and about 13’ of coax.

?

[WRXR360]

Is it the 72G/cable that is the problem, or is it the external mic/connection, or the "patch cord". That is what has to be determined by you.  Since the HT seems to work ok with the 771G, you have eliminated that as the source of the problem. 

[WRWE456]

That roof rack may not be doing the 72G any favors. There are many things that can cause issues like that.

[WRYZ926]

Having the antenna right next to that roof rack is not ideal but should still work. Try moving the antenna onto the middle of the rack and see if that makes any difference.

PS: those Baofeng hand mic's aren't the best. One trick to help is to take them apart and open up the microphone hole. 

[WSAN206]

Thanks guys - sounds like I need to eliminate some variables.   I think first I’ll take the rack off and move the antenna to the middle of the car.   I really appreciate the feedback.   
If it works at least as good with the mobile setup as it does standing outside the car, I’ll be happy.  

[WSAN206]

55 minutes ago, WSAK691 said:

 

What antenna do you have out of curiosity..

 

On the car - Nagoya UT 72G

On the HT - Nagoya 771G 

 

[WRYZ926]

The antenna should work just fine in the center of the roof barring any issues with the coax or connectors.

[WRYZ926]

One thing I forgot to mention earlier. Some mag mounts have a small SMA top connector that screws into a SO239 connector. Double check that connection is assembled correctly and tight. I've been bit before by that little connection coming loose.

[Socalgmrs]

I run that antenna on 2 trucks.  One with an 8w hand held and one with a 20w.  Even the 8watt ht gets over 20miles.   I’d love the antenna to the middle first of all.  

[WRYZ926]

I'm also running a Nagoya UT-72G antenna on my 23 Ford Escape. I have it towards the rear of the roof with plenty of surface area around it and no roof rack. It works well. I can hit our repeater from up to 35 miles away depending on the terrain. Here is where my UT-2G is. The antenna in middle of the roof is my dual band Comet SBB1.

[nokones]

Has the external antenna been swept to determine center/resonate freq of the antenna and if the cable is good or not?

Improperly tuned or mismatched resonate antenna can be worst than the portable antenna inside a car and the car almost can be considered as a Faraday cage

[WSAN206]

If I check everything with swr (have one coming) would that tell me if there’s any issues with where it’s mounted or if I have any connection issues? 

[WRYZ926]

A SWR meter will tell you if the antenna is resonant or not. And if it is not, then you will need to first check all connections and the coax cable. If all of that checks good, then you will probably need to tune the antenna.

[SvenMarbles]

3 hours ago, WSAN206 said:

If I check everything with swr (have one coming) would that tell me if there’s any issues with where it’s mounted or if I have any connection issues? 

 

It's likely that rack is a problem. For an experiment, unroute the coax and just slap it onto your hood instead and do the same experiment with your friend.

Once your SWR meter comes in the mail, test it in both spots. That hunk of metal up front of it is going to really monkey with the waveform.

 

I doubt you have connection issues. I'm sure you knew to screw things together properly..

 

How bad do you need that roof rack on there? lol

 

 

[SteveShannon]

3 hours ago, WSAN206 said:

If I check everything with swr (have one coming) would that tell me if there’s any issues with where it’s mounted or if I have any connection issues? 

It won’t help with where you have it mounted. A shorted or open feedline will result in a very high SWR. 

[WRYC373]

Youd want a power meter with a dummy load. VNA can also be used to diagnose this issue and ensure resonance. 

[Borage257]

First try with and with out the hand mic on the UT-72G

[WSAN206]

Took the roof rack off and slapped it right in the middle of the roof.  Tried to reach a repeater about 31 miles away and wasn’t able to ping  it (no mic attached) .   Stepped out and put my 771g on and instantly got a response from the repeater.   Gotta be something jacked up with the adapters where it necks down to my HT or somewhere in the coax itself.  I’ll wait and check Tuesday when my meter comes.  So frustrating.  

[WSAN206]

3 hours ago, WSAK691 said:

 

It's likely that rack is a problem. For an experiment, unroute the coax and just slap it onto your hood instead and do the same experiment with your friend.

Once your SWR meter comes in the mail, test it in both spots. That hunk of metal up front of it is going to really monkey with the waveform.

 

I doubt you have connection issues. I'm sure you knew to screw things together properly..

 

How bad do you need that roof rack on there? lol

 

 

Before I mounted it on my car - I put the magnet on a cookie sheet and put high in my loft in my house.  Wasn’t able to reach any further than I could with just the HT antenna.  Maybe even worse then too - just figured I wasn’t getting a good ground plane.  Maybe that was a sign something wasn’t right