Antenna advice

[WSEN246]

Good evening folks, 

I'm just looking for some advice, and hoping you can educate my ignorance. I bought a set of Baofeng GM15 pros a couple of months back to get into GRMS, and I'm loving them (see the other post I made a few weeks ago). I think I've gotten a pretty good grasp of how the settings work, what frequencies I need to use for certain aspects, and have picked up several conversations in my area of construction workers going about their day to day. Pretty cool.

Now on to the next step. I bought the kit on Amazon that came with the standard antennas, but also with some Abbree AR-771 GRMS antennas. I have been using the 771 almost exclusively, and they seem to work great around where I live. 

I bought these radios with the intent of being able to keep in contact with family members during hunting season as we live in West Virginia (keep that in mind), and we hunt in a area that has yet to be graced by the wonders of cell phone technology. My father is too old to venture into the woods much anymore, so he sits in a hut he built in one of our fields, and I'm not getting any younger, so I figured comms may not be the worst of ideas. 

Now like I said, this is West Virginia, and I hunt down in the mountains. I won't be too far from the old man, a mile at best, but I'll be in the woods, maybe in a hollow, or on a ridge, hard to say. I'm wondering if the 771 antenna will be ok, or if there is something I should look for otherwise. I've tried doing research, but every video has a different answer. One says "height is might" so if I want to go that route, I can get a decent folding antenna, again from Abbree, that fits my radio, is tuned to GRMS, and unfolds to 42.5 inches. Another person says that in hills and dense areas, a low gain antenna would serve better, so maybe I need something lesser in size and the smaller rubber duck that came with it would be better? What says the hive mind?

Just a little more information to add, my dad should be golden in his shack. I also purchased a nagoya UT-72g for my Jeep, mostly because I kept hearing it mentioned everywhere, and I figured it would be a good bridge to allow me to use my handheld radios in my Jeep until I decide exactly what I want to purchase as far as a mobile unit goes. I'm going to take that antenna since it has a magnet mount and stick it to the roof of Dad's shack. That way he has an external antenna and shouldn't have any interference. He won't even have to open the door or anything, and we cant let the heat from his propane heater out now.

And lastly, there's a repeater that I can tag onto with a pretty good success rate not terribly far from where we will be, but if I'm down in a hollow, well we all know that success rate will drop. 

 

 

[dosw]

Height is might doesn't mean a longer antenna, it means get up above the terrain, because the real rule is that if two antennas can see each other, they can communicate. And if they can't, and the reason is due to terrain, lots of buildings, or dense forest, they may not be able to communicate.

In this case, a longer antenna might not change much for you other than making your radio more particular about being held very close to vertical. 

 

 

[808Beachbum]

I have the same exact radio and antenna, which I have tested in my local urban environment with some so-called mountains in several directions. I did some testing with a buddy, and found the combo to be perfectly acceptable. Pretty consistently, in different directions, we could communicate just fine out to about two miles. To be fair, this was not with both of us at street level among buildings, but we picked our less obstructed areas, and sometimes it required just moving one radio 20 feet. We dropped pins on googleearth from each location so we could accurately review the facts. By doing so, we could see the change of elevation at some locations, as well as how much of the mountains were between our locations.

In other words, you splurged $50 on a pair of radios, so take Pops out, drop him off at the shack, then take a hike/drive to do your own testing from various locations you expect to traverse. THEN, if results suck, you have a reference point and can decide on the possible value of additional expenditures, as well as provide clear data for discussion here.

[Socalgmrs]

Yes line of sight is key.   An ht radio with a 771 line of sight will do 20, 30, or even 40 miles or more but if you don’t have line of sight you may not get a mile.  No amount of power or antenna is going to help if you don’t have line of sight.   So find the places that have good LOS and go for it.    

[Hoppyjr]

I agree that the 771 antenna, be they Nagoya or Abree, should be all you need.

For what it’s worth, I did the Nagoya 771 and 701 on some of the Baofeng handhelds I bought. The 771 outperformed the 701 as expected. Then I read about the Smiley Antenna “Slim Duck” and picked one up. I found it performed as well as the 771, but was significantly more compact. This in the foothills on the west side of the Cascade mountains in Washington State.

I like the Smiley enough to have one on my Icom ID-50 too.

Happy Hunting!

[WSEN246]

Thanks guys. Sounds like I'm about as set as I can be. I'd like to do some experimenting prior to my actual hunting trip next month, but I live on the other side of the state for work. If I can get a weekend free, I'll pop down and try it out. I appreciate the feedback! 

[LeoG]

On 10/10/2024 at 1:39 AM, Hoppyjr said:

I agree that the 771 antenna, be they Nagoya or Abree, should be all you need.

For what it’s worth, I did the Nagoya 771 and 701 on some of the Baofeng handhelds I bought. The 771 outperformed the 701 as expected. Then I read about the Smiley Antenna “Slim Duck” and picked one up. I found it performed as well as the 771, but was significantly more compact. This in the foothills on the west side of the Cascade mountains in Washington State.

I like the Smiley enough to have one on my Icom ID-50 too.

Happy Hunting!

I didn't find that the Smiley Rubber Duck antenna equaled the Nagoya 771G.  It was better than the OEM antenna on my TD-H3 but the 771G went 1/3-1/2 mile farther than the Smiley when I was testing my RT97S

[LeoG]

One option for the height is might scenario for your Dad would be to put an antenna up on his hut as high as you could get it and it may extend your range more.

[WSEN246]

 

On 10/12/2024 at 10:22 PM, LeoG said:

One option for the height is might scenario for your Dad would be to put an antenna up on his hut as high as you could get it and it may extend your range more.

See, I had considered that, decided against that. My reasoning being that the hut is in an open field that is only used for hunting a few weeks out of the year. No one lives on this property full time, so I don't want a permanent instill that could grow legs and walk off, and I don't want anything too large that would cause the deer to be spooked by a strange new thing. That's what's leading me to a smaller magnetic roof antenna on the hut for the week I'm there, and it can be removed when I'm leaving. Should be small enough to not be too noticeable across the field by the critters, and can be easily put up/ taken down with a ladder. 

[LeoG]

Small dipole 5' tall 7.2dBi gain, fiberglass so you can paint it camouflage brown and green.  Deer won't be spooked other than when you were installing it.  Theft... can't help you there.

[SteveShannon]

12 hours ago, WSEN246 said:

 

See, I had considered that, decided against that. My reasoning being that the hut is in an open field that is only used for hunting a few weeks out of the year. No one lives on this property full time, so I don't want a permanent instill that could grow legs and walk off, and I don't want anything too large that would cause the deer to be spooked by a strange new thing. That's what's leading me to a smaller magnetic roof antenna on the hut for the week I'm there, and it can be removed when I'm leaving. Should be small enough to not be too noticeable across the field by the critters, and can be easily put up/ taken down with a ladder. 

You’d be amazed how quickly deer will become complacent to a new structure. Shiny barb wire fences, busy highways, farm equipment - within a few days they completely tune them out.