Difference between 2m and 70cm HT antennas?

[ke7vvt]

Recently I have been ranting about monoband/dualband HT antennas, to be honest the last antennas I have been looking at were for mobiles and I for some reason though that there were monoband HT's as well. There are quite a few monoband mobile antennas, but when I went back and checked there actually are no monoband HT antennas....

http://www.worldwidedx.com/handitalkies/39381-ultra-high-frequency-handheld-antenna.html - Rant on a 440MHz antenna in the HandiTalkies section

Which leads me to believe that if you tried your hardest to make the perfect length 2m antenna, it would still function well enough for 70cm to call it dual band even though that is not what you were trying for. At least at the short length for an HT ~ 20-40cm. Mobile/base antennas there is actually a difference, so with the longer lengths there is an advantage in either band by making the length just right.

No monoband HT antennas
Amateur HT Antennas
GigaParts.com

A few monoband mobile antennas
Amateur Mobile Antennas
GigaParts.com

Many monoband base antennas
Amateur Base Antennas
GigaParts.com

Do you think that I am thinking about that correctly? There is no such thing as a monoband HT antenna, even if you tried to make it specifically for 2m it would still function quite well on 440Mhz, and that is why when I search for an HT antenna I only come up with a dualband selection? i.e. Antenna manufacturers are not going to cut themselves short on selling a monoband antenna if it functions just as well on two frequencies, so they call it a dualband.

I did find this place, Smiley Antennas which claims to make monoband antennas, but I suspect that they are just using the same antenna and calling it monoband depending on how you navigate the site, but this is PURE speculation. The site/company looks legit but I am bothered about how all of the pictures are the same (comparing 2m/440) and the descriptions are the same with only 2m and 70cm #'s changed. I am going to try and get one 2m and one 70cm "tuned" 5/8 Slim Duck antennas and test them to see how much they differ, as well as compare it to a Diamond SRH77CA and Nagoya NA-771.

Smiley Antennas
Smiley Antennas
Diamond RH77CA SRH77CA Antenna

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I don't understand.The link to Gigaparts you posted that supposedly has no monoband HT antennas points to three MONO band antennas.

There certainly are mono band HT antennas out there albeit not as many now as there used to be. More and more HT's operate on more than one band so of course there would be less and less mono band antennas out there. It is easy to make an antenna for 2m that will not work on 440 MHz,you just have to select the proper loading components but why would you do that when it is actually easier to make it work 2m and 70 cm? A true 1/4 wave antenna on 2m will act as a half decent 3/4 wave on 440 MHz but it will have lots of high angle radiation on that band. SWR is not everything. Most commercial HT's that only operate on one band have mono band antennas. I used to have a Pace Landmaster 2 VHF commercial HT and there was no way on earth the antenna would function on any other frequency band than what it was intended for. I tried operating it on it's 3'rd harmonic just like a 2m antenna would work on 70 cm but the match was waaaaay off. Also my Alinco DJ-160 2m HT antenna will not work on my Realistic HX-404 70cm HT.

 

[ke7vvt]

Great. Thanks CK.