Replacement Antenna for HT?

[office888]

The telescoping 5/8 wave that Diamond makes is a superb performer. However, fully extended, it's quite unwieldy. It also puts a lot of strain on the antenna jack.

I'm using an Diamond SRHF40 on my Yaesu FT270R. It was a bit too flexible, so I put 2 layers of heatshrink on it to stiffen it up a bit. I also put a third layer at the base to take some strain off of it.

Zero complaints, seems to receive a little better than the factory antenna, but the gain is minimal at best. Probably not worth the $30 it cost me...oh well.

 

[WR0220]

I always take the manufacturer's gain specs with a grain of salt...or two. I do know that the addition of the SMA-24 and tiger tail did help a bit for both rx/tx to distant repeaters. There's one approx. 20 miles away that I could hit with the original rubber duck from my front yard, but I needed a full 5 watt output. Even then, I didn't get full quieting into the repeater. With the tiger tail and rubber duck I still need 5 watts, but achieve full quieting. With the SMA-24 and tiger tail I get full quieting at 2.5 watts output. So my "gain" (pun intended) is a tad bit better rx/tx and my batteries last longer because I don't need to use full output. Here's some pics of the tiger tail I made from recycled junk drawer parts:

 

[Ballistic]

If you want to really find out how much it helps forget the repeaters and use simplex. Then you and your contact will just be using your signals and not that of the repeater.

Good point. I will start out on a repeater to establish comms, then go to simplex.

 

[Ballistic]

And something to keep in mind about gain figures...

The figure as given is for an isotropic antenna. When you convert that to a 'real world' number, you subtract '2.15 dB' from the isotropic gain figure. Something else to remember is that isotropic, along with 'real world' antenna gain figures are all based on comparison to a 1/2 wave length antenna at the same frequency. That means that the quoted numbers are a bit 'optimistic'. A 1/4 wave length antenna has a negative gain when compared to a 1/2 wave standard antenna. You would be much closer to a factual gain figure if you'd put a (-) in front of the quoted gain, '-2.15 dB'.
That negative gain figure for a 1/4 wave antenna is about as 'dead nutz' normal as you can get. If a 1/4 wave antenna suits your purpose, who cares what it's "gain" is, it works. If you're expecting some sort of 'gain' from an antenna on a hand held radio on 2 meters, and if you expect it to be a convenient size to carry around, I just happen to have this boat for sale!!
- 'Doc

Yeah, in my excitement, I got a little ahead of myself.

Your comment is correct in its entirety.

 

[kc0zps]

I've been using a tiger tail for a few months now. While my tests are "scientific", I do know that its a huge improvement. Before the tiger's tail, I couldn't hit a local repeater in my living room. I'd always have to move closer to the window. Once installing the tiger's tail, I can now hold a conversation with people on the same repeater whilst in my living room. There's a little bit of white noise, but I am readable.

I also use the radio while riding my motorcycle, hence the photo of the helmet.