Excellent Video! Gonna purchase an Ed Fong antenna. Thanks for all the information.👍🇺🇸

I use one of these mounted in my attic. Great performer. I use it with an HT and an added microphone. The HT is rated at 5W, puts out a little less, but I run it into an amplifier that is generating 37W out. Even without the amp it worked well and I was able to easily hit a GMRS repeater in town for significant coverage, about 12 miles in all directions. It's a great antenna. I also use an Ed Fong 2m/70cm ham antenna in the same attic and the mobile unit I run into it has a 50W output. I'm able to use a heck of a lot of repeaters with that, even ones 70 miles+. Big fan of Ed Fong jpoles.

Interesting. Our Retevis NR30s on high power provide clear simplex comms 12 miles away from our home into town where my wife works. We are at 4600' high desert relatively flat with one lava field hill between the home and town. The UV5G+ works at approx 3/4 that range, and the new TDH3s barely make it 1/4 mile away from the house.

Depending on the distance to your antenna from your radio, you may want to use a better coax cable. At UHF frequencies, the loss can be extremely high. Use a coax loss calculator to figure out how much power you are losing in your coax. BTW, a good SWR does not mean a good radiator, for example a dummy load has a 1:1 SWR. While you want a good SWR (say less than 2:1), getting it down to 1:1 won’t significantly improve your signal.

I think it's Nagoya that makes a decent upgraded antenna for your hand-held, one specially tuned for your GMRS frequencies. Pretty inexpensive, too. I like your set up, and enjoyed the show. Careful up there on your roof alone! Take care...

@BusDriverRFI

2 ай бұрын

Get a Nagoya. For sure.

I will be trying this out over the next few weeks. Looking forward to it

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

Жыл бұрын

Keep us informed

I got the duel band version. MURS/GMRS works great and match great on both bands. with UHF you will find coax makes a difference. standard RG 8X is great for HF CB . but at 70 CM/GMRS becomes lossy . ABR has ABR 240 same size and much better at UHF. also the M & P 7 mil coax like Pota Flex 7 is great at UHF . what I use. some brands of RG-8X not so good on GMRS. and for HT use like Nagoya NA 771G antenna. they long. more than double range HT to HT. I got the Talk pod A36 GMRS radio. 5w with Nagoya 771G antenna. easy 2X range over stock antenna .

The real test would have been to transmit from your Ed Fong base to an HT. You could have then verified the output from the EF. I've had two Ed Fong jpoles for years, one GMRS, the other dual band Ham, they both work great.

@larryhaney6608

Жыл бұрын

me too and so do mine .

@goodoz9942

10 ай бұрын

I [respectfully] disagree. The weak link in the comms situation here is the HT's rubber duck antenna and 5W of power. If he's running power at the base (50W) it's likely that the HT can hear him farther away than it can transmit back. Comms are only acceptable if RX works on both sides...IMO.

@garyday6681

3 ай бұрын

Yep ordered one and Ed Fong actually spoke to me on the phone. Really nice person. Nice Antenna.

You could buy (or make) a roll up slim Jim to attach to your radio and hang in a tree/hold up high. I think Ed sells this. Will do way WAY better than the box stock Samcom antenna. You could also try a single band (GMRS) Signal Stick or you can make one of those as well...Will be much better than the stock antenna and if you add a ground poise will come in less staticky and with a much higher signal level. Hope that helps!

Quick tip.. Having built many different types of antennas and done many long range simplex adventures on VHF/UHF bands... The j-pole, collinear, 1/4, 5/8 wave ground plane... all those designs tend to focus the bulk of the signal at or just above the horizon. If you primarily use a repeater that's high up from your relative location, this is good. If you're primarily doing simplex, you'll actually do better with a straight half wave dipole, or folded dipole. The lower gain means the pattern will be more donut shaped, and spread out more evenly. This will work better in a flat land to flat land situation than using a higher gain antenna where the lower lobes of the pattern are dampened to provide higher gain upward at the horizon. Also depending on where you live, and how cluttered the gmrs band is, you can set all your antennas horizontal, knocking down the other signals around you that tend to primarily be vertically polarized. I say all this from real world testing and playing around. Might make enough difference to get you another mile or two without resorting to a yagi, or more output power.

@stu371

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like you know what your talking about. 😊 Can you dumb it down a little for us new to antennas other than the stock one.

@CreachterZ

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the advice.

Good info roll tide

Currently I use an EdFong Antenna at 35' High as my Base and it does the trick I Push 50 Watts through it and Om good Conditions it'll make a 100 Mile Jump to Distant Repeaters

how u ground?

Try the base to mobile instead of using the HT antenna. A Tram/Browning BR-450 is a solid mobile antenna for mobile/base application. Use the HT antenna for personal to mobile contacts and mobile to base for long range use.

I’m looking for something to hang in a high tree for a camp base. Thanks!

I am preparing to shop for a home antenna, probably using a HT at first. Would it be useful to try a larger antenna such as an Abbree or Nagoya or some other aftermarket on your radio on top of the parking lot to see how it sounds without any other control change?

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

Жыл бұрын

couldnt hurt to try.

@mrrickcrushing

Жыл бұрын

@@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715 I have my first two radios charging now, already remorseful I didn't order two of the folding ones :). Good Luck

What kinda coax are you using on the antenna

You need better quality coax. The RG8X you are using is extremely lossy at 465MHZ. At least use LMR400. Loss impacts your signal on transmit AND receive.

@ronjoseph7973

Жыл бұрын

It’s not the coax. UHF J-Poles do not perform well period. The radiation pattern has a huge null and it acts almost like a NVIS. He would be better off using a true half wave (14.5”) home built ground plane or mag mount attached to piece of 14x14 X .125” steel plate.

@DePalma.

Жыл бұрын

I agree, 400 coax loses almost nothing.

use a mobile gmrs radio as a base and one radio in your car and you will see the difference.

Don't blame your radio, I hear and talk with to handheld radios 3-5 miles away. A real base antenna and real coax (LMR400) would make a difference.

THAT IS SPRINKLER SYSTEM PIPE. THIN

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

Ай бұрын

its supposed to be thin. The thicker stuff doesnt let the signal in or out good.

Can this be used in the attic without the sch 20 PVC pipe?

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

Жыл бұрын

Not sure but probably....ed fong will answer that. Google him and he usually responds to questions

@RisingTidesAC

Жыл бұрын

No. The PVC pipe helps it to resonate at its designed frequency.

@jaybarr3307

Жыл бұрын

Per the instructions with the kit, the pvc is part of the design and is necessary. They do make rollup jpoles, however. I used one hanging from my ceiling for a long time, had great range.

Why don’t reverse what you’re doing, radio out from your house and receive signal to the handheld?

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

Жыл бұрын

I would if I had another person to help me.

@wiillthebarbertv9415

Жыл бұрын

@@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715 that makes sense, I’m new at this stuff, just ordered a UV-9G, trying to watch videos to figure things out

@RisingTidesAC

10 ай бұрын

@@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715 Time for a wife.

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

10 ай бұрын

@@RisingTidesAC lol been married 33 years

No ground plane needed. Interesting.

@RisingTidesAC

Жыл бұрын

It's a jpole.

@forgetyourlife

Жыл бұрын

1/2 wave antennas don’t need a gp.

All right I saw your video interesting I'm surprised you should be doing much better performing when it concerns the antenna I can use cheap Canadian Tire radios of course mainly those radios work line of sight you need to have height and you need to have nothing blocking you from that signal however I did quite a bit of testing on those freaking seats as well I also use CB citizen Ben and I also use FRS Jam RS just with FRS radios had a friend that went up a mountain I was at the UBC University of British Columbia which is about 300 ft up above Vancouver his altitude was one mile up those were the ideal circumstances is best as possible monster Chief with a small FRS radio a distance of 52 km roughly 30 miles of course I had to keep this qualish off to basically get the signal on channel 10 FRS signal was coming in on channel 21 gmrs signal was coming in the antenna does make a difference it also has to do with the coax you using a bunch of variables also the amount of harmonics going to coming out if there's a lot of harmonics coming in it's going to block part of your signal basically RFI coming in from routers and different type CB radio or more affected by this gmrs are less you may want to try just putting one of those walkie-talkie on your roof just with that top of coil antenna go back in the garage where you were up in the parking lot and try to see if you see a difference ultimately yes power will make a difference with even 500 milliwatts I can do within the downtown core 10 miles mind you that's on a building that's on the 18th story building and the signal can be transmitted from downtown Vancouver all the way out to Commercial Drive basically five six miles the signal can also be transmitted from downtown Vancouver all the way to SFU 10 miles signal is weak but it still comes in I do agree you antenna is going to give you more performance however you may want to check your coax yes you do have a good SWR it might be that the antenna is probably not the best case it might be overrated for what it is what's in the downtown core you will do about a mile even if you have your standard gmrs radios because of many buildings blocking your signal however I am surprised thus I also did experiments in Montreal I wasn't getting as far because it is a flat to surface out there thank you for the video and hopefully you will get better results I would suggest as far as FRS I managed to make another contact very specific condition from UBC 112 km roughly 70 MI on channel 21 even using one Watt with some Portables such as the cheap ball Fan radio they do the job they're not perfect however I believe and also pushing the limits some people told me that it wasn't possible to achieve this however I can tell you from my own testing and experiment I can tell you yes it is possible you just have to look outside the box thank you for showing the antenna 73 and all the best

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

Жыл бұрын

The limited range is most likely due to all the trees between the 2 stations. lots of them are 100 ' plus tall.

@Gruuvin1

Жыл бұрын

Dude. You should really consider punctuation.

@jaybarr3307

Жыл бұрын

@@Gruuvin1 No kidding. All those words/key strokes and didn't hit a period, even by accident. Unreadable.

Audio audio audio. Maybe it would be better if you said something like WRSH234 portable testing.

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

4 ай бұрын

uh, no. tks for watching

get above and or away from the trees . My 3 watt HT talks to my Ed fong antenna from 20 miles out

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

Жыл бұрын

True, but easier said than done.

As a ham I would never buy an antenna. 234/ frequency gives you the length of the antenna needed for a 1/4 wave . You can use that formula to build a simple 1/4 length verticle. Make do the math for the desired frequency. Make the radiator and the ground radials a little bit longer and then trim for lowest swr. You can build a much better antenna for less than $10.

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

10 ай бұрын

No desire to build my own antenna on these frequencies....others maybe .

Put a pigtail .

"coal" ?

u talk funny

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

5 ай бұрын

nope, you just hear funny

At 2 miles away that’s not good.

Ed fong has not a good enough ground plain imho

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

2 ай бұрын

it doesnt need a ground plane

Great video thanks for sharing! KI5VOY 73

@mackspubliclandhuntingoutd6715

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!