Do Extended Range Antennas Actually Work?

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

My actual Amazon Storefront is HERE! amzn.to/49uAefw As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases which helps me buy more toys to review for all of you! I'm constantly updating the page. Here are most of the radios and antennas we test for all of you, and as always, I take requests!

[@robmcfaddin768]

Just wanted to praise you for your videos. Very well done sir, very informative information. Keep them coming

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Thanks bud! I appreciate it and I love doing these tests, because I am learning at the same time!

[@robmcfaddin768]

Best part of the hobby is that learning

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@@robmcfaddin768 Yep! Almost every turn you see the wow factor and get excited all over again!

[@jdock32778]

Excellent videos... Narration is perfect, not rushed, or read from a screen. Nagoyas worked here..

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Hey! No, there are definately no scripts here... Sometimes that's why you can see where I cut and edited in the clips, but it has to happen sometimes. For the long 771's, the Nagoya 771g is still my favorite and for the short, the Smiley 5/8 Slim Duck 465 can't be beat. (In my eyes anyway).

[@Krispin291]

Thanks for the info! It helps making a decision better. Keep ‘em coming!

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Thanks! Make sure you have the notification bell on because I released a new one yesterday!

[@GBsPitstop]

Another awesome video. Very informative 📡

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Thanks! I love this meter!

[@wmatay1]

My radios came with the Abree AR- 771 GMRS. Thank you for your tests . I enjoy watching you do these tests. God Bless You and your family. 🔥🙏⚔️🛡✝️🇬🇪🏴⛪️

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Thank you so much sir! I really have a lot of fun doing them, but not so much when it's 100 degrees with 90% humidity in the field! But, I'm also learning at the same time with everyone else, and I love getting "shocked" by what different antennas will do! That AR771 is a really good "cheap" antenna, and I was surprised that a $8 antenna would keep up with the $20 Nagoya and the $30 Diamond!

[@tkflanagan4449]

Hi my Friend..... I bought a WOUXUN KG-UV 9X You never steer me Wrong!!!

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Woah! Man it's awesome! Yall have been having some bad weather up there. Stay safe my friend!

[@dansklrvids7303]

I'm really enjoying your videos! There's something I'm not clear about: I have a Nagoya 771 and a Nagoya 771G. If I use the 771G on ham bands ONLY, is there a penalty for that compared to the 771? Thanks.

[@jasonbrown8944]

David, thanks for this test man. I'm wondering if you know about Comet's HT antennas. Don't know how long they've been around but I've heard good things about them.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Comet has a great name for themselves. They are a HAM antenna company and the handheld's that I have come across online don't necessarily reach the 462 range. They typically drop off at 430, and that makes a big difference for GMRS. This is the main reason I haven't bought any, up to now. I will be testing for my Tech and at that point I will start running more 2/70 antennas. For now, I am just staying with GMRS since that's the only frequency I can transmit on video....

[@explr1]

If you do the diamond you have to try the Comet SMA24J. It’s actually decent SWR wise on GMRS.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Good to know. I know Comet makes great antennas. I will check it out!

[@nickkline2584]

Would a 15.5 Nagoya be a noticeable difference compared to the Nagoya 8.5?

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@@nickkline2584 Yes. Huge difference. The Nagoya 771g is like the king for GMRS extended range antennas

[@timtaylor8557]

How about doing a test of the Melowave Bandit-G It is similar to these antennas.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@@timtaylor8557 Here ya go Tim. It was uploaded 2 weeks ago.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJmZmqZvgNF9o68si=zZJ2jcZFcjN0X5js

[@dennisbrummett3047]

You may have said in prior videos, but if you did, I must have missed it. What antenna are you using on your repeater when doing field distance tests?

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

This particular video was my Wouxun Q10g at the base and a Tram 1486. But, don't let the "base" antenna throw you off. Most of the time I use this 9GX as the base, and older videos I used a H8 as the base. Watch this video at 6:58 where I explain my set up. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5LWgoOkmbiYr9ksi=BYLh7aIalOgTYYvx

[@paulNC]

One thing when you take off your adapter though and go straight to the radio..that could change the numbers right?

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Yes, it could affect them in a slight way. It won't be enough to "disregard" an antenna, but anytime you "break" a connection, a power loss will more than likely appear. Again, it's not much, but it is there. For small tests like these, it's not that big of a deal, but for real world communications, or even in an emergency communication scenario, you don't want them. You want as much power as possible leaving that antenna and hitting your counterpart team or target audience. Hope this helps!

[@RobertYonng]

Was it a foggy day that will increase range.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Surprisingly it was not foggy at all that early. It was clear and the humidity was pretty low for our area. I have heard mixed stories about fog in the past. I haven't done testing in fog, but it seems it would be worse trying to send a signal through "basically" water in the air. Maybe I'm over thinking it? Since I am outside the city, well into the country, I try and base my tests on how well radio stations come in to my truck. If I can't get a normal station, I know a field test for antennas is out of the question for that day, or at least that time.

[@marke3218]

what about smily antennas

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Hey Mark. I have done a ton of testing with Smiley if you look back over the past few months. This video was geared more towards which 771 antenna "should I get". By far, as you will see in other videos, the Smiley 5/8 Slim Duck 465 is my favorite short antenna. There was one video it didn't do well in, and the Signal Stuff 440 took home the win, but overall, the Smiley is better. There is probably 6 field test videos which all show at least one of my Smiley's. I also have a Super Stick 465, but it doesn't work well at full extended. I've called Smiley and they are going to replace the one I have. (With that said, Smiley has excellent customer support!)

[@marke3218]

@@FirstUnitedTactical Thank you i just ordered 2 a few days ago. Im on the right path then. Would love to know how the replacement Super Stick does compared to 5/8 slim. might have get one also.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@marke3218 the Super Stick 465 is "supposed" to work better than the 5/8. It does an excellent job collapsed, and yes sometimes better than the 5/8 in my field tests. The issue I have is fully extended it doesn't transmit or receive well. To answer your hopes and dreams, you shouldn't have to ever take off the Super Stick because it's awesome!

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@marke3218 I think this video has both in it. It will give you an idea. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYPFf4d4nb92mpIsi=BjPmijLr3Il34VI_

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Just so you see, I've replied now 3 times to your comment. I want you to see the other two because they are important. Talk soon!

[@bobinmontana777]

No signal stick?

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Not on this one. I wanted it to be lower cost and strictly 771 antennas. Also, my Signal Stick 465 is bad. It is excellent in the collapsed position, but not good at all extended. Smiley is replacing mine and it hasn't come in yet.... There's probably 4 more videos recently that show it off if you haven't seen them yet.

[@bobinmontana777]

@@FirstUnitedTactical I was referring to the “Signal Stuff”, made in Utah signal stick. I use it and it works fantastic.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@@bobinmontana777 Ahhh. I don't have any of the normal Signal Sticks because they are geared more for 2/70. I have the shorter 440 that works well, but not the longer twisty one. My mistake!

[@mtu-engineer3220]

Signal strength that close to transmitter is meaningless. The signal strength meter is usefull in plotting the radiation pattern of the antenna vertically and horizontally for a directional antenna. You need to use something like a spectrum analyzer to get actual db readings of signal strength at a distance. Most radios do not have a sensitive calibrated signal strength meter to definetively sort signals on receive. Try testing antennas at different heights above and below the meter and at different angles to vertical to see if you get different results. Also increase the distance to the meter so weakest antenna gives 1 percent reading. Or measure actual distance to meter for each antenna to give same reading such as 5 or ten, 40 to 50 is too close.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@mtu-engineer3220 That makes sense. I bought an analyzer but couldn't understand how it worked. Watched lots of videos, but they were all too advanced for a beginner trying to learn that technology. With the Field Strength Meter, I was trying to show equal distance and the "power" it received. So that's not the correct way to show how much signal actually leaves the antenna? I'm glad you wrote because I'm actually going to do a mobile antenna test today and was going to set the Meter about 10' away. My plan was to measure all antennas (off camera) and set the best antenna to 100 on Meter. Then, show the other antenna readings as they went down in Strength. You suggest taking the weakest antenna, setting the dial to 1%, then showing the other antennas as they get stronger? Is there a difference in starting at 1 compared to starting at 100 and working backward/weaker? The antennas will be mounted to my current set up on my truck, and the Meter "was going to be" about 10' away, at the same height as the antenna mount. I was going to do that to keep it as equal and horizontal as possible to show the "cleanest" transmission. I appreciate your knowledge!

[@mtu-engineer3220]

@@FirstUnitedTactical Radiation pattern of vertical antenna looks like eliptical donut in 3D. Spectrum analyzer gives peaks in db as you scroll the trace over the peak. you can scan a narrow band of frequencys on either sid of the frequency you are looking at to get greatest accuracy. Using signal strength meter to test distance you want to be far away to fall in the peak of the radiation lobe. The closer to the transmitter the easier it is to fall into the slope of eliptical lobe. High gain antennas have very pronounced elipses. 1/4 wave antenna is closer to perfect circle radiating up and down as well as sideways. That is why they work better in hilly terrain and when bad users tilt the antenna sideways rather than vertical. Setting the distance so the weakest antenna just registers on the meter will give you best results for sorting out true distance results. The other thing to keep in mind is running all tests at same battery voltage to keep output power equal. Radio power can drop off dramatically on some transmitters as voltage fluctuates.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@mtu-engineer3220 I understand what you mean about the lobbing and elliptical donut reference. The video I will be doing today is just introducing the 6 or 7 antennas, and showing the field strength meter. It's way to difficult to do a field test 10 miles away with mobile. My 2 short ones will make 10 miles easily, but, when I swap to the 32" 6db gains, they will be over powering and can't tell a difference in "quality " at that distance. I would need to go out 20 miles for each of them to start dropping off. It's a lit more difficult with mobile compared to HT. I've already tried it for the past 3 weekends, and I'm not happy with results and distance. I will be just comparing 2 antennas with each other over the next 4 or 5 videos. But,, today's video, I will be introducing them all for a series of videos on Mobile.

[@mtu-engineer3220]

@@FirstUnitedTactical The 6db antennas have the flatest lobes and do not work well in hilly terrain. Once you get past 5 miles you have to start looking at curvature of earth. Height of antenna off ground starts playing big part in signal. Have you looked at topographical maps in planning your antenna tests?

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@@mtu-engineer3220 I have not looked at topo maps because we are in flat farm land. Very small rolling hills between testing spot (8 miles away) and the base antenna. When I say small rolling hills, I am talking about 20' tall max from normal ground level. Also, my house sits in a hole, so the 30' tall base antenna I have is basically a flat horizontal plane with the testing area. So today I went out there to the normal spot I go to for HT antenna testing. I took all the mobile antennas and not one reached back to the repeater at my house. Very odd. I actually believe something is wrong with the Btech 50v2 now... It's a good thing I have a TYT9800 as my base radio and I can swap it in my truck. But.... I also took 4 HT's with stock antennas and my new Signal Stick 2/70. When I got to the spot, I first did a trial run with a GMRS H8 with stock 440 antenna. No luck, so, I put the signal stick on and it made it, but extreme static. I knew from that point it would be a useless day for testing due to bad atmosphere. (It's very hazy here, where normally it's clear blue skies). But, that doesn't explain why a 50w radio with a good coax and good antenna doesn't reach. The only explanation is a bad radio. It receives just fine, but I rarely talk so I've never paid attention. Have you seen my other HT testing videos? A lot of the time the Nagoya 771g really does well, even at 8 miles, where others just fall off and not make the distance.

[@greyshadow9498]

I might invest in one of those cheapos! I have 4 771's An Abbree which is complete trash. I basically just use it to chase my kids around. tidradio, it's tuned to AM (came with my H3) so no comment on how well it GMRS's Retevis, I like the way it works though I've had mine a LONG time, quality may have changed. Because it's a thick boy I use this as my base antenna outdoors. Nagoya, this is my field antenna for hitting the trails. Paired to my GT3WP. It has never let me down. One day I'll get one of those Wouxun's so I can upload Better Safe Radio's SHTF channel plan.

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

Hey bud! "Chasing kiddos around cracked me up"! Yeah, the Nagoya is solid and never let's me down. You never really know what you will get, or how hard of a fall one of these cheap ones will take before breaking, and if you're in the woods, you're screwed. I actually have good luck with that orange Abree 771c, which I've had for a few months. It goes on every field test I do and stays consistent. Man, there are so many 5 pack and 10 pack antennas on Amazon, it would be impossible to test them all. Just find a good short and good 771, then buy a couple each for back up and your golden. My go to for short is the Smiley 5/8 Slim Duck 465. I've done quite a few field tests and that one always comes out on top, except for 1 weird video.... Thanks for reaching out!

[@greyshadow9498]

@@FirstUnitedTactical I like the sizenofnthr Smiley, that's going on my list. Yes I was disappointed at my Abbree, I have 701 size ones that work fine and a decent telescoping one, their QA is bad, but when you get a good one you get a GOOD one! Thanks for the video, got 2 more to add to my list!

[@FirstUnitedTactical]

@@greyshadow9498 I appreciate it! If you don't mind, click the links in the description to order if you can, because it actually helps me get more antennas to test! Have a good one!