Increase the Range of Any Handheld Radio for 6 Cents

Increase the range of any handheld radio, A Baofeng, Yaesu or Icom with a counterpoise, otherwise known as a "tiger tail". A tiger tail is a length of wire added to an antenna to take the 1/4th wave rubber duck to a half wave dipole antenna.
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[@tomgeorge3726]

I would put a wire lug under the earth screw and have you two different wires with clips on the end. Now you can change the counter poise between bands.

[@HamRadioDX]

Top tip this one!

[@robertbranam7013]

You dont need two wires, this is a counterpoise, the long one will work for both bands.

[@ElektroLUDIKITS]

You can even have them both at the same time. That's what I've done.

[@ElektroLUDIKITS]

@@robertbranam7013 It will work for 2m/70cm since a quarter wave at 2m is 3 quarters (or 6/8th, which is a famous ratio for vertical antennas) at 70cm because of the harmonic relation between the bands. But it is not always the case ;)

[@JimBob80806]

​@@ElektroLUDIKITS 😊

[@fredflintstone8048]

You left out an important step: Accidentally knock the screw onto the floor and then spend the next 1/2 hour looking for it.

[@carsarecoo]

Did that but not with a screw but the spring to my 9mm pistol once. Took me 30mins to figure out where it launched to 😂

[@thewanderingguy5436]

💀💀💀

[@Koji-888]

ALWAYS -> Place a small dish on the table to put your tiny screws. 🙋🏻‍♀️

[@thewanderingguy5436]

​@@Koji-888magnet do the jobs too

[@DanSlotea]

​​@@thewanderingguy5436 magnet + @Koji-888 dish = magnetic tray.😂😂

[@jimmyjohhn15]

I took the antenna off, connected a wire to the antenna pirt with an aligator clip, and attached the other end to my car antenna, also with an aligator clip. It dramatically extended the distance. Tomorrow im testing it connected by wire to a coat hanger antenna (type in coat hanger antenna on youtube. Very easy to make)

[@bashkillszombies]

Remember, the antenna length should be tuned to the frequency you're transmitting on. Having a mystery length of wire is not useful.

[@jongleaton]

Take the 19.5 inch wire and make a coil by wrapping it around a pen or pencil. Do this coil on the end nearest the connector in such a way that the overall length is 6.5 inches. Tada! you have a dual band counterpoise!

[@bashkillszombies]

Instructions unclear. Penis caught in wire. Send help.

[@LightTower]

What happens when you add this little wire to the ground of the antenna/body of the radio; is that you give the antenna a better ground plane. This increases the DB level of the antenna, and allows you to have a more focussed beam pattern, ergo a better transmit range 👌 Very clever 😉

[@PlaceholderforBjorn]

It's quite interesting and fascinating to me that you need to increase the size of the ground plane. The "common sense" would be to increase the size of the actual antenna. This show how much black magic(not really) radio is.

[@brandonlaragirl]

Got a question. Do half wavelengths dipoles require a ground plane I have one for 27 MHz. Strung up in a tree the center is about 30 ft off the ground in the coax goes into my bedroom it works pretty good for short-range and I do get to hear some skip when it's in but I'm just curious I still don't quite understand if it needs a ground and this whole premise of ground plane. From what I understand dipoles don't require that? It's also a vertical one but I have the bottom portion pulls away from the coax out about a 30 degree angle to avoid interference

[@LightTower]

Any ground plane you can give your antenna will increase it's transmit performance. In some cases your antenna will work fine without a ground plane (depends on the kind of antenna). If you're only receiving signals then you don't really need a ground plane.

[@LightTower]

And yes dipoles typically don't require a ground plane.

[@brandonlaragirl]

@@LightTower excuse my ignorance but once again I have another question please. How would I give a ground plane to my vertical dipole?

[@randykitchleburger2780]

Very important, DON'T LOSE THE SCREW

[@Koji-888]

#1. Place a cup on the table for your small screws. ALWAYS. 💁🏻‍♀️

[@lua-nya]

If you do things like this often, you may be interested in a mod mat with included screw holders.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

There was once a commercial product to do this. It was called a Tigertail and it had a loose fitting ring meant for a BNC type antenna mount. I didn't trust the connection at all. Taking it one step further, I found that it did help on a bare radio, but add the wired external mike and it actually made reception worse. The solution was to either use the external microphone as the counterpoise OR the Tigertail, but never both. Ymmv, fwiw, jmho, etc.

[@AW-gj1mu]

i had the same experience, i had ext speaker / mike in place and the tx was destroyed when i ran the tail.

[@Robb-jf7vg]

Well done ! These instructions are EXCELLENT 😮

[@melissarainchild]

Basically: add a (decent) ground plane to allow the waves to "bounce" off and join the signal...sweet!!

[@newFaction64]

The metal on the belt clip he removed WAS the ground plane.

[@lua-nya]

​@@newFaction64 Isn't a quarter length a better ground plane than the clip though? Though I wonder what will be done with the clip later.

[@WilburJaywright]

Have talked with a few Elmers, though I am new to ham radio myself, can confirm, this is real, and I believe it’s called a rat tail, Tigertail, antenna counterweight, and counterpoise.

[@Liberty4Ever]

A tiger tail definitely works but I prefer to buy a longer Signal Stuff (nearly indestructible) antenna for my HTs.

[@digitaldreamer5481]

Aloha Hayden, I’ve been looking for that type of terminal connectors for a long time now and I will look for them again. I have been using small gauge zipwire for speakers, which I cut at 19 1/2” and then trim off 11” on the other side in order to have a counterpoise for both, VHF and UHF. They might be purple but works great for this island terrain. 🇺🇸🤙🏻🤙🏻

[@_cal_techie]

Just solder a ring terminal on 19 inches of wire and put it on the antenna connector then put the antenna back on. (For 2 meters) this converts the antenna from a quarter wave whip to a vertical dipole.

[@frankfreeman2316]

What is the 2 meter and like 70cm thing I don't get it. Like how is that compared to how many miles I can talk to my friend in case if an emergency?

[@JoeHacobian]

Those are wavelength measurements which directly affect the antenna wire length and thus the optimizations. 2 meter wavelength, 1.2 meter wavelength, 70cm wavelength, people also sometimes say ‘band’ in place of wavelength.

[@katieking8838]

​@@frankfreeman2316 these are amateur radio bands (frequency ranges) and require licensing through the FCC. 100% are useful during emergencies.

[@lua-nya]

Please do not solder ring terminals without crimping them first.

[@Senator315]

Clever way to make a dipole. The wire inside the stock antenna is coiled so it's manageable, but that also makes it less efficient and it could be 1/4, 1/2 or full, but most likely 1/2 going by its size. Without knowing the length of the coil, you are just assuming that it's at full wavelength. Open it and check. Sure you'll make a slight gain the way you did it, but you won't see its full potential unless you do it properly. A well built dipole works very well for its size. 440 MHz is 681mm or 68.1cm. For UHF 430-450 MHz 70cm is acceptable but 68.1cm is better.

[@keithtreisch6890]

I did this with my whistker scanner when i worked on the railroad. I drastically increased the reception and i used a larger wire connector on the end that fit arounf wheree the antenna mounted and it had a little more room.becausee of the type of connector. But it worked great

[@Megellin]

Lose the rubber duck and get a (I think it's na 320a) or some similar mini whip antenna and you'll get way better range. Also there are adapters that can allow you to use a stationary antenna on your handheld.

[@skeggjoldgunnr3167]

It's a counterpoise wire. Nothing fancy. It's best if kept parallel with ground. Closer coupling to ground is better. REALLY wake things up by running a wire to an actual ground like a cold water pipe or fence post.

[@dragan3290]

Try the belt clip to antenna on ohms. It's easier too. The rats tail or counterpoise is an awesome addition! I doubled my range. Top stuff mate! Subbed and liked 👍

[@jmr]

I never noticed a range increase with this trick when holding my HT. I use a Tiger tail for weak signals monitoring however because I often set it down for long periods. It can make a big difference then.

[@Pelnied]

Correct. When you are holding it, you capacitvely couple to the HT and become the 2nd half of the quarter wave antenna to make it more like a half wave dipole. When you aren't holding the HT, it's missing that 2nd half of the antenna and gives poor performance. Thus using the wire while not holding it brings the 2nd half of the antenna back and it's more like a full dipole.

[@lua-nya]

Makes me wonder, how would a wire to a human body work for belt operation.

[@jmr]

@@lua-nya I doubt it would make much difference because HT are designed to capacitive couple anyway. They are literally designed so you are the ground plane. Always worth a test though.

[@randyaivaz3356]

In The 70's I Cut my Antenna to my Favorite Rock Station, I Remember Lambda was Part of the Formula. Buddy Of Mine Got me Interested in Amateure Radio Again, Working On Technician License, Been In Electric and Electronics Since, Nice to see The Practice Test is all Familuar Stuff. Started 2 Days ago Studying, Think I will be Ready for 2 Saturdays from now.

[@alvin3647]

That's some MacGyver stuff

[@erzahler1930]

Nah. If this was MacGyver stuff, he would've used a piece of chewing gum (used, of course) and a toothpick!

[@josefkesavaara]

The MaacGyver tune instantly started to play in my head while i read this play ▶️

[@DavidMitchell79]

Old ham trick... LoL. My Radio Shack HTX-202 came with one of these tails. They had a ring terminal around the BNC antenna connector.

[@justbored3.14]

there's no before and after data analysis to back that up

[@realryder2626]

Uhhh... science?😂

[@davidm8371]

It's a 60 second tops video, what do you expect? Try it out for yourself, the parts are probably a dollar total if you had to buy them all, but if you do much of anything with electrical, you probably have all of that just laying about.

[@keshermedia]

@@justbired3.14 Did you try it? What was the result? Do you have any analytics and data for us? ... Do you understand why has made the suggestion to use the radios ground? Do you understand why he suggested the specific wire lengths? Do you understand why he chose a green colored wire and not purple? 😳💁🤔🤔🤔

[@justbored3.14]

@@keshermedia no i did not try it because i did not make the video.

[@RingwayManchester]

Nice one mate!

[@HamRadioDX]

Thanks Lewis!

[@NewFrontier90]

Love your well put together videos Ringway Manchester keep up the great work.

[@NewFrontier90]

@@HamRadioDX thanks also, subscribed

[@locus7106]

I don't know why I'm surprised I spotted you in the wild

[@aestoev]

so you have a piece of wire dangling and getting tangled into stuff. if you use a handheld microphone or headset, the shielding of this cable acts as counterpoise and it much cleaner approach or use an SMA Port-saver and attach the wire directly to the body of the port-saver adaptor and insert it between the antenna connector and the antenna. even easier use big wire-lug with a hole large enough for the sma antenna connector to go thru and clamp it by screwing the antenna on.

[@diyfamily6848]

The problem with this is when the tranceiver was mached to the inefficient helical wound antenna that comes with the radio, it assumes a capacitive coupling with a hand holding on to it. The only proper way to do this hack is to also change the antenna to a straight physical 1/4 wave as well as the tiger tail. This will allow your hand held to operate similar to a 1/2 wave dipole with some shortning of the tiger tail to tune in with the forearm coupling as well. We did this years ago with our air band hand held's to improve the omni pattern similar to that of an aircraft instalation. Unfortunately if done with original helical antenna the result is pretty average for the inconvenience of a wire hanging and tangling on things. On a side note you do not have to disconnect and reconnect for dual band operation as two tuned tiger tales will work fine for 70 cm and 2 metre together if compensated for by tuning together. One will tune in and the other out and vice versa.

[@scsdenver]

Awesome. I always wondered. And two answers with one video. Cool to know now, the length of the cable determines the hz.

[@dustinmeier9753]

Throw a roll up j-pole into a tree then attach the coax with an SO-239 to SMA adapter. Height always improves performance and range for VHF. The rat tail is a lot of effort and annoyance for minimal gain.

[@donepearce]

Please turn those side cutters round when stripping wire. You want to be pushing the sleeving off with the flat part, not crushing it onto the wire with the taper.

[@josmith9316]

Rats-tail..proper term is Counterpoise..tiger-tail sounds Kool too.

[@JohnJamesParedes]

Hi HamRadioDX, what type and exact size of wire did you use? thanks. btw, I like your Idea, very handy, less work and cheap :)

[@karlschulte9231]

The ground is half the antenna. Car body is too. In fibreglass auto you need to do this also for car antenna. Glue 40 inch radius steel circle under trunk/ boot lid to hold/ couple with mag mount whip.

[@HowToHam_Tom]

“And don’t loose it…” THIS is why I love HRDX!

[@Perthshire]

*lose

[@drakeblackk]

So lets say on a quansheng, we have no screws... What if we just measure the cable and put it under the battery and place the battery back? In theory it should touch the back of the radio, as the back measured, should work, right?

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Great tip

[@leopoldomolina1763]

I think that what you did is to transfer the whip antenna of your handheld into a dipole antenna, considering that the added wire looks to be the same length of the whip (which is, by the way, 1/4 wavelength design)

[@azy6868]

This mod can improve signal strength when the set is not handheld. But if you really want to make a quarter-wave monopole ground plane antenna ┴ into a dipole half-wave antenna (mounted vertically top +ꞀΓ- bottom). You will have to modify both aerial and ground to half-wave. Or 5/8 = 0.625×wavelength for maximum power output.

[@benjamindoko2356]

Or just buy Nagoya Diamond antenna for couple of bucks and you can even listen to amateur radio signals from satellites, did it myself, really amazing experience.

[@MusicMath123]

the problem is, that baofeng dont work with better antena in urban enviroment. Receiver is very sensitive but without any filters. So you actualy get a deaf radio.

[@Speedi-tm5dm]

I like your volt pen. What brand is it?

[@HamRadioDX]

Kaiweets

[@canadianrushfan12]

What would you recommend for gauge for the wire?

[@vsmichael1]

0 guage

[@RobBob555]

Yeah, a counterpoise will always improve things 🤘

[@theirishoutdoorcook1207]

Another option would be a ring terminal for the baofeng. Or for best results, use pure copper wire.

[@krisraps]

I Have Made A TigerTail For ANY Antenna I Use And Its Removable Just As Easy To Unscrew Antenna, Lucked Out To Have Thousands Of Washers That Pure Copper And Exacly The Hole Of The Aantennaa, I Jsut bend It So It Stands Good There

[@jfarboleda]

SUPERB! Tanks!

[@tyhendershot4415]

What length do you need for gmrs?

[@x5-acousticguitarstuff.2]

What would happed if you had 3 STIFF Wires of the same length tied to a slightly longer Screw. And the wire is BENT into a Pyramid under the Radio. Would that act as a Ground Plain and transmit better.

[@alanreid5136]

144 is tuned to the speed of light harmonic correct to three digits. Bruce Cathie.

[@princearthur4946]

Excellent presentation! Gresat job!

[@rosariodagosto6484]

WHAT FREQUENCY DOES THIS UNIT TRANSMIT AT ..PLEASE IM INTERESTED THANKS 😊😊😊

[@Vlad_Zat]

What length for 1.25 meter band

[@StoutProper]

And what’s the improvement in Range?

[@dave161141]

It's just an improvement. Significant and measurable.

[@smythie08]

-25dbd

[@unggrabb]

How much improvement does this provide?

[@kenfarlow1844]

About 5 S points (guess)

[@4coopdawg]

What radio is that ? Do you recommend it. I need to get 6 for the family. Thank you

[@Farinapini]

All you need is a little bit of wire and a lug........and a volt meter, screwdriver, a ruler and a soldering iron

[@xeric1953]

If you’re not using a nagoya 771 at least, idk what you’re doing with your radio. Just ordered an abbree 48 inch antenna that should do the trick

[@ronrico2620]

Pro tip: don't touch the end of the wire during transmit

[@realtyrocks1969]

Pro tip: it wont do anything. Its not the antenna and there is no voltage going to tiger tail..its essentially a ground.

[@ETERERADIOASCOLTO2]

​@@realtyrocks1969...infatti...😅

[@Naeidea]

I did. I touched it during transmit. I'll come quietly, the front door is unlocked so don't break it down, I'm unarmed.

[@wiredtight]

Definitely gonna try this

[@ML-cr7ds]

this needs a dedicated video, with the uv-k5

[@MrEthanhines]

Is there a online formula to determine the length of the wire for say airband?

[@johncoops6897]

Ground plane (wire) needs to be extended to form the other side of the dipole, right?

[@HamRadioDX]

Pretty much, or just let it hang. Basically works better than your body/hand being the other part of the antenna/counterpoise

[@TheArtofEngineering]

If it hangs down then it is a vertical dipole 1/2 wavelength

[@LiquidZ2k]

So… do it really easy… take the same length of wire, strip about a half inch and loop it so the base of the antenna presses it against the ground when it’s screwed back in.

[@H3cJP]

are those screws intentionally grounded to allow you to do that?

[@brandonc1322]

What do you think of that low battery indicator?

[@luisitoaventuras8098]

How to do this on a Quansheng?. It doesnt have screws back there

[@RayGalactic]

Thanks!

[@numeristatech]

Using imperial lengths with metric wavelengths made my brain cry 🤣🤣

[@peterwassmuth4014]

What about (Silver) instead of (Copper) in Conductivity (MS/m)? Asking as a newbie. Conductivity (MS/m) Silver has (63.0) Copper has (58.56). ?

[@thediamondcraft6438]

I need the formula to calculate the length of the wire i needed. So i can make a specific wire for my specific frequency

[@HamRadioDX]

75/FREQ * VF of wire should get close

[@markgigiel2722]

Ground plane. But it looks like a coaxial antenna, so the calculations are probably off a bit.

[@johnf3326]

What if you connect that wire to true ground via water pipe, earth rod etc?

[@thesoulmates2375]

Do you have a link for that exact HAM radio with the camo?

[@HamRadioDX]

Yep! geni.us/X1SQs (Amazon Affiliate)

[@DanielBerzinskas]

I love how the frequency changed from 146.65 to 146.7

[@gry6664]

Can you put it on the antenna's thread, of course with good contact? I have a magnet mount antenna with an sma connector thats thread is longer than neccessary, also has a flat bolt on it.

[@justin9605]

Thank you.

[@itrstt66]

does it act lke a dipole? and can it be don in a adjustable way?

[@indridcold8433]

Fun fact: This will work with any vertical antenna. Please make a note of it.

[@wtfmrkratos]

So different length of wire will change the operating frequency? Sorry I don’t know much about radio.

[@urlocalbeanboy]

No, you chose the length of wire you will use based on what frequency you’re using, different lengths of wire will work better with different frequencies.

[@wtfmrkratos]

@@urlocalbeanboy oh wow that’s interesting. I was under the impression that the longer the better with radio. Thank you

[@urlocalbeanboy]

@@wtfmrkratos well, I’m certainly not an expert, but i think maybe in certain cases with certain types of radio, yes. (I still might be wrong though)

[@ExcuseMePhoney]

Where do I find the antenna formulas for UHF, VHF, and Air band?

[@RichMantaray]

if u want better range then buy a better radio with the correct antenna, the uv5 r works best with repeaters and not 2 together, so dont buy 2 of them

[@thomashardy9994]

Sad but true.

[@MichaelPechner]

You can gain an advantage by not purchasing a POS radio. Purchase a diamond or comet replacement for the rubberduck. Just wrap the wrap the write at the antenna ground. Install both size rat tails, 2m and 440.

[@MrDavidos32]

What is the formular, for the lenght???

[@LeHunkyDory]

How long will I need the wire to be for the AM band? 😅

[@OswaldSingha]

Da hinten habe ich nur noch eine Halterung liegt der Anschluss da drunter und was fur einen Kabel Antennen oder normales Elektrokabel ??

[@markkennard861]

Or use the radio to power a LDMOS PA and fire that into stacked yagis lol. Would have been good if you explained the theory.. ie ground plane..

[@sergiogomez170]

How to u program them i was like a mile away from each radio and i couldn’t understand

[@DanielSyw]

Sir, how to program uv5r. Please explained.

[@daveclark1904]

How much further can you get with this? I'm already able to go 20-40 miles with the stock baofeng antennaes depending on where I am

[@Shanonmcnab576]

How far do you think it boosts the range to? Like an extra mile or two?

[@kenfarlow1844]

Good for at least 5 S points

[@jamesbacon5690]

Look up IMPROVISED FIELD ANTENNA in US army manuals

[@douglascarlson9712]

I'm new to radio so this could be a dumb question. Could I attach both lengths of wire at once to get both sets of frequencies?

[@brentonholmes6860]

Where did you get the lug from?

[@Ressy66]

or hold onto the radio when using it, this trick is good tho if leaving it on desk... also, I wouldnt be using uv5r - dirty harmonics make it in breach of aussie regs, and I believe fcc regs for USA, so spurious and dirty those things.

[@fabiopedroso1092]

Qual é o tamanho do fio usado pra (2m) Obrigado pela atenção

[@markgordon4368]

when we used to use cb radio we called that a ground plane

[@tomjom4865]

I have the uv9rplus but dont know how to get Australian channels

[@wilurbean]

Why go quarter wave? If you're using wire, just go full wave?

[@phillipsmiley5930]

19.5 inches minus the 2 inches from the SMA to the screw, what was wrong with the screw under the aerial

[@christopherconroy4876]

Will it work for PMR walkie talkies

[@MarcinM-m9x]

Jakiej długości kabel ? 49.5 cm ?