The best GMRS Antenna?

[@SmileyAntennaCo.Inc.-hh4nq]

Thank you for the test! For 40 years Smiley Antenna has hand-made and hand-tuned our antennas here in the USA. We are family owned, now woman owned, and going on 4 generations of grand-kids running the business. We work really hard being moms, and making quality products for our customers. We just wanted to SAY thank you for the reviews and trying our antennas.

[@Soladaddy]

Thanks for the quality product and keeping the operation in the states. I've known about your products for 20 years and trying one out was always on the "to do" list. Having 4 kids might have something to do with the delay. Anyway, rolling with those antennas now and have two more on order for another project.

[@SmileyAntennaCo.Inc.-hh4nq]

@@Soladaddy we can all relate.. We are woman owned and primarily woman operated/manufacturing we all have kids!! from ages 5 to 18!!

[@vineyardsaker6195]

I got 4 of your antennas, they are superb, thank you and keep up the very good work!

[@cchadnelson]

you just sold me on your products! keep up the great work you guys

[@befree2771]

Now I’ll be ordering a super stick before Monday. What a great company!

[@SK-rj1ti]

Just made an observation about the Smiley 465 MHz Superstick. When fully extended, it also works on MURS quite well. I was surprised. I am basing this conclusion on the readings of my field strength meter. It is a real deal.

[@Soladaddy]

Hmm. The MURS 1/4 wave length is about an inch taller than that superstick. Could see it working depending on what's under that whip base.

[@04xb12s]

That little repeater unit is pretty slick! I'm gonna have to pick one of those up.

[@Soladaddy]

There are cheaper ones out there, but this one has a lot more features. Repeater ID and voicemail are a couple.

[@vineyardsaker6195]

Very useful video, thank you! Your use of the Btech as a simplex-repeater (audio-replay) is a very elegant solution I might also use in the future.

[@Soladaddy]

It's a nice tool for testing stuff solo.

[@jdock32778]

Google Earth will give accurate distance as the crow flies.

[@COURTNEYCOLE1000]

THANK YOU FOR THE TEST,

[@Soladaddy]

You bet!

[@thebear6751]

Those Nagoya have always performed well

[@Soladaddy]

They do pretty good.

[@SK-rj1ti]

Thank you for the video! Glad I passed on the Smiley 1/4 wave. Got the other two Smileys, though. So far they have worked well! I'd like to share a couple of observations on the Nagoya 771g. I got two of them with the SMA-F connector from BTWR. First, the two I got are visibly different. The first one is slightly thicker and doesn't work on one of my radios. It fits, but it doesn't work (the radio is perfectly functional with other antennas). It works on other radios, though. The second 771g is slightly slimmer and works on all radios. So there is some physical inconsistency there, even though they are from the same manufacturer/vendor. So be prepared to see something like this. Second (and this may be good news to some), the 771g antennas can also transmit on MURS to an appreciable extent. Not quite the same as a dedicated MURS antenna, but about ~50%, according to my field strength meter. This is comparable to the Nagoya 701c "commercial" dual band antenna, which I also have. Antennas aside, wow, the 916 must have a nice high gain mic! You can hold the radio so far when you speak and the signal is clear!

[@Soladaddy]

I have two regular 771s and they are totally different. The bases have different shapes, color and font. Thinking one is a knockoff or an old model. I'm getting the MURS bug again and have to keep that in check, lol.

[@MountainParameters]

You mention, "The first one is slightly thicker and doesn't work on one of my radios." The polymer coatings on the whip affect the velocity factor. You can usually mitigate this by tuning your antenna if you have a VNA. The thicker the coating, the velocity factor decreases, and the center tune point needs to be lowered as well to achieve your original desired frequency. For the thicker antenna, I have found that shortening it in small increments compared to the other may increase your performance because it serves to bring your antenna closer to it's intended tuning objectives.

[@bulldogbrower6732]

I think your test would be more realistic if you placed the repeater higher than 3 feet off the ground. Also the radio attached to the repeater is really close to a lot of metal.

[@Soladaddy]

True both items would improve performance. Here's my logic: Someone sitting in a chair talking on a radio would hold a radio about 3 feet off the ground. I'd like to be able to make contact with someone where they are and not having them stand in another, better location waiting just incase I call. I wanted a weaker signal to make the other radio struggle to pull the signal out of the noise. I should have explained that in the video. I need to test max distance with a gain antenna at some point. Those are fun. I did test the Nagoyas and Smileys separately with the HT on the roof of the RV. The Nagoya test was at the same location and did do better higher up. Nagoya - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bam7nYCNp699Z5Y Smiley - kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5m9dHmhpNB-l9E

[@bettersaferadio]

Nice test Mark! One note though, it seemed like both the 5/8 and Super Stick weren’t totally vertical when you tested them. As you know, the higher the gain, the more narrow the radiation pattern, so it really becomes important to hold the antenna as vertical as possible. I think you might have achieved even slightly better results if you bracketed the test at slightly different angles, but I was happy (although not surprised) to see them outperform the Nagoyas. ;) Cheers and thanks!

[@Soladaddy]

Yeah I saw that after the fact. At least I was somewhat consistent. Still impressed with the 5/8 slim duck.

[@bettersaferadio]

@@Soladaddy Indeed! It was a good test - shows how important that last mile can be, especially it it were an emergency. Cool that your wife helped also. :)

[@Soladaddy]

She's good with all the radio stuff.

[@DaytonaJim78]

Thanks I appreciate a real world test!

[@Soladaddy]

You're welcome!

[@nats50]

I noticed you speak like 8 inches away from the radio. Will it not affect the receiving audio level?

[@Soladaddy]

It will. At the time I didn't realize how far away they were. The radio, the 916, has a really good mic so that helped out a bit.

[@joeburtnick1369]

Could you try the Signal Sticks against smiley antennas

[@Soladaddy]

Don't have any Signal Sticks. I think they only offer antennas in the ham freqs if I'm not mistaken. Would be good for a 2M/440 experiment.

[@MarkDecamps]

Great video. What are the details on that simplex repeater? I'd like to get one.

[@Soladaddy]

Thanks. the ADS-SR1 has a lot of features. It can send out voice beacons, store voicemail, also can do repeater ID. Programming is from a DTMF keypad on a radio. They have an option to have more vmail storage memory. I see they expanded the cable options to include some mobile radios and that is sweet. Be sure to get the cables from them as well. www.argentdata.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=98

[@Soladaddy]

Here's the manual to see what all it can do. Its rather impressive. www.argentdata.com/files/ads-sr1-manual.pdf

[@MarkDecamps]

@@Soladaddy that's great info. I'm going to get one just for range testing!

[@premier4744]

Doesn't metal interfere wuth radio signals?

[@Soladaddy]

Yes it does. My goal here was not to get max range or to even have a decent setup. The goal was to create a weak signal to see if a better antenna alone could pull a signal out of the noise. The repeater was also at a good height to mimic someone sitting in a chair, which seems to happen quite frequently. I do plan on testing how far these radios can reach with a good setup, at least on one end.

[@premier4744]

@@Soladaddy Oh okay, thank you for the clarification.

[@TeamTopKick]

For me Smiley Antennas are over rated. I have Smiley and Nagoyas and my Nagoyas have outperformed the smileys for me.

[@yebonuts]

What part of florida are you in?

[@Soladaddy]

Outskirts of Tampa.

[@CrucesNomad1]

5/8 would work better in brush and hills right?

[@Soladaddy]

Should in both situations.

[@JVRottweil]

Good stuff. Subbed

[@Soladaddy]

Much appreciated!