Top Affordable HAM RADIO Bandpass Filters You Can't Miss!

[@WECB640]

I recommend anyone wishing to understand HOW this type of filter works, to use Simsmith and model it. Very easy to do. Thanks Ape for the discussion of these filters. They sure can help 95% of most receivers as manufacturers seem to be skimping and cutting corners. 73 OM

[@Charlie-Bee]

Smithchart?

[@WECB640]

@@Charlie-Bee No. "Simsmith" (Google it)

[@briansalsbery9968]

I am impressed by the data. I test every filter and balun I purchase and recommend everyone do that. I paid twice as much for a different band, tested them, returned them and was sent WORSE replacements, was ghosted, then bought from yet another brand and received perfect units on the first try (Hamation rocks!). After all my drama, I can now do 100w POTA with friends also doing 100w side by side

[@VE9ASN]

What was the good brand? 73

[@ThinGrayLine]

I just got 2 of them last week. So far so good. Took about 2 weeks to arrive.

[@TheSmokinApe]

@@ThinGrayLine nice, let us know how they work out for you

[@JayN4GO]

Your handle reminds me of my state LE. Any correlation?

[@ChuckBigbie]

Thank You I appreciate the education on the filters.

[@TheSmokinApe]

@@ChuckBigbie glad you liked it Chuck, thanks for watching 👍

[@KK6USYHamRadioAdventures]

Very cool Ape!!!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Chuck!

[@johnwest7993]

Unboxing reviews, or promo nonsense reviews by people who don't understand anything about what they are reviewing. They are an irritating joke. But I have no problem with honest, thorough product reviews from knowledgeable hams. Especially if the reviews teach something about the product being reviewed, and even how to build your own. Your reviews are all of that. They are everything a good review can be, and are an important service to the community. They are the sort of thing that Elmers do. Ham radio is a hobby of learning. Most hams start out knowing very little about the hobby, and so buy stuff off the shelf in order to get started. Some never take it any further. That's OK, but they miss a whole lot. The rest continue on, learning how to set up a station, solve problems, build and tune their own antennas and accessories, repair and embellish their gear, and ultimately even build entire stations from junk-box parts, or do experimentation that can answer questions they have, or even push the hobby into the future. It's all up to the ham what they learn and what they do. You give them the understanding and option to do it all.

[@jplacido9999]

Amateur radio is not an hobby (thats golf, gardening, etc.) It is a tech and scientific personnal activity for the advancement of knowledge and tech skills. If it was an hobby, the governments would not spare hundreds of millions of dollars worth of radio frequency allocations. It's not a critic to you, sir. Just a simple comment. Your text is otherwise perfect. Congrats.

[@avrumo]

This was a very good effort to help us for multi- op use & tips to tighten up one inductor , w/ testing most of us cannot or will not do .Thank You for the Discount links , 73

[@TheSmokinApe]

You’re welcome, glad you found it helpful! 👍

[@Soupie62]

Those filters are a good choice - most common ham bands. For listening outside ham bands, you could use a 30m filter - and check the 10MHz time signals from Hawaii / Colorado. These signals should be "close enough" to make it through the filter. Could also try a 15m filter, and 20MHz time signals.

[@TheSmokinApe]

They could come in handy for sure 👍

[@Steven_VE9SY]

I've been looking at these, but wasn't to sure. I was actually thinking of getting one or two and sending them to you to test. I have the equipment, but you know the tinySA better than I do. Thanks for the reviews. Makes me a little more confident. Once over postal strike is over I might get a few.

[@technishn]

Interesting review. Yes 200W Digital modes would warm them up, as well as the transceiver driving them. 0.75 dB loss is about 32W/ 200W (16% loss) and 0.56 dB is about 24W/200W (12% loss). Never sure of the quality of the ferrites/Iron powder for some of the products.

[@Swamp-Fox]

The price had me skeptical, but your test results changed my mind!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey SF, thanks for watching 👍

[@mostlypostie1]

I have a few of these ones for various bands, they are fantastic. I also have some low pass versions. They match the advertised specs very well (I have calibrated equipment to test them). Very cool!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks for the info, I like playing around with filters 👍

[@mcmichaeltube]

You mentioned on X that you were taking a look at this product. Pretty compelling at this price point. I'm going to pick up a couple. Thanks!

[@TheSmokinApe]

@@mcmichaeltube good luck with them 👍

[@albrowne1035]

Also there is a 6m version. Its quite wide 48MHz to 60Mhz-ish at the -3dB points according to my nano VNA. A very useful bit of kit. Have you ever looked at the Rx path back through the filter? It should be reciprocal but sometimes I'm not sure.

[@Inkling777]

Rather than hot glue you might use one of the epoxies made by J-B Weld. They're strong and can handle the heat.

[@TheSmokinApe]

I like that idea 💡

[@tomking8597]

Ape, I like your content. Especially your way of making the complicated easy to understand. I’ve been in the wireless industry for over 20years. I like the use of filters. We used to use them on spectrum analyzers when near out of band high power transmitters. Really lowers the noise floor. You should lone one to K8MRD to see how it affects his signal at his house. Might not help much but it could

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey Tom, glad you liked the video and thank you for watching 👍. These are getting shipped out tomorrow for a buddy of mine who has been wanting to test them

[@TheBrennan90]

Ham radio tube did a video last year in april 2023 called "how not to pota in the desert." In that video he was using these band pass filters and was getting a lot of blead through from hes buddy in a different band. Might be interesting to take a look at that.

[@OFICINATERAPIA]

Hello friend! Watching this video, I was reminded of the fact that BAOFENG HTs are "deaf" when connected to an external antenna. Could you explain to me the reason and a possible solution to this problem? Thank you very much! Greetings from Brazil!!

[@JayN4GO]

Thanks ape. Do they do better than coax stubs? Would like to see a field video of how well they do

[@TheSmokinApe]

I haven’t used stubs, sorry man. I’m sending these to a buddy for winter field day. When I get them back I can do more testing 👍

[@germanjohn5626]

You either had a bad cable or a lose connection when showing the NanoVNA the first time. But overal great and thanks for looking at the filters, I thought bout buying a set but wasn't sure about the true performance

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey John, one of the Sma’s was loose, good eyes 👀

[@robertmeyer4744]

Great job testing . I was wondering on them . I only have 10 and 20 meter ones now. They let me work FT 8 on 2 bands same time from 2 radios and antennas' Lots of contacts ! I have band pass boards from DX world. Full legal power. multi band with 12V relays. I just need rotary switch,case and SO 239 . I do have one for CB coming but held up in bad weather.NY and many outher places getting winter storm and high winds . With good coax jumpers and good coax feed line you can easy overcome insertion loss . start with good 1/2 wave or 5/8 wave antenna that has great recieve. You won't even notice any loss from filters. That what I did. Them filters help with out of band noise . That can improve signal to noise ratio to help pull out weak station. 73

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey Robert. I agree with you BPFs can make a big difference, thanks for watching!

[@robertmeyer4744]

@@TheSmokinApe You can test with single port SWR sweep testers like the MFJ or Comet. use dummy load do a SWR sweep. Just gives a general reading of band pass frequency . Does not give attenuation DB data. This is where a VNA 2 port is really needed . I say more tools for the shack

[@TheSmokinApe]

@ that’s a handy tip 👍

[@Fireman9143]

Can you filter out RFI to drop the noise floor? Obviously not how a bandpass filter works. Think you could design an external filter for 40m that boosts the signal, maybe does some EQ, and filters the RFI?

[@digitaldreamer5481]

Luckily for you, Ape, I ❤ my cats videos but I came back to watch the rest of your video. 😂🤣

[@TheSmokinApe]

Haha, thanks man 👍

[@HamRadioKS-k7j]

There is a version of RTV like chemical which works for vibration in high temp environments. That would be my suggestion to support the coil. Thanks for the video Ape! 73

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks for the idea 💡

[@edbeckerich3737]

Can you show your handmade filter on the Nano VNA for comparison??

[@TheSmokinApe]

It’s the first video in the playlist in the description 👍

[@markharrison1160]

How dare you assume my critter watching habits sir 🤣

[@TheSmokinApe]

lol

[@subramanianr7206]

Thanks for the review of these BPFs for the 40/20 m bands. The SWR is always compared to 1. At 10.05 and 12.30, by mistake you said like 1 to so and so. I am not nit picking but to be more of a pedantic. I love your presentation as always. De VU2RZA

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey VU2RZA, thanks for catching that! Glad you liked the video!

[@subramanianr7206]

@@TheSmokinApe yes, I liked it very much. Thank you for your prompt response 👍 😀 De VU2RZA

[@mikebavoso26]

Very well done. Could you please do a video on a broadcast bandpass filter. Possibly a home brew model for 100 watts, plus or minus. Thanks

[@Inkling777]

A bandpass filter for 3-30 MHz would be a bit much. What you may want is a _high pass filter_ that cuts off about 2 MHz or one that blocks the FM spectrum from 88-108 MHz. Stopping is likely to work better than passing.

[@Chuck1855]

Thanks for the info was looking at these for the club for extras. Band pass filters are expensive to only use twice a year but we run 7a for fd. So more are needed. 73 KA4FLA

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey Chuck, I agree that hey can get pricey for that!

[@Chuck1855]

@TheSmokinApe tnx for the great video.

[@JT-py9lv]

Sweet

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks 👍

[@ChuckBigbie]

If you live in a residential area and you get some interfirence that you cannot identify would this help in rejecting out of band signals to immprove your recieve reception?

[@TheSmokinApe]

@@ChuckBigbie yes

[@ChuckBigbie]

@TheSmokinApe thank you just ordered 4 of them

[@TheSmokinApe]

@ let us know how they work for you 👍

[@jakebrodskype]

For those operating multi-band simultaneous operations during field day, these things are essential, especially for lower frequency stuff that may generate very small but very detectable harmonics on upper bands. An additional 20 or 30 dB of attenuation may make a very noticeable difference to the operator on the table next to you. As for securing the coils, may I suggest Q-Dope? If you don't know what that stuff is, here's a recipe: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5Dce4iaiKeHfsk

[@Christopher-v1p6n]

Great content, as always! A bit off-topic, but I wanted to ask: I have a SafePal wallet with USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). How can I transfer them to Binance?

[@TheSmokinApe]

You need to have the transfer token installed and configured 👍

[@Eric10179]

Know where one could get reliable 2m and/or 70cm Band STOP filters? Like so you could have a scanner running and still use your dual band rig and not blow out the front end of the scanner?

[@johnwest7993]

The filters necessary depend on how much power you run on the ham bands, and how far apart the scanner antenna is from the ham antennas. Sometimes putting the scanner antenna 10 or 15 feet directly below a vertical colinear ham antenna is sufficient isolation to protect the front end of the scanner. It helps to carefully (use about a 30 dB attenuator inline,) monitor the scanner antenna with a spectrum analyzer like the TinySA to see how strong the 2 meter/70 cm signals actually are that would reach the scanner. Then you know how strong of a signal you need to attenuate, and how much the filter needs to attenuate it. In situations like that it helps to get an idea of what the filters actually have to do instead of just guessing and buying. As you pointed out, you want something reliable.

[@Eric10179]

@ fair enough, that’s a good idea too. I don’t have a tinySA but I could look at getting one, unless my NanoVNA would work instead. Even if I was to do that I don’t know where to go looking for said band stop filters in the first place. Do you know of makes, models, dealers, stores, etc. that would sell them?

[@jamescady723]

Thanks Ape!! After watching your videos, then I go watch cat videos...hi hi. 🤣

[@TheSmokinApe]

I get it, sometimes you just need a break from ham radio lol

[@vytenissciucka]

I can't see what kind of capacitors are used. There has to be quality capacitors temperature stable and with good ESR value. And those are pricey... de LY5T

[@TheSmokinApe]

I’m right here and I can barely see them 👀

[@chrisreich40]

The word 'either' is not a synonym for 'each'.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thank you so much, I will sleep better tonight knowing that…

[@philipbloomfield]

Why Am I hearing this in a foreign language I do not speak? There is no way to change it to English!!

[@TheSmokinApe]

I kinda speak English

[@donnieking2610]

Thank you for your videos and I love the text you put out kk4ekk

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey Donnie, glad you liked it and thank you for watching 👍