Exploring HT antennas
My first radio was a Baofeng BF-F8HP. I was looking for an inexpensive radio that would get me on the air so, I could hit the local repeaters and here in Florida, there are quite a few! I looked around for a while and looked at some recommendations from fellow HAMS. I happened to stumble across this neat little radio and thought I would give it a try since, it boasts an 8 watt output. I figured what the heck, if it only puts out 5 watts it would be typical at least. Well, the model I got actually, puts out 7.5 watts with the BL-5, 7.4V, 2100mAh battery that it comes with.
Recently I picked up a couple BL-5, 3800mAh batteries and the F8HP radio was capable of doing the full 8 watts. So, now that the Baofeng radio is doing 8 watts, I am looking at HT antennas that may perform better than the stock, OEM antenna.
I heard a few good things about the Diamond HT antennas and decided to pick one up for testing. Well, It seems I goofed and ordered the wrong antenna by mistake. The Diamond antenna that came was the RH77CA which, has a BNC type connector and this will not fit the Baofeng radio. Since, I have it I might as well test it, with the MINI600 antenna analyzer. The correct Diamond HT antenna SRJ77CA, did get delivered a few days later so, I was able to include it on this page.
The three antennas I have posted test results for are, the stock antenna, the RH77CA and the SRJ77CA. HT antennas are effected by things that are around them so, it is best to take readings in as much free space as possible. Everything effects them even, your body will have an effect on their actual readings so, keep this in mind when viewing the results below. Once, I was ready to analyze each band, I held the analyzer up over my head into, as much free space as possible.
To test each antenna, I used the appropriate adaptor to mount them directly onto the MINI600 analyzer without using any coax cableing. First, I tested the antennas on the 2 meter band then, the 70cm band. Click on photos for larger view.
2 meter tests
Baofeng Stock antenna
Diamond RH77CA antenna
Diamond SRJ77CA antenna
70 cm tests
Baofeng Stock antenna
Diamond RH77CA antenna
Diamond SRJ77CA antenna
Looking at the photos above from the MINI600 analyzer, side by side, you can easily see what each antenna will do on each band.
YAESU FT-70D Stock antenna
YAESU FT-70D Stock Antenna 2 meters
YAESU FT-70D Stock Antenna 70cm
As I get more HT antennas to test, I will add them here. Keep checking back!