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Replacing stock /\/\ antenna with ham antennas
- Thread starter KC2GSP
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Personally I have found none that will outperform. But what I have found is that those of us that have licensure to use Part 90 in addition to Part 97 have much better performance with the factory OEM broadband antenna, such as the APX, that is a dual band that covers multiple band splits including amateur.
Moto does lots of engineering to get their antennas to make them work across the whole band and right with their radios. I've yet to see something from the amateur world that can out perform something from the commercial world. This is also one reason why I run Moto over dedicated ham units.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ
Yea, you are not going to find some hammy-crap Diamond, Comet or NCG garbage out perform the OEM Motorola antenna on a Motorola portable. Do not waste your time with hammy garbage aftermarket antennas, unless you are going to an external magmount.
jparks29
John McClane
I would disagree on one point, and one point only.
If there is a mission specific need, Ie. using an antenna on a vest, then sometimes aftermarket (not necessarily 'ham') antennas can be useful.
I would still stick to major companies, but you can find base load 1/4 or 1/2 waves for specific freq. ranges (not wideband). for portables. If you don't mind a 15"+ whip....
If there is a mission specific need, Ie. using an antenna on a vest, then sometimes aftermarket (not necessarily 'ham') antennas can be useful.
I would still stick to major companies, but you can find base load 1/4 or 1/2 waves for specific freq. ranges (not wideband). for portables. If you don't mind a 15"+ whip....
I would disagree on one point, and one point only.
If there is a mission specific need, Ie. using an antenna on a vest, then sometimes aftermarket (not necessarily 'ham') antennas can be useful.
I would still stick to major companies, but you can find base load 1/4 or 1/2 waves for specific freq. ranges (not wideband). for portables. If you don't mind a 15"+ whip....
And you'll not see that in mission critical comms or any business comms for that matter... You will not see any major commercial manufacturer deploy an antenna on a portable unit like that. If that's what it took to get into the system that the system was overly poorly designed.
The only time you see crazy long antennas on a portable is in the ham world. And that's to make up for a poorly designed radio.
I just put the current VHF/7-800/GPS antenna on my APX 7000 coming from the original version that is much longer. It performs identically to the longer antenna. Moto engineers know what they are doing...
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Everyone else nailed it pretty well. Here's some stuff I can add:
Many of the after market antennas are crap, unless they are really and honestly from a known manufacturer. Chinese companies are cranking out cheap replacement antennas for many of the portable radios and really low prices. People that have put these antennas on an analyzer discover that they rarely resonate at anything even close to the advertised frequency. Basically a cheap mass produced hunk of metal wrapped in gunk.
Some even have phony brand names on them. Remember, if it seems too good to be true it probably is. If someone on e-Bay is selling lots of 10 new "Motorola" VHF antennas for $5.00, it's probably junk. Shove a paper clip in the antenna socket, chances are it'll actually work better.
Most of the bigger manufacturers will have a selection of antennas available. The last "shop" VHF portable I purchased was a Kenwood TK-5210. I ordered it with their "wide band" VHF antenna that seems to preform well across the VHF high band. I've used it on 2 meters and well up into 16xMHz range.
Still, as others said, frequency specific or sub-band specific antennas from the manufacturer will serve you well.
And I'd second the statement about "not seeing anything from the amateur manufacturers that will out perform the commercial stuff". I stopped buying the amateur grade stuff a long time ago and haven't looked back.
Not always. Take for example the original VHF antenna designed for the Waris series.
Total piece of crap and a flawed engineering design. Motorola pretty much admitted this and ceased production of them.
I did some testing with my XPR6550.
Our local repeater is tied in to the DMR-MARC network. You can check your RSSI on sites like this --> CAN-TRBO - Last Heard This makes it ideal for on the air signal tests.
I tried antennas from my CS750, Kenwood TH-D72, Icom ID-51 and a 15" long Nagoya antenna that I bought at a flea market. (A few of these were dual band and I used an adapter to fit the different SMA plugs on the Mototola).
Some were close, but none beat the stock XPR6550 antenna that came with the radio. The 15" Nagoya fared the worst.
Our local repeater is tied in to the DMR-MARC network. You can check your RSSI on sites like this --> CAN-TRBO - Last Heard This makes it ideal for on the air signal tests.
I tried antennas from my CS750, Kenwood TH-D72, Icom ID-51 and a 15" long Nagoya antenna that I bought at a flea market. (A few of these were dual band and I used an adapter to fit the different SMA plugs on the Mototola).
Some were close, but none beat the stock XPR6550 antenna that came with the radio. The 15" Nagoya fared the worst.
Engineering abilities today versus 20 years ago are slightly improved.
RFI-EMI-GUY
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NAE6432A Analog Saber antennas
Motorola screws up sometimes.
A long while back I bought some NAE6432A Heliflex antennas for my Analog Sabers. These are the green dot MX stud type antennas for 440-470 MHz
In past, the parts department would ship PN 85-05816K08. What I received were 85-05816K25 antennas that are a substitute model. They were not only a bit shorter in length, but exhibited a 30% reduction in efficiency (crude field strength measurements) when compared to the original.
At the time I complained to product services and eventually the vendor contacted me, even sent some replacements, just as bad. The vendor claimed they were building them exactly to Motorola specs and testing them at 414 MHz +/- 5 MHz, which would be odd as they are 440-470 MHz antennas. The discussion with the vendor was fruitless and I never did get a satisfactory resolution, but chalked this up to Motorola cost reduction of an obsolete model and inattentiveness of quality control.
Motorola screws up sometimes.
A long while back I bought some NAE6432A Heliflex antennas for my Analog Sabers. These are the green dot MX stud type antennas for 440-470 MHz
In past, the parts department would ship PN 85-05816K08. What I received were 85-05816K25 antennas that are a substitute model. They were not only a bit shorter in length, but exhibited a 30% reduction in efficiency (crude field strength measurements) when compared to the original.
At the time I complained to product services and eventually the vendor contacted me, even sent some replacements, just as bad. The vendor claimed they were building them exactly to Motorola specs and testing them at 414 MHz +/- 5 MHz, which would be odd as they are 440-470 MHz antennas. The discussion with the vendor was fruitless and I never did get a satisfactory resolution, but chalked this up to Motorola cost reduction of an obsolete model and inattentiveness of quality control.
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