Kenwood TK2140 antenna question

[svfd17]

Hi everybody, I am looking for a good vhf antenna for this radio that will perform well while listening to railroad comms, the vhf stubby that came with the radio cannot pick up weak signals at all so if anybody has any suggestions I would appreciate it. Thanks

 

[wb4wdu]

Kenwood makes an antenna that is close to a quarter wave length long. I think it is model KRA-25. I am using one on my TK2312 and It will receive and transmit in some places that the high priced big M brand won't. It made a big difference in performance over the standard 6 inch antenna on my radio.

 

[svfd17]

I just checked out the KRA-25, it looks impressive. Anybody know a good source for them?

 

[Avery93]

The KRA-25 seems to be Kenwood's "version" of the Laird EXH-155. I have compared one to the EXH-155-MXI that I sometimes use on my Icom F3161, and they appear to be identical apart from the connector.

With that in mind, you could get the EXH-160 instead. It's tuned to 160 MHz, which is basically right on top of the railroad band, so it could have slightly better performance than the KRA-25 which is tuned to 155 MHz. According to the chart I have, EXH-160-SFU would have the correct connector for the TK-2140.

Don't expect it to work wonders, however. When I use the EXH-155 on my F3161, I do notice a slight increase in received signal strength over the stock VHF antenna, but it is very small. There is a slightly more noticeable increase in transmit signal strength however. The standard Icom VHF antenna seems to do a very good job though, so you would probably see a greater increase in performance over the KRA-22 stubby.

 

[svfd17]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I really appreciate it.