Antenna Identification

[Murphy625]

I went to a garage sale the other day and picked up a bunch of handheld radio's ranging from 2 meter to CB radios and a couple of HF antenna tuners.

I also got a bunch of various antenna's that are not identifiable. Most look like they're designed for the handheld radios but I have one that is a magnetic base mount.. says "Anttron" (from Ohio) on it.

How do you folks go about identifying the bandwidth of these antenna's? If an antenna isn't marked, is it just trial and error with an SWR meter or is there a way to positively figure out what freq range they're designed for?

 

[mmckenna]

Ideally, you rig up a "dummy radio" and an antenna analyzer.
You need something to mimic the ground plane the radio chassis provides. I used an old/busted TK-290 portable radio, soldered a piece of coax to the underside of the antenna mount, and run that to my analyzer. That'll tell you where the antenna is resonate.

You could do it with an SWR meter, but you'd need a radio to transmit into it.

However, if you posted some photos, someone here might have a pretty good idea. Some are marked via color coding on the connector.

 

[Murphy625]

I think I'm going to use an SWR meter.. I'll have to purchase one.

Probably a good idea anyhow. I have three SWR meters but none of them do VHF frequencies, they're all sub 30mhz.

Thanks!

 

[prcguy]

An SWR meter is not a good idea for testing unknown antennas. You would need a transmitter that covers all potential frequencies, you will probably be transmitting on frequencies your not licensed for when testing antennas and the radio's built in SWR protection may back the power down when the match is bad complicating the calibration and use of the SWR meter.

A cheap antenna analyzer that covers CB through UHF or 800-900MHz would be the best thing to use. This one would be ideal but there are cheaper units that cover less frequency range and have less features. https://www.ebay.com/itm/N2061SA-NF...or+impedance&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_TitleDesc=0|0

I think I'm going to use an SWR meter.. I'll have to purchase one.

Probably a good idea anyhow. I have three SWR meters but none of them do VHF frequencies, they're all sub 30mhz.

Thanks!

 

[K7MH]

Usually you can post pictures of the antennas in question and people will be able to identify them for you and tell you just what you have. I did that recently here with a mystery scanner outdoor antenna and several people identified it and gave me some info on it. Sometimes you may have to ask about it in a couple of different forums like QRZ.com, eHam, WorldwideDX.com etc.but usually the collective minds here or on any of those can identify most any antenna from being around for so long.

 

[TheSpaceMann]

"Antron" made a lot of CB antennas.

 

[Murphy625]

I bought the antenna and radios from the same place and all the guy had was 2 meter and CB radios so it has to be for one of them. Since his CB radios were all handheld, and he had both handheld and vehicle mounted 2 meter radio's, I'm going to assume its a 2 meter antenna.

I'll just hook up an swr meter to the Radio Shack HTX-252, put it in low power mode, and see what the meter says. The HTX252 came with an adapter on it that went from the normal UHF connector to a BNC adapter.. and the antenna in question has a BNC connector.

I really like that Antenna Analyzer.. WOW. Just watched a youtube video on it.. Maybe I'll ask Santa if he has one laying around.

Thanks!