Need help in identifying antennas

[mmckenna]

Well, lots of us do.
Trick is, finding someone local to you.

A radio shop will have one, but they won't do it free.
You can probably find an amateur radio operator that has one, they'll do it for free, or should.
There are low cost VNA (Vector network analyzers) on Amazon for the $50 range. But trick is you have to know how to use it and interpret the results. There are tutorials on line, youtube videos, etc.

But at these frequencies it's not critical.
If you were using these for public safety linking of systems, you'd want to know. But you are not.
For cellular use, the info we provided is close enough to work. At these frequencies they are pretty broad banded. Unlikely you'll notice a difference between the 800MHz cellular bands and the 700MHz cellular bands. Remember that most cell phones have crappy internal antennas, and the systems are designed for that. Most consumer products have a lot of slop built into them to absorb the stuff that consumers do.

In other words, go ahead and hook one up and see how it does with your booster. Try all three and see if one gives you better performance with the others. It's not going to break anything.

 

[mkswmp]

Well, lots of us do.
Trick is, finding someone local to you.

A radio shop will have one, but they won't do it free.
You can probably find an amateur radio operator that has one, they'll do it for free, or should.
There are low cost VNA (Vector network analyzers) on Amazon for the $50 range. But trick is you have to know how to use it and interpret the results. There are tutorials on line, youtube videos, etc.

But at these frequencies it's not critical.
If you were using these for public safety linking of systems, you'd want to know. But you are not.
For cellular use, the info we provided is close enough to work. At these frequencies they are pretty broad banded. Unlikely you'll notice a difference between the 800MHz cellular bands and the 700MHz cellular bands. Remember that most cell phones have crappy internal antennas, and the systems are designed for that. Most consumer products have a lot of slop built into them to absorb the stuff that consumers do.

In other words, go ahead and hook one up and see how it does with your booster. Try all three and see if one gives you better performance with the others. It's not going to break anything.

Thank you very much, that's the kind of info I was needing. One last question...I happen to have a parabolic grid that's about 2'x3' also. If I was to put it behind my yagi cell antenna would that have any positive results....or not worth the effort?

 

[mmckenna]

Thank you very much, that's the kind of info I was needing. One last question...I happen to have a parabolic grid that's about 2'x3' also. If I was to put it behind my yagi cell antenna would that have any positive results....or not worth the effort?

Since it would be unlikely to actually focus the received signal right on the driven element, it's probably not going to do any good.

If you were building something from scratch and wanted to work out all the math, you could make an antenna out of it, but it's probably not worth it. The yagi antennas you have should work pretty well if there is a signal there for you to receive.

 

[tvengr]

it has four elements with one of them being a loop that the coax cable ties into.

The active element in a loop connected to the coax is known as a folded dipole. Shorter elements in front are directors and longer elements behind it are reflectors.