Part 1 Comparing antennas
Intro
I hate looking for unknown antennas, HATE! reviews saying good, it bad, reviews saying it bad, it good… tho im not complaining, So here is the list of antennas i personally tested, With a SMITH, SWR and LOGMAG graphs using the NanoVNA for each antenna at each set of bands; 70cm, 2m, PMR and AirBand (108-137)
Chart explenation
SWR and LOGMAG is easy, the lower the line the better.
A SWR of 1 (1:1) means it can transmit 100% of its power from the radio into the air.
worse antennas show the SWR as 1.7 (1.7:1), the Higher the worse.
LogMag shows the return loss of the antenna, in other words like, how much the signal gets rejected.
the bigger the -dB number the better, eg: -5dB is mid, -10dB is decent, -20dB is proper good
All you need to know about the Smith Chart for now is the closer the point is to the center of the chart, the better it is.
Antennas:
- DM1701 Antenna: AliExpress Link
- RH-660S: AliExpress Link
- DIAMOND SRH805S: AliExpress Link
- ABBREE AR-806+: AliExpress Link
- Retevis RHD-771: AliExpress Link
Note, At the time I didnt know you can take screenshots in the NanoVNA, next additions will be internal screenshots.
2m Charts
70cm Charts
PMR Charts
AirBand Charts
Key notes!
For a simple answer, RH-660S is THE choice, Ofc there are loads of other antennas but i only want to spend so much, i will be updating this graph for each new antenna i get.
#0 place is my base-station antenna with a SWR of 1.002 on all bands.
#1 General best: RH-660S
#2 Good enough: Dm-1701 (Bad AirBand, 2m pretty ehh..)
#3 Tiny PMR: DIAMOND SRH805S (Only good enough on PMR & 70cm)
Part 2 RH-660S Tuning
The “better” telescopic antennas come with cards saying on what band how much should you pull out each part, not to be found for the RH-660S… So i present:
Note, 0 in the name of the image means compleately retracted, 5 means compleately extracted.
2m Charts
70cm Charts
PMR Charts
AirBand Charts
Cheat-Sheet!
There is a *, For anyone who didnt want to read the Chartsm For AirBand:
If ATC is in the middle of the 108-137MHz spectrum. 0 Sections.
If ATC is more on the left-ish of the 108-137MHz spectrum. 1 Section.
If ATC is totally on the left of the 108-137MHz spectrum. 2 Sections.
Dont use 3 or 4 Sections.
If ATC is on the right of the 108-137MHz spectrum. 5 Sections.