HAM RADIO Handheld gets 100+ MILES on 5 WATTS! || Rebuilding and Installing an old Antenna
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- čas přidán 11. 04. 2024
- In this video I rebuild and install a 2 meter Ham Radio antenna on my off grid cabin. I'm able to reach the Mt. Diablo Repeater on my handheld (Baofeng UV5R), which is over 100 miles away, on only 5 Watts transmitting power. This really goes to show that the antenna is everything!
- Věda a technologie
something else you may consider doing is putting some silicone tape on the connector on the antenna to help prevent moisture intrusion on the coax connector
Great location! I live in an HOA, but after 20+ years, the vegetation lets me play with wires and verticals in the backyard without any prying eyes "supervising" me. I can relate to your success! I have a 30 yr MFJ-1754 dual band ground plane that I brought back into service and it seems to work better than newer ones. I envy your off grid conditions, but I don't think my city wife would go for it. Just wanted you to know I enjoyed your video very much... and that I felt your pain when the box with nuts & bolts tipped over on the roof. 😂😂 73 from the SATX, brother!
😂 73 man! Stay tuned 👍
Ha! I saw the smoke earlier and I was convinced you had a bong behind the camera haha. Kickass repair though man!
Great job, hight and line of sight is king for the high bands.
Very relaxing video to watch, also very similar to how I mounted and secured my antenna
Very cool video. Great antenna install and QRP call!
Great job, the little red things were a nice touch. I could feel your nostalgia for when your dad put it up right there. Im sure he's proud of his boy. Take care!
His boy has done his Father proud.
Thanks bud 👍 73 stay tuned!
Good stuff 👍
great job
Awesome success. Wherever you are, you must be on top of a mountain or at very least high in elevation to hit a repeater 100 miles away with around 4 watts (I never trust Baofeng specs without actual testing). Not sure what kind of antenna you have but it obviously works. Enjoy!
Thanks man - I’m on a good ridge line up here. 73 stay tuned 👍
Nice job! So many people buy a handheld and think they're going to reach across the state. A proper antenna like this can work wonders, as you have shown. Take care and 73.
73 - stay tuned 👍
Back in 2015 or so I got about 100 miles on a homemade Yagi made from PVC and measuring tape. I had hiked up on Starr Mountain TN, shot an azimuth to Monteagle, TN. 5 Watts also.
I would have tried climbing a tree and putting the aerial up with low loss coax. I would also put some HF wire aerials up.
Stay tuned… that’ll be another video 🤙
By the look at base of that antenna, it's a Hustler. Just can't tell the model. Just to be sure, you might wanna check the SWR too. Lastly, there are short thin coax adaptors available for UV5R's so as not to have too much strain antenna base of your HT. Nice work by the way. '73.
Thanks man! Will look into it 👍
@@HarrisT You're most welcome.
This video just showed that with a properly installed and effective antenna you can get out much farther than with a lots of wattages going into a less effective antenna. I don't have the luxury of a countryside house without HOA, I live in a three-story townhouse in an urban area and I stick my home made dipole out of the second floor balcony. The top whip doesn't go pass the third floor roof line and the bottom whip is only five feet off the ground. It took me three weeks testing and adjusting to set the lowest possible SWR and now the antenna runs 1.2 to 1.3 SWR across the entire band. I was able to DX from west coast California all the way across the country to Maine and Nova Scotia Canada. I also used a portable center load antenna on my Baofeng UV-5R Pro Max handheld to reach repeaters way out on top of far away mountains however I was only able to hear them but they couldn't hear me. Congratulation on your success.
That’s awesome man! 73 - stay tuned 👍
The OL represents open line not overload
You’re right 👍
Hmmmm…. Next time I’m up on Mount Diablo I’d like to try to work you Simplex 😊😊😊
Let’s do it! 73 👍
A quick suggestion, remove the two outer most screws of the coupling and drive some long self tapping screws in their place to help prevent it in the future.
That is a great idea. Thanks for the suggestion 👍
Could you not have just strsightened the radials back out? I have a 10m vertical where the radials got bent up from tree branches. I took it down thought about just bending them back straight, wonder if it would work.
What kinda coax is that it looks decently flexible not like this lmr400 I’m dealing with
I couldn’t say. I tried to read the stamp on the outside of the coax but the sun has bleached it off…
Hallo elder brother I am from India. I have also a Baofeng uv-5r. My nearest repeater is approx 70km away from my house. I need this antenna, please tell me the name of manufacturer or some key points which helps me to identify this antenna in India for me.
Please response if possible 🙏🏻
@franciscolopez3229 mentioned it might be a hustler. I’m sure any ground plane antenna would greatly boost your range with enough height above the ground 👍
@@HarrisT thanks 🙂
My dear Chap, I may be wrong but from what I remember, the OL on the multi-meter is basically “open loop” and not overload. But then over load too makes sense since it’s an infinite about of resistance. Any thoughts, fellow watches, I would love to hear your thoughts on that.
Just bend them back and reinstall.
Yeah I think I woulda heated them up a bit and bent them back. 😊
They were so corroded after 20 years in the elements but you’re probably right - 73 stay tuned! 👍
You need to ground your antenna mast as well as put in a coax lightening ground. It will work fine without it but you don't want your radio getting blown up in a storm
Exaggerated risk.
That’s a good tip - the old mast it was on actually had arc marks going down into the grounding cable so I’ll definitely do this!
@@nicd1826 You do what you want with your gear. Those of us with more than a few beans in our tin will ground our mast