Posted: 7/20/2008 2:23:51 PM EDT
| I have a Yaesu VX 170 and I would like to add a different antenna than the RD that it came with. My question is: Is the connector type an SMA? Looking at suggestions and whatnot I see several fans of the SRH320A and it appears to be an SMA. So will I be correct going with that type of connector? |
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Think 'line of sight'. It's suprising how far you can reach if your antenna is high enough. You also want an antenna with some gain.  |
it depends on the terrain, foliage, repeater sensitivity, and about 7 other factors. i will say that 20-25 miles is a ways away for a 5W HT no matter what antenna is mounted directly to the SMA. an larger, external gain antenna connected via low-loss coax will do a much better job. |
| I ordered the MR77 today and will try it for a while and see what happens. Depending on the day and the weather I have been able to hit it with the stock RD on and off. This is just a temporary set up until I can get enough dough to set up a small base station. We resided the house and also put new windows in this month so my toy budget is pretty much nonexistent right now. |
Take a look around at all the websites which have homebrew antenna plans. A Cubic Quad isn't hard to make and the required materials are very inexpensive. There are lots of plans out there for cheap yet efficient yagis too. I've always enjoyed the hobby more when using something I cobbled up with my own fat little fingers.  I have to believe you are aware that the antenna you ordered has only 2.5 dB of gain. While it's better than a unity gain, there are much more efficient choices out there. I have a Diamond MG200 which has 7 dB of gain. A 3 Element Cubic Quad has over 9dB of gain and you can build one for just a few bucks worth of wire and pvc pipe. 73' |
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i have a 320 on my vx7r. my general use seems to equal about 10-15 miles to a repeater about 5-6 to another HT <on a good day> <this may have more to do with my buddies cheap HT than actual terrain> on GOOD days i am just on the borderline of a repeater about 22 miles away. normal days forget it. i am in birmingham and we have notroiusly bad terrain for radios so YMMV. i did make a jpole using the instructions around here and with my handheld very easily get to a repeater almost 40 miles out regularly with the antenna about 10' in the air. if i plan to use my ht i generally just crossband repeat it through the car i know i can talk to pretty much anything that way. |
| On my 170 I have the MFJ-1715S antenna and I am well pleased with. It out preforms the stock rubber duck. I now can hit repeaters 25-30 miles away that I could not hit before. Now 25 miles doesn't seem a great distance but I live in a valley in WNC that is surrounded by mountains. |
I would like to build a good homebrew antenna but I don't have a meter right now, so this is why I opted for a premade. i am still new into ham and all that god stuff so I am still doing a lot of reading and trying to learn! |
It comes with time and playing around with stuff. Learning is half the fun!!
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| Got the MR77 in yesterday and so far so good. I made contact with a buddy on simplex that was about 6 miles out and was also able to hit the repeater that I was wanting to hit with no problem. That being said something is wrong with the repeater today and we missed our daily net. |