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Baofeng and antenna advice (1 reply and 1 comment)

DBrownrigg
3 years ago
DBrownrigg 3 years ago

Hi, I have just joined essexham and so have a novice query as I wait to start a Foundation course and follow up with the exam.

As a toe-in-the-water start I want a simple walking/portable set and it seems a better antenna would be useful.

(A) Of the Baofeng choices, which would users recommend of the UV-B6, UV-5R, UV-82, BF-F8HP, UV-S9, etc. - e.g. which live up to (or fail!) the manufacturer claims on power, reliability, etc. Alternatively, should I be looking at something other than Baofeng?

(B) Re an alternative walk-about antenna replacement for the one supplied, is the Retevis 771 an improvement, or is something else much better?

I see some of my queries partly overlap with other posts, but cannot see quite what I want to know.

Thanks in advance for any help.

- David SWL2656

 

Peter M0PWX (2E0PWX)
3 years ago

evening David

the revetis 771 is a big improvement on the stock antenna, but still you will struggle to get more than 5-10 miles depending on location

have a look at my thread Help & Advice | Essex Ham 

a few other things are if you want to program it from a laptop, DON'T get the official baofeng cable as its driver has been blocked by windows10 due to an old chipset used, look on amazon for one with a proper FTDI chip

also set the channel width to wide or you will get i complaints of low audio volume, the default is narrow, narrow is used for repeaters

if you have the room look at a proper outdoor antenna and it really improves the range of the baofengs, as its VHF/UHF the quality of the coax is more important so avoid cheap rg58 coax 

if you haven't got one yet genie on essexham have can provide pre programmed baofengs, he is normally on monday night nets

peter

2E0PWX

DBrownrigg
3 years ago

Dear Peter,
that is very helpful advice. Many thanks, David

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