Retevis RHD771 Walkie Talkie Antenna SMA-F

The Retevis RHD-771 is the best version of the 771 on the market, The Build quality is perfect and it is not as floppy as the Nagoya or other brands, I bought 2 of these and was so impressed I bought another 4 of them this past week, I have shorter and bigger Antennas but the Retevis RHD-771 is going to give a lot of range as well as not being too big to where is starts to become a hinderance and it works well on Radios of all sizes, It has the perfect Balance for the Baofeng UV-5R 8W / 3800mah Battery and it is total perfection for the Baofeng AR-152, And it works well even on smaller Radios, The Retevis RHD-771 is the Ultimate "Do it All" Antanna and I now own 6 of them and I will buy more just as backups. Big thankyou to everyone at Retevis for the Quality and Craftsmanship that you build in to the RHD-771.

This antenna is beyond belief over the stock supplied. 145.225 mhz and clear reception from Australia. Obviously, the Baofeng uv-5r will not transmit further than 8km, and is more likely to be in the 4/5km range. But the ability to pull in far distance signals is outstanding. Antenna size and quality is everything. I coupled my Baofeng uv-5r to a Moonraker - Scanking Royal Discone 2000 25 To 2000 MHz Antenna which is on a 25' mast and clear of obstruction for several hundred metres in each direction and it preformed as well as my Uniden UBC355CTL. So if you have the Baofeng uv-5r or similar and reception is poor, the limitation is the antenna, not the radio. For a camping trip or similar where you would like to receive distance signals the Retevis RHD771 Walkie Talkie Antenna, SMA-F, VHF UHF 144/430 is throughly recommended.

First off, the recieve on this antenna seems to be excellent - and in back to back comparisons, is better than the original rubber duck. I've received calls from 70 miles away summit to summit on 2m, and have had a successful call more than 30 miles away on 70. Reviews on the SWR of this antenna are mixed. My initial tests showed good results on 70 (less than 1.5) and mixed results on 2m (up to 3). With a bit more testing, I found this antenna is a bit fussier on 2m, but acceptable results can be achieved with adequate ground plane. As with all HT antennas, this one utilizes the body of the radio (and yourself holding the radio) as a counterpoise/ground plane. Some testing methods (especially when the antenna is hanging off the end of a patch lead) are likely to interrupt this and give bad SWR. I found that by trying to replicate actual use when testing the antenna (by tightly holding the base of the antenna, thus giving its ground plane) I was able to achieve acceptance SWRs between 1.5 and 2. You can see these results in the image above. Is this the most efficient antenna for 2m? Probably not. Is it going to damage your radio? Unlikely. Does it receive better? Definitely. Would I recommend it? For the 9 or so quid I paid, I would.

A longer antenna for radios like UV5R and UVK5 that need a female SMA antenna. A couple of important points: So the aim of these longer antennas is not pocket-ability or receiving from all directions - the added length mostly adds directivity ( and gain) for signals off the sides of the vertical antenna If a distant radio is appropriately lined up with yours (or vice versa) the signal will be stronger. From above or below the antenna's horizon you may be the same or worse off. Second this is a hand portable antenna. Despite 'what you heard' hand portables are designed to accept life with very bad antennas (like people holding them or laying them on metal surfaces) Unlike mobile or base radios handhelds will work fine with 5:1 SWR and only get troubled above 10:1 Looking at this one : it's a typical dual band long antenna with a SMA-F connector. I haven't pulled this apart but often the base contains a matching system that mostly comes into action extending the length for VHF and doing some matching for UHF. As I mentioned SWR is NOT the most important thing for handheld antennas on handheld radios. For the record on VHF the SWR is below 5:1 between 145 and about 220 MHz On UHF the entire sweep from 400 - 500 MHz is under 5:1 with the dip around the 435MHz band. As mentioned even 5:1 SWR is fine for a handheld and so we can say that the antenna design is well chosen with good choices for most VHF/UHF mobile uses. SWR's were captured on a small battery powered NanoVNA hand-held in the palm and held close to the mouth/head as a radio would be on TX - thus replicating real-world usage/performance to the greatest degree possible. Signal strength and field strength are what really matter. Both VHF and UHF performance (into and receiving suitable VHF /UHF repeaters) was immediately noticeable as better than the standard short antennas with the antenna hand-held and roughly vertical. As expected pointing the tip of the antenna at a repeater reduced performance significantly as did placing the radio and antenna on a wooden table on VHF (so no second hand/arm ground/element available) Mechanically it's medium heavy, fairly flexible andt feels very robust. NOTE !!! The packaging contains a (well hidden) rubber washer to improve mechanical stability if the there is a gap left between the fully attached antenna and the radio's case top. So it's like a lot of similar looking antennas, its lengths and frequencies are very well chosen for handheld use and it gives good performance. Mine was bought / supplied by Retevis direct at a very reasonable price so it's definitely genuine and my results should be repeatable for other examples ! All good

Good quality, works well on my Tidradio H8

Much better signal than with the OEM antenna for the FT65E. Very happy.