A big test of small antennas for amateur handheld radios 2m / 70cm

Hello everyone.
Recently, I have measured several dozen handheld antennas and 3 car antennas in the amateur 2m and 70cm ranges in an amateur way.
Here is the list:

01	Retevis RHD771 (2.15dBi)	Aliexpress RETEVIS Official Store
03	Nagoya NA-771 (2.15dBi)	Aliexpress?
07	Yaesu VX-6R	Factory attached to the radio
08	Wouxun KG-UV8D	Factory attached to the radio
09	Harvest RH660S (3.0 / 5.0 dBi)	Aliexpress BlueRadio store
09skr	as above but it was only extended to work at 70 cm partially so that the SWR is approx.	as above
10	Self-made on the pattern 771	Sam robilem
11	Diamond NR-770H (3.0/5.5dBi)	InRadio
12	Nagoya NL-770H (3,0/5,5 dBi)	HamRadioShop
13	Nagoya NL-770R (3,0/5,5 dBi)	HamRadioShop
14	Nagoya NA-666 (2.15 dBi)	?
15th	Nagoya NA-771 (2.15dBi)	?
16	Baofeng BFG-A-3	?
17	Baofeng UV-3	Fabryczna dołączona do radiotelefonu
18	ICOM FA-S270C	Factory attached to the ICOM E90 radio
19	Baofeng DM5	Factory attached to the radio
twenty	Baofeng UV5	Factory attached to the radio
21	Nagoya NA-771	?
22	Kenwood KRA-23M	factory included with the NX-200 radio
23	Kenwood TH-D74	Factory attached to the radio
24	Yaesu FT-5D	Factory attached to the radio
25	Anytone 878	Factory attached to the radio
26	Alinco DJ-G7	Factory attached to the radio
27	Yaesu VX-2	Factory attached to the radio
28	ICOM MARINE?	Factory attached to the marine radiotelephone
29	Kenwood NX-320 E2 (KRA-27?) 70cm	Factory attached to the radio
thirty	? Miniature something at 70cm	Aliexpress
31	Sagem 70cm	?
32	Yaesu Standard Horizon CAT-460	Factoryattached to the radio
33	MDVM HS DUAL	Factory attached to the hotspot
35	Diamond RH-771	?
36	Nagoya NA-771	?
37	Nagoya NA-701	?
38	? without description, base similar to Wouxun	?

While the originality of the antennas included in the factory with the equipment does not raise any doubts, it can be different with each other. If I was sure that a given antenna is a counterfeit, it would be marked.



The measurement was carried out in 4 rounds, in which I measured the S1P parameters (including SWR) and the signal level emitted from each of the antennas under field conditions.

S1P measurements with the NanoVNA-H4 analyzer:
1. Antenna placed directly on the NanoVNA-H4, and measurement with the Analyzer in the hand, close to the head, held like a handheld transceiver.
NanoVNA calibration took place directly on its socket in the frequency ranges 120 to 170 MHz and 400 to 470 MHz
2. Antenna on the base with counterweights and NanoVNA measurement.

NanoVNA calibration was done on the base slot, eliminating the influence of the adapters used to connect the base. Ranges as above. If the antenna required an additional adapter, then this adapter was not calibrated, so the SMA barrel extends the line by 155 picoseconds, and the SMA - UC1 socket is 327 picoseconds, and this UC1 adapter has 43 ohms of wave impedance. The influence of these adapters is noticeable in the 70cm band, especially on the Smith chart, but it is not big and for the purposes of this test it can be omitted.

Signal level measurements:
3. Antenna on Yaesu VX-6 handheld radio and signal level measurement on base station.
4. Antenna on a base with counterweights and a base on a Yaesu VX-6 and measuring the signal level on the base station.
Measurements 3 and 4 were carried out at a distance of 185 meters from the base antenna, in an urban area, in a densely built-up housing estate, but in the field of optical visibility of the antennas. I walked about 15 meters with the PTT pressed at full power and the device at my head, just like I would normally use it to make communications. I tried to keep the device as vertical as possible so that the polarities of the antennas were consistent. There were no obstacles on the walking route in the immediate vicinity. In the case of walking with the counterweight base, these counterweights were placed a few cm above the head, so then the antenna was about 30cm higher than when broadcasting without counterweights, which could have a false positive effect in favor of the counterbalance system.
At the base station, the signal was picked up by a Diamond X50N antenna installed about 10 meters higher than the towel rail, giving an angle of 3.1 degrees. The signal came through a 10 dB attenuator, an RTL-SDR tuner working with the SDR ++ application, set to minimum gain, all AGC off, sampling 1536 kHz, division / 8 giving 192 kHz. The spectrum was recorded to an IQ .wav file. The center frequency of the SDR was set 50 kHz higher than the handheld transmitter, and as a result, the recording showed a carrier signal with a frequency of 50 kHz. The recording was filtered with a 49 kHz - 51 kHz bandpass filter. After such a cleaned recording, the noise level was -59 dB. 0dB is the SDR overload level, so the results are in the range of -59 dB is the minimum level to 0 dB is the maximum level (they are negative).
Each antenna transmitted for about 15-20 seconds, and from this time the average RMS level expressed in dB was calculated.
An example recording chart opened in an audio processing program looks like this:



There are clear differences between the individual antennas. I've already selected sample 35 on it, then zoom in:



and I mark precisely the beginning and the end. You can see here that the signal level fluctuates as it travels. Then I use the statistical analysis function which gives me this information:



I am writing back Average RMS Power.
The measurements with the hand towel were performed on the frequencies 144.9875 MHz and 434.9875 MHz.
Measurements made from antenna No. 14 took place only without counterweights.

Results for the 2m band:

number	Antenna	Signature level out of hand	SWR out of hand	Impedance	Signal on counterweights	SWR from pw	The impedance from the
01	Retevis RHD771	-22.24	4.10	29.55 -55.18i	-13.27	5.31	10.23-14.47i
03	Nagoya NA-771	-21.94	3.83	49.01-71.55i	-12.63	3.66	15.37-16.83i
07	Yaesu VX-6R	-25	4,61	29,72 -61,55i	-19,7	5,74	09,87 -17,92i
08	Wouxun KG-UV8D	-26,5	7,11	31,67 -89,32i	-26,91	18,19	06,68 -59,56i
09	Harvest RH660S	-9,88	1,02	50,73 00,60i	-7,82	1,07	52,39 -02,17i
10	Samoróbka 771	-18,52	1,22	57,99 06,95i	-17,91	6,95	166.82 -169,83i
11	Diamond NR-770H	-8	1,23	51,12 10,63i	-6,44	1,16	48,04 07,10i
12	Nagoya NL-770H	-11,59	1,79	68,49 -29,26i	-9,59	1,78	64,28 -29,83i
13	Nagoya NL-770R	-8,36	1,52	33,20 -03,87i	-6,55	1,41	36,06 04,67i

number	Antena	Poziom sign. z ręki	SWR z ręki	Impedancja
14	Nagoya NA-666	-30,18	7,85	26,56 -85,99i
15th	Nagoya NA-771	-21,19	1,92	59,32 -34,85i
16	Baofeng BFG-A-3	-26,68	3,00	18,05 13,46i
17	Baofeng UV-3	-28,78	4,43	17,65 -35,98i
18	ICOM FA-S270C	-26,87	3,96	31,44 -56,04i
19	Baofeng DM5	-24,97	1,88	27,22 -06,15i
20	Baofeng UV5	-27,9	3,04	20,18 -22,07i
21	Nagoya NA-771	-24,68	3,79	43,70 -66,72i
23	Kenwood TH-D74	-28,34	6,33	30,94 -81,16i
24	Yaesu FT-5D	-23,54	1,13	53,18 -05,61i
25	Anytone AT-D878	-24,11	1,37	43,23 -13,06i
26	Alinco DJ-G7 3pasma	-26,69	3,63	69,47 -78,97i
27	Yaesu VX-2	-25,88	1,90	43,98 -29,96i
28	ICOM MARINE	-29,62	7,75	27,11 -86,30i
32	Yaesu Standard Horizon	-29.99	11,44	23,36 -102,08i
34	Astro 320 127cm	-14,99	2,59	96,68 -50,43i
35	Diamond RH-771	-18,99	1,72	85,63 05,67i
36	Nagoya NA-771	-21,79	3,61	49,37 -68,29i
37	Nagoya NA-701	-24,08	3,09	40,51 -52,58i
38	Wouxun?	-22.1	1.99	79.59 32.86i

Due to the fact that the negative units of the signal level are not very intuitive, for the purposes of the graph, I added +31 dB to each antenna so that all the results were positive.


Results for the 70cm band:

number	Antenna	Signature level out of hand	SWR out of hand	Impedance	Signal on counterweights	SWR from pw	The impedance from the
01	Retevis RHD771	-11.83	1.57	64.47 21.41i	-14.45	1.66	63.37 25.36i
03	Nagoya NA-771	-15.59	2.47	99.53 -43.50i	-15.25	2,01	91,23 -24,50i
07	Yaesu VX-6R	-19,44	3,27	36,61 -51,99i	-18,64	4,53	14,80 -28,28i
08	Wouxun KG-UV8D	-18,59	3,31	108,81 -72,83i	-14,2	1,23	59,70 05,76i
09	Harvest RH660S	-14,54	1,31	63,95 -06,13i	-14,62	1,37	64,10 -10.95i
09skr	Harvest RH660S skrócona	-14,02	1,01	49,35 00,10i	-13,79	1,04	51,90 -00,49i
10	Samoróbka 771	-11,98	1,27	39,66 -01,93i	-13,13	1,45	34,67 02,63i
11	Diamond NR-770H	-11,21	1,06	51,88 02,60i	-10,52	1,22	42,50 -05,09i
12	Nagoya NL-770H	-13,61	1,63	30,6101.14i	-11.59	1.85	27.22 -03.46i
13	Nagoya NL-770R	-20.55	2.36	50.72-44.59i	-13.86	2.51	27.21 -26.67i

number	Antenna	Signature level out of hand	SWR out of hand	Impedance
14	Nagoya NA-666	-19.85	5.82	121.36-138.41i
15	Nagoya NA-771	-18.07	5.02	244,36 -39,54i
16	Baofeng BFG-A-3	-20,47	1,70	55,85 -27,88i
17	Baofeng UV-3	-17,28	1,20	54,95 07,97i
18	ICOM FA-S270C	-22,52	3,38	30,10 -46,16i
19	Baofeng DM5	-16,61	1,72	85,59 05,65i
20	Baofeng UV5	-16,63	1,74	83,53 -13,37i
21	Nagoya NA-771	-21,74	6,69	23,39 -70,37i
22	Kenwood KRA-23?	-18,64	2,06	70,31 -38,90i
23	Kenwood TH-D74	-22,65	3,07	38,17 -50,25i
24	Yaesu FT-5D	-23,28	3,90	27,32 -49,26i
25	Anytone AT-D878	-17,8	1,95	76,32 -32,73i
26	Alinco DJ-G7 3pasma	-23,07	2,42	40,57 -40,08i
27	Yaesu VX-2	-22,47	2,70	43,26 -47,67i
29	Kenwood KRA-27?	-20,22	2,46	54,49 -48,29i
30	Miniaturowa	-22,68	1,84	51,83 -31,57i
31	Sagem 70cm	-21.9	3,71	183,21 -18,91i
33	MMDVM HS DUAL	-19,83	1,39	47,75 16,04i
35	Diamond RH-771	-14,83	1,18	55,47 -06,71i
36	Nagoya NA-771	-18,74	3,49	39,18 -57,91i
37	Nagoya NA-701	-20,41	3,66	48,98 -68,74i
38	Wouxun?	-19,08	3,19	57,18 -65,15i

Tu również dodałem +31 dB.

Conclusions:
- The handheld radio must be able to withstand a very high SWR.
- Handheld antennas of an acceptable length work much better in the 70 cm band than in the 2 m band.
- The difference in the signal level in the 2m band between the weakest antenna and the strongest one was 23.72dB. So we would have to use 236 watts from the weakest antenna to get the same signal level from 1 (ONE) watt from the strongest. For the record decibel calculator
- The typical "gain" of a handheld antenna in the 2m band is strongly negative and is in the range of -10 to -20 dBi.
- Counterweights help greatly in the 2m band, while their use with a towel is impractical.
- Telescopic antennas, especially the long ones, are very effective, but they break down quickly and can crackle. Example of Astro 320:

Finally, here are the Smith and SWR charts:

01 03 07:


08 09 10:


11 12 13:


14 15 16:


17 18 19:


20 21 22:


23 24 25:


26 27 28:


29 30 31:


32 33 34:


35 36 37:


38:


I wish you distant communications
djbpm