UHF HT Antennas

Overview

So I received a pair of Kenwood NX-5300-K6s and was just bored so I decided to sweep the antennas. Normally, commercial handheld antennas are tuned for the top of the UHF band (490mHz, the TX range for tband) so I was expecting to see that. To my suprise, they were not good anywhere in the 400mHz-500mHz range! It appears that the dip started around 50mHz so then I went down the rabbit hole…

Test Equipment

All tests were conducted using my GenComm CG747A with calibration between 400mHz-500mHz. The antenna was attached to an SMA <> N adapter and was vertically polarized. When the screenshots you see below were taken, my body and anything metallic were roughly 2 feet away from the analyzer/antenna. I know this is not the most accurate measurement but, for what i'm trying to do I think it's acceptable. The same 4 markers were used for all the following tests. (I did some sweeps with my hand near the antennas but the results only varied a little so, I did not incude those below.)

Image 1: Kenwood NX UHF Antenna KRA-27

Image 2: Motorola APX All-Band Antenna AN000342A01 (only looking at UHF)

Image 3: Motorola APX UHF Antenna PMAE4024 (eBay china knockoff)

Summary

If you're looking for a cheap but good UHF monoband HT antenna, these eBay ones are a good choice. If that link becomes broken, just search ebay for "Motorola APX UHF Antenna". Most of these come out of the same factory over in China so other sellers pretty much sell the same product. (Update 7/9/23, I purchased 5 antennas from a diffirent seller and they look & sweep the same.)