I recently acquired a new wide-band SWR meter from Amazon, and I wanted to revisit the antenna tests I’d run in the past with my old 70’s 11m test equipment.
So, today I got together all of my the rubber-duck dual-band antennas, picked one of my ChiComm radios and took some measurements.
Here are the antennas I tested (left to right).
- Nagoya NA-701
- SaineSonic INF-641
- Nagoya NA-771
- Baofeng stock (long)
- Baofeng stock (short)
Here are the results for my test. I ran each antenna 3 times in each band; at the lower phone boundary, upper phone boundary and close to the center of the band.
| VHF Lo – 144.1 MHz | UHF Low – 420.0 MHz |
| VHF Center – 146.0 MHz | UHF Center – 435.0 MHz |
| VHF High – 148.0 MHz | UHF High – 450 MHz |
| Antenna | VHF(l) | VHF(c) | VHF(h) | UHF(l) | UHF(c) | UHF(h) |
| NA-701 | 2.19:1 | 1.83:1 | 2.44:1 | 2.18:1 | 1.17:1 | 1.31:1 |
| INF-641 | 1.79:1 | 1.09:1 | 1.37:1 | 1.08:1 | 1.02:1 | 1.77:1 |
| NA-771 | 2.39:1 | 2.20:1 | 2.21:1 | 2.08:1 | 1.16:1 | 1.97:1 |
| Stock (L) | 1.59:1 | 1.03:1 | 1.02:1 | 2.07:1 | 1.07:1 | 1.15:1 |
| Stock (S) | 2.76:1 | 2.18:1 | 1.79:1 | 1.09:1 | 1.59:1 | 1.70:1 |
I was really surprised by how well (from an SWR standpoint) the little SaineSonic that came with my GT-3TP was. I was also shocked at how bad the two Nagoyas seemed to be. There was a 6th antenna (not stock, or Nagoya) that was in the 3:1+ range across all the bands. Either it was damaged, a fake.. or maybe they are simply garbage.
These tests are hardly scientific. I did, however, hold the radios in free space away from me, instead of testing them on the bench surrounded by metallic objects.. for those about to try and drop some truth bombs on me.
Once I figure out a fair rig to install the antennas into, I’ll hook up my little nanoVNA and see what it has to say. Could confirm these results, or it could say something completely different. What I’d like to see from the nanoVNA are some gain estimates. The little antennas might match well, but do they also have good gain; that is an important question.
Interesting results! I’m surprised by the performance of the SaineSonic as well, especially considering the price point. I’ve had similar experiences with some Nagoya antennas—they seem hit or miss depending on the specific model. Looking forward to seeing what the nanoVNA reveals about the gain. SWR is one thing, but gain really makes a difference in real-world use.