For home use, the stock antenna for my Icom ID-52 is slightly oversized. I can access my local repeater even with the lowest power setting. So I wanted to try using small rubber duck antennas to see if I could still work my repeater from the ground.
A fellow ham radio operator gave me three antennas from his stock:
- Diamond SRH805
- Maldol Active Hunter
- Homebrew
Testequipment
All antennas are mounted with an N-to-SMA adaptor to my handheld VNA SV4401A (50 kHz – 4.4 GHz). During the measurement, I touched the N connector to simulate a human counterweight.
Diamond SRH805
Remark: The plastic surface of the Diamond antenna has become completely sticky over the years – you really don’t want to touch it anymore.
Maldol Active Hunter
Remark: The plastic surface of the Maldol antenna is also slowly starting to become sticky – but it’s nothing compared to the DIAMOND antenna
Homebrew
Conclusion
The Diamond antenna performs well on the 70 cm band, with an excellent return loss of 17.5 dB, and on the 23 cm band, with an outstanding return loss of 34.5 dB. On the 2m band, it acts as a dummy load. This antenna is clearly the winner for the 70cm and 23cm band.
The Maldol antenna has poor return loss on the 2 m band at 3.8 dB. On the 70 cm band, it has a reasonable return loss of 13 dB, although it is tuned slightly too low. On the 23 cm band, the return loss is also 13 dB, but it is tuned about 200 MHz too low.
The homebrew antenna is hand-tuned to the 2 m band and has an excellent return loss of 17 dB. This antenna is clearly the winner for the 2 m band.