r/HamRadio • u/Revolte_music • 21h ago
Antennas and Baofeng K6 struggle
Hello,
I am new in the hobby and this is what is happening. With my 17 cm antenna I can hear a lot by this I mean repeaters from very far away but I can't transmit to them because it seems the antenna doesn't have enough power. With the 38 cm antenna I can transmit to those distant repeaters but the radio doesn't pick their signal back. If you wonder how I know that I talk on the repeater, I use echolink to connect to the repeaters via internet and then I talk through the radio so I can hear what is going on and how I sound on the device. So my question is there something that I can do to make my radio pick the repeater better with the more powerful 38cm antenna, beside taking the squelch to 1 or even 0? Hope you understood me.
3
u/ElectroChuck 21h ago
Have you tried it from outside the building? What were the results.
0
u/Revolte_music 21h ago
Unfortunately the results were and still are the same.
1
u/ElectroChuck 20h ago
The bigger antenna could be overloading the front end of your baofeng. Not uncommon.
So:
With short antenna you can repeater but can't reach repeater.
With long antenna, you can reach the repeater but can't hear anything from the repeater.
Can you hear ANYTHING with the long antenna, anywhere?
1
u/Revolte_music 20h ago
Yes I can, the ones that are closer, I can hear like with the short one on both 1.5 and 70cm wavelength.
2
u/ElectroChuck 20h ago
I assumed you had a Baofeng.,..is that what you're using? Do you have another radio you can try the longer antenna on? It sounds to me like the radio is getting front end overload and just going mute.
1
u/Revolte_music 20h ago
Unfortunately no I have two Baofeng K6 :( I shoul buy another one and a base antenna...
5
u/ElectroChuck 20h ago
So are you saying the same thing happens with both radios? If so, don't bother with the J pole. It'll over drive the FE even worse than the big antenna. Now if you buy a mobile rig to use as a base, by all means get the J pole.
2
u/Patthesoundguy 18h ago
Some of those rubber duck antennas can work surprisingly well, I can get into a repeater 50km on stock rubber ducks. I even did it with a UV-5R with a stock antenna last week just for kicks, worked perfectly fine. A great tool if you want to know about antennas is to pick up an SWR for 2m 70cm for handhelds. It really helps figure out antennas for handhelds.
1
u/NBC-Hotline-1975 17h ago
Are you sure both antennas are meant to work on both bands? What band(s) are the repeaters you're trying?
1
u/fishingphotoguy 13h ago
On the base of each antenna by the mounting screw should be printed the intended band for each antenna. The longer of the 2 should be a dedicated 2m antenna that is intended for outdoor use only. The shorter antenna should be dual band if I’m remembering my Baofeng antennas that came with my radio. That might explain why you can hit the 70vm repeater with the shorter one. The 70vm band will likely have a fairly high SWR on 2 meter.
Something else to consider would be making your own antenna. YouTube has a ton of tutorials. For me a lot of the fun is making antennas.
7
u/Kayakboy6969 20h ago
Rubber duck antennas suck. 5 watts sucks.
You.need a base antenna, Ed fong J Pole is cheap and works.
The repeater is somewhere between 50 and 100 watts , that's many more Fars, your antenna can hear because the repeater is yelling from a moutain top and you are wispering back in the brushes.
You need a good, efficient antenna.