scanhermit
New member
I've been messing around with handhelds, trying to see how far I can push basic, cheap gear.
I left a PMR handset on my windowsill and took myself off to an overbridge 4 crow miles away with a legal handset (Retevis H777D) and a homemade "tiger tail" or counterpoise to see if it made any difference to the audio. While carrying out the test I unexpectedly made two contacts from the bridge at 24 and 40 miles. I was quiet but readable to them. They were high up on hills with either base antennas or mag mounts.
The distance between bridge and home is mostly over open fields so I went to a more tricky position. It's closer at 2 miles but has more in the way of buildings and vegetation in the way.
Well the tiger tail didn't seem to make much difference either from the bridge to home, or to the distant stations. There was a more definite effect at the more tricky spot - the tiger tail lifted the audio from R2 to R4.
I tentatively conclude that a tiger tail is likely most useful for the more difficult contacts while those with clear lines of sight benefit less.
I think that overbridges make good second order positions if you can't get to a decent hill. I've had a 40 mile contact on the H777D from an overbridge before. The only problem is traffic noise but luckily, the one near to me is over a road that isn't very busy.
I left a PMR handset on my windowsill and took myself off to an overbridge 4 crow miles away with a legal handset (Retevis H777D) and a homemade "tiger tail" or counterpoise to see if it made any difference to the audio. While carrying out the test I unexpectedly made two contacts from the bridge at 24 and 40 miles. I was quiet but readable to them. They were high up on hills with either base antennas or mag mounts.
The distance between bridge and home is mostly over open fields so I went to a more tricky position. It's closer at 2 miles but has more in the way of buildings and vegetation in the way.
Well the tiger tail didn't seem to make much difference either from the bridge to home, or to the distant stations. There was a more definite effect at the more tricky spot - the tiger tail lifted the audio from R2 to R4.
I tentatively conclude that a tiger tail is likely most useful for the more difficult contacts while those with clear lines of sight benefit less.
I think that overbridges make good second order positions if you can't get to a decent hill. I've had a 40 mile contact on the H777D from an overbridge before. The only problem is traffic noise but luckily, the one near to me is over a road that isn't very busy.
