Ut-72 Antenna

[Joke Grinman]

Ibought a mag mount antenna thats supposed to be specifically tuned for GMRS. I was having issues hitting repeaters with it, so I got a SWR meter and gave it a test. It turns out that on the 2 meter ham band, its a perfect 1.0 to 1. On 462.600 mhz, its 1.5 and surprisingly on 467.600 its 4.0

Both came antennas came in identical bags, which do appear to be authentic Nagoya. The UT-72G bag has a second sticker/label covering the original. So UT-72 underneath, UT-72G on top. They are basically identical expect the UT-72G's mast/whip is about 1" shorter than the UT-72's, which is about right for tuning up a 70cm antenna for 64cm, and for bringing a 2m antenna up to MURS. Unfortunately neither are adjustable, unless you pull the rubberized protective cap off the whip and trim it back, then use something else to protect the end.

Conversely I have a Diamond MR-77 that was tuned at > 1.3:1 for 2m and 70cm (center band for both) right out of the box. Since it was an extra antenna, and tunable, I trimmed off about 20mm, and it is now centered at 464.500 MHz, right in the middle of the GMRS range. I'm not worried about it on the VHF side, since it'll never be used for it. But 2m is still workable, with the NanoVNA showing it to be centered at 147.500 MHz (upper end of the band), at about 1.2:1 with a nice shallow dip covering a bandwidth of 10-12 MHz.

thank you for the replies. Im sure I bought the "G" version. The good news is we bought this antenna for a caravan we have coming up and we are using a simplex channel, and those work fine. It will work for my need, just grumpy that I cant use a repeater with it (I tried, i either dont break squelch on the repeater, or my signal is terrible). Moving on I guess.... Thank you all.

Here is a little review. Since I got the Nano VNA f I decided to test an antenna that I have had for a while. I had bought 2 for a road trip. Btech sells them for $29. They are a lot cheaper then buying a magnet NMO and nmo antenna. I have been happy with the 2m (144mhz) performance, It has ok performance with GMRS and I feel it has been meh with 70cm (444mhz) performance. So I wanted to see what the numbers were like as far as SWR. I have been mostly using it for repeater usage on 2M and GMRS. No luck on 2m simplex, FRS/GMRS works well for simplex when in range. Furthest GMRS repeater has been to Alexandria give or take 11 miles from the truck. The same antenna, is being tested on a cookie backing pan in my dining room connected to an FT991a. I have managed to connect to 2m Frederick MD repeaters which are 27+ miles away on 5 watts. Still can't make a simplex call 5 miles with the same setup running 30 watts.

You want to really have some fun try testing some HT antennas! They're not easy since the radio, and part of your body, ends up as part of the antenna. When you see the results you'll wonder why they work at all. A few I've tested belong in a landfill somewhere.

It's still would be an interesting experiment. Stories surface about counterfeit antennas from at least one well known manufacture are out there. I think it is Nagoya. Antenna testing showed the difference between the real one and the fake.

On another point I have purchased a few "cheap" magnet mount antennas mostly to get the mount from Ham Radio flea market vendors. After testing them the performance was nowhere close to the spec's on the package.

Ok. First off. I do not know how to property test Ht antennas. A calibration was done with the SMA extension for each frequency band when changed. All antennas are authentic from what I can tell. The Nagoya's are from Btech and the Abree is from Abree.

There was a big difference between holding the coil of the antenna(base) and the lead. Unfortunately, it isn't like an MFJ analyzer where I could screw it into. So I chose to hold them by the coil except for the Abree. Holding the Abree by the coil it would go from 1:1.55 and then jump to 1:6.63. Even laying the antennas on the table it would jump by quite a bit. Try holding a 42" antenna by the SMA lug, my fingers hurt.. Again take this with a grain of salt.

Yes. The recieve has been better when I have added cattails. It works best when you get it close to the 1/4 wave of the frequency in use. I had the best results with 2m with a 19" cattail. The abree made no difference with the cattail. I believe it is due to the coil at the base of the antenna. Which looks to be the counterpoise.

Similar issues, authentic Nagoya UT 72 after buying a counterfeit from Walmart. The difference was pretty stark. But my handheld eight watt running a diamond Rh 77 CA, inside the car outperformed the Nagoya mag mound by over a quarter mile in an suburban environment .

But to throw on my wifes van and get 5 miles is ok with me. On my truck I am running a larsen 2/70. Not optimized for gmrs, gets kinda high in swr at that frequency. But I don't care if it blows up the baofeng. It served its purpose. Might get an STI flexible whip for gmrs on my truck.

I HAVE A FEW OF THE UT-72G'S TUNED FOR GMRS THAT WORK GREAT ABAILABLE FROM Nagoya UT-72G High Gain Magnet Mount GMRS Antenna (462-467 MHz) (buytwowayradios.com) FOR A GROUND PLANE AN OLD BAKING SHEET OR PIZZA PAN WORKS GOOD INDOORS OR ON JUST STICK THE MAGNET TO THE ROOF OF A VEHICLE.

Ace Hardware stocks sheet steel in different sizes and thicknesses. I use a 2 foot x 2 foot piece for both GMRS and 2 meter ham work with a 50W radio. Exposure to RF is an issue you need to guard against. There are calculators available on the web that allow you to find the safe distances for both you as the operator and an observer.

The Nagoya UT-72G is a GMRS magnet mount antenna with over 3.5 dB of gain. It is designed to be used with your mobile or handheld radio. An included super flexible SMA adapter cable allows for easier installation right to your handheld radio. It will help improve your signal by mounting the antenna on any vehicle with a steel body (like cars).

With 13 feet of Heavy Duty RG-58 you are able to set up your Antenna on almost any vehicle application. The antenna itself is 2.5mm thick compared to the usual 1.5mm antennas found on most vehicle magnetic mounts.

The Nagoya UT-72 is a dual-band magnet mount antenna with over 4 dB of gain. It is designed to be used with your mobile or handheld radio. An included super flexible SMA adapter cable allows for easier installation right to your handheld radio. It will help improve your signal by mounting the antenna on any vehicle with a steel body (like cars).

I have not even used it on my mobile just trying it out on a mini freezer out back. The mag mount works great it has a strong magnet and I like the rubber boot on the base will not scratch paint I have a Retevis RA86 20 watts and use two repeaters one 20 miles and one 27 with no problem.

this antenna went above my expectations i actualy have noticable improved range than with other standard 1/4 wave antenna not only does it work great in teh Gmrs band but equaly a ell in he FRS band with an swr of less than 1:5 all the way around would highly recomment i use with both my hand hld an my lexion 25 watt radio

As of 9/26/23:

The antenna I received from B2WR is not the UT-72G but rather the UT-72. Whats the difference? Well put simply this antenna is tuned better for 144/440mhz (aka 2m/70cm) than it is for 154/462mhz. I confronted B2WR with my findings but they dont seem to understand this or maybe they do and thought they could get away with selling them anyway. I'm not sure which is actually worse.

Will it still work? yeah. In my testing the SWR is somewhere between 1.5-1.7 on 462-467mhz when mounted on my vehicle where it has good surface area to get good contact as a ground plane. Far from ideal. I have a real UT-72G and it tests between 1.2-1.3 SWR on the GMRS frequency range.

Ultimately I'm disappointed in B2WR for not being able to recognize this error and correct it. The antenna itself is not at fault here. One could simply trim a bit off the top to get it more in line, but you will need some form of SWR meter to do this and it shouldn't need to be done if people did their due diligence.

I Live In An Apartment So All My Antennas Are Mobil Mounted Outside My Room Window And The Nagoya UT 72G Works Perfect In My Area....It Has Great Range And Audio Quality And Is Small And Mighty And I Love The Ease Of The Magnetic Mount! A Great Purchase And A Great Company......

I tested this ANT and has a great SWR 1.01 to 1.06 on the Wouxun KG-1000G Plus GMRS on UHF channels. and also different handheld radio such as TYT UV88 and wouxun kg-935g. I did not test MURS on it.. but good for GMRS :)

Customer service is awesome + fast shipping.

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