External Aerial on hand-held VHF radio ... ?

[BushWacker]

Im looking at fitting a connection lead
from my hand-held VHF radio
to an external Arial ...

Hand-helds have limited range at best of times and when in a cabs metal cage its even worse.

Plan is to unscrew existing handhelds arial
and screw in required lead.

Anyone done this before or have other
...or even better ideas ???

[XJ Junkie]

It’s a pain doing what you described.

Use as the name suggests - handheld.

Rather fit a base for range & convenience.

Best is that have both.

[BushWacker]

I do have both ...

In Sept I do long Richtersveld-Kgalagadi trip
and 1 guy in convoy has no VHF ...
... so Im trying to kit him out w my hand-held
and may need bit extra range.

[Wave]

Yip, I have a Bosvark and an external antenna mounted on my bull bar, makes a huge difference. I also added the hand held mic so you don't have to pick up the radio all the time

Got one from Family Dog on the other forum, was about R350

[Paul#25]

I have a bayonet to screw fitting adapter that I have used with my handheld radio and external antenna. They should be available at good radio shops.

[Graeme McConnachie]

I have used a gutter mount with a swivel action to allow entry in garage.
Works for me. Also helps a bit with the branches
Cheers
Graeme

[XJ Junkie]

I’m going to be sticking one of these tiny VHFs into my Duster just for the hell of it.

I took a photo next to the ciggie box to show just how small it is.

[KurtG]

Price and details of that tiny thing please Neil?

[XJ Junkie]

Joe Berg - JB Electronics here in Paarl.

Price R2k.

[Paul#25]

Price and details of that tiny thing please Neil?

I got mine from Dirk at RTS for R1450,00 a few months back. He advertised a special on the 4x4 Community forum.
It was sent by courier to me and I had it 3 days after placing the order for the radio and a matching aerial.
I'm very happy with its performance and being so small it is easy to fit into a vehicle without it getting in the way.
Here's a link: http://www.repeater.co.za/product/dv-2135s/

[Wooky]

Those little RTS radios are great.
If you have a noisy vehicle the on-board speaker might be little under powered.
You can get an external speaker for it from RTS that plugs in the earphone jack.

W

[XJ Junkie]

R1450 is a very good price. It’s less than a handheld radio.

[Paul#25]

R1450 is a very good price. It’s less than a handheld radio.

Found my invoice from February this year for the radio and antenna. Radio was R1495,00 and antenna was R380,00 for a total of R1875,00 and I wasn't charged courier costs. The setup worked perfectly on the recent Mountain Passes trip with good comm's in the mountains.

[Wooky]

Paul#25....

Are you using a magmount 1/4 wave or a fixed vehicle mount?

[Paul#25]

Paul#25....

Are you using a magmount 1/4 wave or a fixed vehicle mount?

The antenna that I ordered with the radio is a fixed unit that I have fitted to the roof of the Disco aft of the second sunroof and is under 500mm long so I presume it's a 1/4 wave. It was matched to the radio by the supplier. Their product code is DV-4050 but it doesn't look exactly like the photo on their website. I do have a similar mag-mount antenna that I use with the hand-held radios. You are more than welcome to come past and have a look at the setup in the Disco.