Retevis SMA-Male Antenna, Walkie Talkie Antenna,14.8IN Flexible Whip,VHF/UHF 144/430Mhz Dual Band,for Retevis RT85 RA89 RT81 HA1UV,Compatible with YAESU Vertex TYT Wouxun(1Pack)

I'm only going to give this three stars for now as I really haven't done any TX and DX testing. This will be on the general form and fitment of the product. The antenna is thick and flexible and seems to be pretty heavy duty and able to take a beating which is good, since it's so long it's going to catch on and hit everything. The one issue I noticed immediately is that it is shipped curled up in a package and appears to be factory packaged this way and stored in a bent fashion. This, of course, causes some memory in the antenna so it doesn't stand straight without some work. I'm not sure it will ever be straight. It is strong enough to stand mostly erect after some manipulation but the antenna may not be quite stiff enough and continue to droop a bit. I bought these for two MD-380's. It does not fit into the radio housing well. It does screw down snug as it friction fits on the antenna mounting hole but it it will not seat all the way and just pinch-holds in place. Still, it's plenty secure enough to be usable and if one wanted to modify the radio a bit, probably would go all the way down. I did very quick testing as one of my radio's is setup to scan DPD. I'm about 25-30 miles away and it picked them up fine but so do the other antennas I own. I'll have to do some testing of the dead reception spots this weekend. I transmitted on GMRS (WQYQ578) in Simplex and it worked but the radios were just a few feet apart so that's not really a test. I'm going to install one on my work HT which switches between simplex and repeater and see how it functions. I can usually hit the repeater with my MD-380 HT nearly 10 miles, as the crow flies, but it's a weak connection at times. Hoping this antenna will help that.1-11-17 I've used this antenna a bit although I don't have the proper equipment to test it legitimately. What I can report is that it has slightly better reception that the 7" high gain antenna that comes with the MD-380. It does catch a signal better and audio is received clearer when using my radio as a police scanner. TX seems to be slightly better. I am on the fringe area of my work repeater range, roughly 10 miles, and the signal literally reaches and stops at the garage at my house. Using this antenna on my work MD-380 HT, it will connect slightly better and holds a conversation with my employees without dropping out. For the price, it's worth it as you will see a slight improvement. I'm moving it to 4 stars from my original 3.1-26-17 So I've been using this antenna more and more. I guess it needed some time to 'break in', if that's possible, or maybe I needed some 'break-in' time using them but the more I use them, the better they seem to get. Out of the plethora of antennas most radio geeks have, I find these are now my go-to antennas as they just work. I used a pair of scissors and scraped the plastic from around the housing of my radio to make the antennas fit better and so far, I've been pretty happy with them. I can blip the REACT repeater in Dallas, roughly 20 miles away, using these antennas on a 5 watt HT and have even had a response that my signal has static but it understandable, so, as far as that goes, I'm pretty impressed. Even though they were stored and shipped curled, with some work they stand pretty much straight up now with just a slight curve. I'm going to give these antennas a 'buy' rating.1-28-17. I've been playing with antennas this morning. These Retevis antennas continue to astound me as far as RX, and TX is pretty decent as well. I've been building various size UHF antennas tis morning with a ground plane, w/o a ground plane, 1/4 wave and 1/2 wave and one mounted on a 7' pole and 95% of the time, these Retevis antennas do as good as or better than anything I can come up with or any other antenna I use, including my Brownings. Amazing. I'm convinced this is "THE" antenna to have for an HT. I even connected it directly to my SDR dongle and it worked pretty well in that situation, too. Not stellar but good enough. I'm moving to a full 5 stars. I have a pair of TYT UV-8000 "10W" radios coming in (they show an average of about 8w on the 'tube' reviews I've been watching). Can't wait to try it out on them. More power!

I've used this for a couple days now on my Retevis RT82, and it's doing a fine job. I was previously using a long whip on my DMR HT as I do work FM on 2meters, but our DMR repeaters are on 70cm and I wanted a shorter antenna to make the HT more portable. So far, this is working great. It is super flexible, and you can feel the actual antenna inside the silicone boot is smaller in diameter than the boot itself. I would imagine that the silicone could crack/break with lots of flex or exposure to the sun though. I cannot comment on how weatherproof the antenna is; the RT82 is supposed to be IP67 rated, but all of the replacement antennas I have tested do not cover the opening where the SMA antenna connector is and I would hesitate to test it's waterproofness for fear of killing the radio. If I get another DMR rig I will likely purchase this antenna again.

SWR 1.1 to 1 great antenna.

This stub antenna worked great for about two months after I received it. Transmit and receive signals were clear.Unfortunately about two months in the rubber began to loosen around the base and move upwards. This caused the antenna itself to begin falling apart. After one week the antenna is unusable and in pieces. I do not put a lot of wear and tear on my EDC radio, so this should have last much longer.

Works perfect on my radio also has good range on both receive and transmit.

It works

Tactical antennas have those who like them and those who don't like them and think they are just a gimmick, but the truth is a good tactical antenna that can reach tall heights can be positive. But it's also important to note that sometimes, certain antennas are different from each other and the only way is to test.So, I tested the Retevis RT85 Foldable CS Tactical Ham Radio Antenna which is a dual band antenna which supports the following frequencies:136-174MHz400-480MHzMost importantly, it's important for everyone to know that this is an SMA Male antenna. If you are using a radio that has a male SMA connection, you will want an antenna to have an SMA Female. Otherwise, if you accidentally purchased, you can easily use an female to female adapter.OK, so on to my SWR (Standing Wave Ratio) tests. I tested this on my meter and there were three dips.The first dip was about 1.7-1.8 on the 146MHz (Adequate)The second dip was about 1.4 at 297 MHz (Very good!)The third dip was 2.0 at 442 MHz (Not the best but functional)Overall, the Retevis RT85 Foldable CS Tactical Ham Radio Antenna was a good and was able to pick up frequencies 40 miles away, but also picked up a repeater nearly 110 miles away.So, no negative tests that I saw that would hurt your HT (3.0 or over, nor anything close to 2.5-2.9). Thumbs up!The Retevis RT85 Foldable CS Tactical Ham Radio Antenna that I received gets a passing rating!

I used this antenna on my Retevis RT3S radio today to talk to Ohio from Virginia through the Tevel 6 satellite repeater! Awesome job!