Best 'Long Range' 2 Meter Telescopic Ham Radio Antenna?

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[isaacs]

omg that first few seconds was defanitly dank pods inspired

[alanslade]

See this is why I love your show, up there for thinking down there for dancing, great work again and very interesting, thanks again Alan from the other side of the pond in little old England.💯🇬🇧🍻👍

[TheOutdoorFun]

Thanks for the video. I live in the UK and and here we can only buy the MFJ-1714. We can’t buy the smiley antennas. I ordered 1/2 wave smiley antennas directly from them. The reason I ordered 1/2 wave smiley antennas was the flex part at the bottom. I already broke couple of MFJ-1714

I also have Diamond RH-770 2/70 antennas which has similar performance with good build quality.

Another note, after i watched your HT antenna shootout, I bought Diamond RH77CA and signal stick (which I had to order them from the US because we can’t buy them here)

Thanks again for your videos!

[ozy]

Smiley Antenna is amazing. I have had their antennas for years. They will also make custom frequency antennas. We were very active in Search & Rescue, and they had no problem making us some resonant antennas for those radios in the 150-160Mhz and 450+ ranges.

[johnkeo]

I lole the 5/8, i have it on my motorola XTS5000 on occasion, i was able to hit and hear clearly on repeaters 90, iles away and have a good crystal clear conversation

[rstiosejo]

Awesome video Josh. You recorded my friend RON KN6APO talking with Cliff. I have the SMILEY 2m bought at HRO in 1990 and the SMILEY Dual Band 2m/70cm bought at HRO in1990. Just a recall on those Telescopic Antenna. As always Stay Safe and God Bless. Ruben KD6CWI

[Jake.X]

Appreciate the great videos! You’re helping a noob like me learn more and more every day! Thanks!

[nine]

I have bought many of these antennas. I bought 9 Smiley from them directly years ago. 1 had a defect, and 1 was the wrong model. The company refused to ship me the replacements without charging me extra shipping..it was a $300 USD order, not small. And then they got very defensive and rude to me. Good products but terrible customer service. Also, the resonant frequencies on some models are away from the ham band (I only ordered 1 not in the ham band), so they aren't perfectly tuned. I tested them with and without a counterpoise.

[JaronActual]

I've been rocking the Smiley 27000 for years on my 5X3. Great antenna. It's very convenient as a daily carry without being cumbersome, but can extend when you need it for some extra range. Works great on my dual band DMR-6X2 too. I like that the base can be changed to different connectors, even though I use BNC too.

[DonzLockz]

Good timing, I wanted to find out more on those telescopic antennas. I'm ordering adaptors like you said about using BNC if you swap antennas alot.👍🤓🇦🇺

[amtrak]

telescopic antennas have been my dad's favorite for years. Great to see a video on this topic! Thanks Josh!

[dougdaniels]

I'm running a Smiley tri-band on my TH-F6A, nice to see someone else still using that radio.

[zac_in_ak]

I just got a Yaesu VX-6 this is very helpful. Would love to see you test the tri band on the 440 and 1.25 to see how it performs

[AZREDFERN]

I’m kind of looking in to the Icom IC-V86 as my first Japanese HT. It’s a 2M only workhorse that’s still Chirp compatible and affordable. Definitely need to pair it with a good single band antenna.

[TwoFeatherChannel]

would be cool if they Color Coded the sections of the Tri-Band antenna
maybe anodizing each section so you will know which band you were setup for

[wild-radio]

I am also recently fascinated with these!♡ too cool 🥰
Be well hamFam!

[nickbasinski]

I've been admiring Adam's Smiley antenna for a while but wasn't sure which was right for me. Thanks for the thorough reviews, I'll be back at HRO soon to get my own.

[raymondmartin]

Thanks for the reviews! I recently purchased
the MFJ half wave one, and it works well.
73 de W2CH

[imarat]

You’ll find the two meter versions are shunt fed, while the other antenna has just a coil.
Shunt feeding has a wire tapped a couple of turns up the coil that connects back to ground..

[bubbleheadft]

I know it's supposed to be monoband but I'd be interested to see how the 5/8 wave does on 6 meters. Could be cool to pack along with a 705.