He's a dollar with survival dispatch we Are talking about the barneyed basic Level radio functions how the radios Work in video one we talked about the Three main radio types we talked a Little bit about FRS gmrs and ham and I Kind of deep dived into a little bit of Stuff I shouldn't have touched so in This radio in this video I'm just going To talk about antennas antenna selection And frequencies so that you understand The crazy question of how far will my Radio talk so stick with me [Music] Oh Okay so a lot of people think the bigger The antenna the better Couldn't be further from the truth if we Tried what really matters is this All antennas can listen The Size Doesn't Matter they can't Transmit unless they're the right size That's the two things that matter RF is Just light that you can't see it has a Magnetic component a heat component an Electrical component it is a form of Radiation but it's not going to hurt you Most of the time so having said that if You can imagine a light bulb you can Imagine what the RF radiation is doing From your radio if I take this antenna This is vertically propagating what that Means is it needs to be used like this Not like this not hidden not at crazy
Angles it needs to be used in the same Angle as the receiving antenna right They got to match up there is a level of Loss that increases exponentially once I Go from in alignment to completely out Of alignment understanding that will Help you this radio It basically makes a bubble and I'm Going to use just the antenna And The light beam pretty much looks like This Thank you now I can't quite see that Right looks like a butt or a big fat Donut so what this tells me is if I take My antenna and I point it at someone I Just aimed the hole at them if they're Really close they're gonna hear it but If they're far away you just set Yourself up for failure if you want to Talk distance you make it vertically Okay make it vertical So if I want to stretch this out further Which gives me the ability to talk Longer distances because who cares about The sky right when an antenna is cut to Its exact correct length it will make a Fat donut When it's cut in half it'll make a Squished long donut we call that a half Wavelength antenna If I am talking in the two meter antenna Correction if I'm talking in the two Meter wavelength I need a two meter
Antenna okay that's a big freaking Antenna this thing is talking in the in The 75 centimeter or 2 meter wavelength Which is either this antenna or this big Long antenna well why does it work when It's so short Without getting too deep mathematically As long as it's one half one quarter One-eighth one sixteenth it will still Work but there's a certain point where Your bubble starts getting small and Becoming less effective we call that Retarding the lob don't freak out that's What it's really called So your ability to use a one-half Wavelength antenna is going to give you The biggest distance for the frequency That you're using now if that's a really Tall antenna then you need to use a Quarter inch weight wavelength because Sometimes it's just obnoxious to pack That thing around There is a mathematical place where a Short two meter antenna will also work As a long 75 centimeter antenna what This means is some antennas will work in One two three and four different bands They are multi-band antenna they're Going to work kind of good in all of Them but not really good in one of them Understanding this lets me know one of The primary things I want to do to make My radio communicate correctly is put The right wavelength antenna on it so
How do we come up with the right Wavelength well All of these mathematical equations were Based on the speed of light I know You're all are like oh he's getting Advanced but it's really simple if I Take 300 And I divide Whatever my frequency is let's say I'm Going to divide 150 megahertz into it That'll tell me what wavelength I need The 150 megahertz frequency works Perfectly By a two meter antenna okay because 150 Goes into 300 twice If I do a half wavelength antenna Because I don't want a fat donut I want To spread donut Well that lets me know I need a one Meter antenna for the frequency of 150. Well what about 145 Still 150 what about 135 Still a one meter antenna so there is a Certain point where mathematically I Start to fall off the cliff and my Antenna doesn't work as well that's Where we bump into another band So understanding that that's how we come Up with the antenna with the the antenna Size to show this on a graph If I kind of curl this it's going to Look about like this And this is a two meter with the Frequency of 150 maybe this is a hundred
And this is 200. what this lets me know Is I'm going to talk really good on a Two meter antenna And the further away from 150 megahertz That I get the more crappy that antenna Is going to transmit whether I go down In frequency or up in frequency Okay the Barney takeaway from this all You need to remember is this it will Tell you right on the antenna what the Frequencies are and how it works So I have this dual band antenna that Works very well in two meter and 75 Centimeter that gives me the 150 ish Megahertz and the 450 ish megahertz Bands so that I can talk in two bands With one radio and one antenna without Switching it out they both do kind of Good but they don't singularly do really Well because it's kind of like the Subaru Baja does a lot of things but not Anything really really well Foreign That the RF radiation coming off this Antenna is like light Then we need to understand Attenuation which is the light gets Absorbed into the things that it hits The first rule that we have learned is Get the right antenna for your frequency Right Figure out what frequency you're talking In get the right antenna my personal Rule is the antenna that came with your
Radio it's trash put a new one on it I Like diamond antennas you buy what you Want they all work as long as they're The right size the next rule in talking Long distances is get up above all the Trash okay if I think of this like a Light that's putting out a emission and I'm down inside of the ground it's going To hit this building and it's going to Hit that tree it's going to hit all These things and it's not going to work As well if I just simply bring my Antenna up above the house now I can Talk to anything that I can see in the Comments section of some of these other Videos people keep asking me how far Will the antenna work well it only works One to two miles that's because of Attenuation you are inside of trees or Something and that light is absorbing Into those trees so yeah I can only work One or two miles but if you get the Antenna up high enough that it can see It will literally talk to whatever you Can see if you can see it you can talk To it okay the third Rule and really I'm Going to say there's four is If you can't talk to it increase the Power these little handy talkies they Max out at about five Watts some of These mobile radios you can push them 25 50 Watts some of the HF rigs they'll get Up to 1500. But you got to have a license to do that
So if you've got the right antenna and You've got it as high as you can get it And it still doesn't work then put out As much power as possible make your Connection then dial it down and tell You are using as much power as you need That way you're not gonna Create a signal that can be seen in Texas right so if your takeaway from This video is this get the antenna that Fits the frequency you're talking in Get a half or quarter wavelength antenna Because it will spread out the bubble That gives you more distance to talk If that doesn't work increase the height If that doesn't work increase the power The fourth thing that I talked about Earlier is get Singular directional antennas like a Yaggy antenna I will show briefly how a Yaggy antenna works it is basically one Of these antennas which I'm going to Call a resonating element with a larger Reflecting element behind it On a pole with little focusing elements The more focusing elements you have the Tighter the degree of the bubble that It's going to communicate in okay so the Power from your antenna goes to this one It puts out that light which reflects Off of this thing And the more focusers I have the closer That beam will be Okay the bubble
The communication bubble off of a yagi Antenna looks like this it's a big lob That's kind of skinny with a little Spike here a little Spike here and a Little bubble here okay so if you have a Directional antenna this is it vertical Like this and it's a yagi antenna And you have the right wavelength for The antenna you have the right height For the antenna and as much power as you Can get the only thing the only thing You can do more to push through stuff Like the humidity in the air or yeah Clouds or trees or whatever is to really Focus your beam this is like taking a Flashlight and focusing your beam and Then point it right directly at the Other antenna that you're trying to talk To now with the yagi it's it is it is Sensitive in pushing it and sensitive in Receiving it but it sucks off the sides So sometimes you can get a signal from The back but most the time you got to Point it right at let's say you've got a Ham radio at your house you point that Yaga antenna at the the repeater on the Mountain or you point it at your buddy's House or whatever okay so Hopefully that wasn't too confusing And it gave you simple rules get the Right antenna Increase the height increase the power Buy specialized equipment to really Focus it with a yaggy antenna you can
Literally push a VHF signal to the moon And reflect it back to the other side of The planet people have done that which Is really kind of cool so when you guys Talk to me about how far will it talk if You can see it and your antenna is Proper for the radio you can talk to Them if you can't there's something in Between you that's absorbing the Radiation that's stopping the signal Too easy okay hopefully that was Valuable to you hit the Subscribe button Maybe I'll make a third video we'll have To see thank you for watching [Music]
