Antenna on UHF XPR6550

[N4KVE]

I know, another question, but DMR is new to me. I just got a 6550, & it seems to have a stubby UHF antenna. Maybe it's a combo UHF/GPS antenna, I don't know, but I have no need for GPS, & I turned it off. Since the thread on the antenna seems the same, can I just use a regular 6" UHF antenna that's used on the Jedi & XTS series of radio for better performance? GARY N4KVE

[Tom in D.C.]

Gary,

You can use any old UHF antenna you want to on a TRBO portable. Actually, they make at least two fat UHF antennas
for that radio, one is about five inches and the other is about three inches. They both have that round ball type thingie
on the top, but I don't use the GPS either so I don't pay any attention to the need for GPS functioning.

One other thing. On simplex you will probably find, as I did, that the digital coverage is better than analog and very high
quality. TRBO is a great mode.

Regards,

[N4KVE]

Thanks Tom. I'll probably just use the 3" antenna as I'm quite close to the repeater I'm using. The digital quality seems great. I don't know if that has to do with the 1.09.00 f/w, but I'm real happy with the link from WPB to Miami. Thanks again. GARY N4KVE

[rc50won]

Hey Gary many of us here in SFL use the Motorola NAE6547AR UHF Helical 435-470 stubby antenna. It clearly outperformed the stock UHF/GPS antenna and is much smaller.

/\/\arshall

[N4KVE]

Thanks Marshall. I ended up using the 6" UHF antenna that comes with the Jedi & XTS radios. It's flexible too & has worked well on my other UHF radios. Next step is drop the mic gain from 4 to 3. GARY N4KVE

[Tom in D.C.]

Gary and Marshall,

There exists another recent thread here that strongly implied that a GPS-capable antenna seriously
degrades the FM performance of the TRBO radio. For that reason, and because (as I said above) I
don't use the GPS thing, I use a "standard" UHF antenna on my 6500. I mention this FWIW just so we
keep all the bases covered, so to speak.

Regards,