This hub allows you to use 5 individual antennas, typically for hand held radios, to form a ground plane antenna. Assembly of the hub and radials is quick and efficient. In its disassembled form, the antenna and radials packs down making it easy to transport for portable operations. When assembled, the antenna can be deployed in many configurations like set on something or tied to something.
This antenna hub is great for radio work while on travel, in the field, portable operations, or even just tinkering in an office. When used with telescoping whips, it can be easily tuned to any frequency desired making it great for general purpose or engineering work.
This antenna works equally well for receive only operations like police scanners & software defined radios and transmit operations like ham radio. Antennas included with typical hand held radios are not very efficient. A ground plane antenna, like this antenna, is a basic and classic design with minimal gain. Yet it performs significantly better than the antennas included with hand held radios. In my own experience, I typically see a noticeable increase in received signal strength and range with this antenna compared to stock hand held antennas. On radios capable of RSSI dB read out, I typically see a 7-10 dB increase in RSSI compared to stock OEM antennas. On radios capable of "S Unit" readout, this is an increase of 1-1.5 S units.
The antenna hub is usable from ~50MHz to ~1GHz. HOWEVER, actual antenna tuning and performance depends on the desired frequency and tuning the length of the radials for the chosen frequency. This will require use of a SWR meter, Antenna Analyzer, or VNA.
For RX only applications, the antenna is fairly broad band and operates best above the frequency where antenna radials are 1/4 wave length.
For TX applications, like Ham Radio 2m or 70cm, common aftermarket VHF/UHF HT antennas can be used and it is expected to perform well on 2m & 70cm bands with out tuning. For example, I utilize a common 2m & 70cm dual band HT whip and the antenna will work well on 2m and 70cm bands. Like wise, when used with a common 70cm only whip, it works well for 70cm but won't tune on 2m.
Below is a Table showing the indicated RSSI of the antenna hub with various whips attached.
| Signal Source | OEM Uniden Whip Fully extended |
Antenna Hub with Uniden Whips Fully extended |
Antenna hub with 19" whips | Antenna hub with 6" whips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NOAA | -50 dBm | -60 dBm interesting result, retest? |
-50 dBm | -89 dBm |
| 400MHz P25 Control channel | -94 dBm | -92 dBm | -88 dBm | -83 dBm |
| VHF Fox - weak signal Needs to be redone with standard setup |
-97 dBm | -81 dBm | ||
| UHF Fox - weak signal Needs to be redone with standard setup |
-92 dBm | -85 dBm |
Below are VNA Plots from testing the antenna hub with several different antenna whips
Hub with 5 dual band signal stick whips
Hub with 5 Uniden telescoping whips, fully retracted( UHF sized )
