If we consider groundplane antenna, which should be much better than anything that you can fit on a HT, it might be centered on 145MHz (region 2 band) and it’ll be good for 10MHz for 1:1.5 SWR (140-150) and 17MHz for 1:2 SWR (136.5-153.5) according to some random measurement, first that i found. Outside of these ranges SWR rises rapidly and if you tried to transmit on say 170MHz you might get SWR 1:5, perhaps 1:10 or worse if you’re unlucky. On receive this doesn’t matter too much because these nano- to microwatts of rx power would just bounce back harmlessly with the only effect being that apparent signal strength is lower. But if you tried to transmit then design currents or voltages would be exceeded and something will break, usually final stage of amplifier. This gets rarer than it used to be because some radios can measure SWR and will reduce power in such scenario. This also gets worse the higher transmitted power is
This happens because unlike on HF + 6m, on 2m and up ATUs are not a thing* and all antennas are expected to be matched. So you can use the same radio on GMRS or PMR or what have you and on 2m or 70cm band, but you have to change antennas between these uses. If you want to use all of these on one antenna, then there are special wideband designs like LPDA but this makes sense on a mast and not on handheld radio
* there are tuner designs that work on 2m and up, but you won’t find them in HT, there’s no point, they’re too big, too heavy and too expensive
The other day I was checking out the datasheet for my Yaesu monobander’s final amp, and I noticed that it is able to performs optimally up to its advertised 80w only between 144mhz and 148mhz, while outside of that it’s capped to 60w. I’m pretty sure this is related to what you just explained.
Overall, I feel like the 2m band is like a kiddie playground, while the grownups are hanging out with their big antennas on HF.
fullsquare@awful.systems 7 hours ago
If we consider groundplane antenna, which should be much better than anything that you can fit on a HT, it might be centered on 145MHz (region 2 band) and it’ll be good for 10MHz for 1:1.5 SWR (140-150) and 17MHz for 1:2 SWR (136.5-153.5) according to some random measurement, first that i found. Outside of these ranges SWR rises rapidly and if you tried to transmit on say 170MHz you might get SWR 1:5, perhaps 1:10 or worse if you’re unlucky. On receive this doesn’t matter too much because these nano- to microwatts of rx power would just bounce back harmlessly with the only effect being that apparent signal strength is lower. But if you tried to transmit then design currents or voltages would be exceeded and something will break, usually final stage of amplifier. This gets rarer than it used to be because some radios can measure SWR and will reduce power in such scenario. This also gets worse the higher transmitted power is
This happens because unlike on HF + 6m, on 2m and up ATUs are not a thing* and all antennas are expected to be matched. So you can use the same radio on GMRS or PMR or what have you and on 2m or 70cm band, but you have to change antennas between these uses. If you want to use all of these on one antenna, then there are special wideband designs like LPDA but this makes sense on a mast and not on handheld radio
* there are tuner designs that work on 2m and up, but you won’t find them in HT, there’s no point, they’re too big, too heavy and too expensive
timkenhan@sopuli.xyz 3 hours ago
Thanks for the explaination!
The other day I was checking out the datasheet for my Yaesu monobander’s final amp, and I noticed that it is able to performs optimally up to its advertised 80w only between 144mhz and 148mhz, while outside of that it’s capped to 60w. I’m pretty sure this is related to what you just explained.
Overall, I feel like the 2m band is like a kiddie playground, while the grownups are hanging out with their big antennas on HF.
fullsquare@awful.systems 1 hour ago
Could be. Amplifiers are a bit more complicated and there are many things that can limit bandwidth