APX UHF/800 Antenna Question

[KB2ZTX]

So my buddy called me last night. He was issued a new portable at work. It is a UHF/800 Mhz. All the local counties use UHF Astro P25 systems. The radio has one bank of 800 Mhz stuff in it that have never been used. This bank is for his vehicle repeater to his VHF radio. As you can imagine he hates the antenna on the radio. Being a K9 Handler he relies on his portable more than many. Has anyone successfully used like an XTS style mono band antenna on the radio ? I wasn't even sure what the jack was on the radio. Being he will rarely if ever use the 800 channels I was thinking a standard XTS2500 UHF whip may be a better option. Thoughts ?

[Will]

The better 450 antenna would be EXC450SF.

[turtle9832]

Is he using an RSM or a PSM?

We use a PSM and an HT1000 UHF stubby on the radio.

Radio works well in both bands.

[lafd55]

Unfortunately they don't make a dual-band stubby antenna for the APX but do have a stubby antenna for either 7/800mhz or UHF. The part number for the UHF stubby is faf5259a

[MSS-Dave]

Does he have GPS enabled? If yes, this won't work BUT if not...

I have the same thing but I use both 800 and 440-460 UHF about the same. Hated the stock GPS/Dual band antenna. Worked OK but like having a baseball bat stuck up my armpit. Did some testing and found the standard XTS style 800 dipole antenna (RED) works perfectly on both bands. Dipole on 800 and probably 1/4 wave end fed on UHF. Now, I can't tell you exactly how the feed works on UHF but for shiz and gigglz, I made up a test jig with the proper SMA connector to screw the antenna onto a 12" metal disc as a ground plane then swept the assembly with my Anritsu SiteMaster. I was surprised to find that it swept better frequency response wise than the dual band / GPS did. So, why not. Put it on the APX and it has not moved in a year.

If you don't know, if a PSM is used on this radio, only the 7/800 side is routed to the remote. UHF stays on the RF deck.

I may have saved these sweeps from a year ago if anyone is interested.....

Dave

[KB2ZTX]

Thanks GPS is not used. They use the standard speaker mic (non-public safety). I'm going to drop off a UHF and 800 Mhz whip and have him try each. He never uses 800 and if he did it would take 15 minutes to find the right bank for it, so think the UHf may be perfect for him.